{"id":23583,"date":"2026-07-31T22:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23583"},"modified":"2026-07-31T22:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:00:18","slug":"vikings-quarterback-battle-off-to-surprising-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23583","title":{"rendered":"Vikings&#8217; quarterback battle off to surprising start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2Fnewspress-collage-pgz1rjn37-1785514929150.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261785500547\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>One quarterback seems to have an early lead in the Vikings\u2019 quarterback competition, and it\u2019s probably not who you think it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite many believing Kyler Murray is the favorite to win the Minnesota\u2019s quarterback battle, ESPN analyst Benjamin Solak said everyone at the Vikings\u2019 training camp thinks J.J. McCarthy has been the better QB through two days.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Solak said that Murray isn\u2019t fully up to speed in head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell system, and that his rust is also evident.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"\/>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not perfect, we\u2019re ironing out a lot of wrinkles out here, especially for Kyler Murray, who\u2019s learning a new offense; he\u2019s never really played in the Sean McVay-Kevin O\u2019Connell system before,\u201d Solak said. \u201cSo, there were misses. And the sort of misses are because he\u2019s learning the offense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe disagreed with Jordan Addison about whether or not a route should break or keep going vertical \u2026 this is the sort of stuff that figuring out training camp is for. Except unlike a quarterback who just changed jobs, Kyler only gets 50% of the first team reps because J.J. McCarthy is out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Solak added that McCarthy looks more comfortable in O\u2019Connell\u2019s system after a tumultuous 2025 campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMcCarthy looks better frankly because he\u2019s been in this offense before,\u201d Solak said. \u201cHe\u2019s thrown to these receivers before. He has a better understanding and handle on the system. And that\u2019s why this is a legitimate quarterback competition, because Kyler needs to get up to speed, that is a process that will take a couple of weeks. And then we\u2019ll see if and when the Vikings are ready to name a starting quarterback for Week 1.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks J.J. McCarthy (9) and Kyler Murray (1) in drills. <span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Abbie Parr<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>McCarthy having the \u201clead\u201d in the competition is certainly surprising, especially considering former Vikings receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/28\/sports\/it-could-be-over-for-j-j-mccarthy-with-vikings\/\">Adam Thielen said<\/a> the job is Murray\u2019s to lose on ESPN earlier this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But apparently not. At least as of now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Connell said both Murray and McCarthy will take reps with the first and second team in practice to give different layers to the evaluation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray. <span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Abbie Parr<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Murray <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/12\/sports\/kyler-kyler-murray-signing-one-year-contract-with-vikings\/\">signed with the Vikings<\/a> on a one-year, veteran minimum deal in March after seven seasons with the Cardinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He tossed 121 touchdowns and ran for 32 more and guided Arizona to the playoffs in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The former No. 1 overall pick was never a liability for the Cardinals, but wasn\u2019t consistent enough to become their franchise quarterback.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>McCarthy, the 10th pick in the 2024 draft,<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/08\/14\/sports\/j-j-mccarthy-out-for-2024-season-vikings-turn-to-sam-darnold\/\"> missed his entire rookie season<\/a> with a knee injury and was inconsistent at best in his first full season starting in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>While McCarthy went 6-4 as a starter, he threw 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One quarterback seems to have an early lead in the Vikings\u2019 quarterback competition, and it\u2019s probably not who you think it is.\u00a0 Despite many believing Kyler Murray is the favorite to win the Minnesota\u2019s quarterback battle, ESPN analyst Benjamin Solak said everyone at the Vikings\u2019 training camp thinks J.J. McCarthy has been the better QB&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/newspress-collage-pgz1rjn37-1785514929150.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1785500547&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}