By Graham Fritz

Writer/Reporter

If there was one play that sums up J.J. McCarthy’s career thus far in the NFL, to me it would be the fourth down incompletion he threw in the 2026 preseason game vs. the Baltimore Ravens. Wide receiver Myles Price streaked completely wide open and uncovered in the end zone, on what amounted to a short pass that any professional QB should hit 10 out of 10 times. McCarthy threw an absolute bullet pass three feet above Price’s head that was simply uncatchable and completely off the mark. That play is a testament to his lack of experience and lack of ability to put any touch on the ball.

His lackluster start to his career makes you wonder if he has what it takes to be a starter in the NFL at all. It’s no wonder the Minnesota Vikings chose Kyler Murray to be QB1 to start the 2026 NFL season. The J.J. McCarthy experiment feels over in Minnesota. He has not lived up to being the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

It sounds unfair to judge a guy who missed all of the 2024 season due to a meniscus injury, but when he got his chance to start in 2025 his play was below average at best. Not to mention he wasn’t available for seven games during the regular season in 2025, which means he collectively missed 24 out of 34 games in his first two seasons.

The NFL is a cutthroat league, very much a “what have you done for me lately” kind of profession. There is a well-known joke that NFL stands for “Not For Long,” and quite frankly that seems to be the case for J.J.’s career as he now starts the year as QB2 while getting outplayed in the preseason by QB3, Carson Wentz. Some fans think he hasn’t gotten a fair shot, but objectively he’s entering his third year in the NFL, and he has failed to show any real progress and continues to show red flag after red flag. 

In the 10 games he has played, he put up 1,632 passing yards, 11 passing touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 181 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. The sample size is too small to write his career off just yet, but heading into the third year of his rookie contract, things aren’t looking too hot for the 23-year-old quarterback.

Do you think he has it in him to turn his career around, or is his time as a starting QB officially over?