McCarthy Exits Early, and Now the Vikings Are Listing Their Quarterback as Questionable

J.J. McCarthy played 18 snaps Saturday before getting banged up in a rough first quarter, and he's now listed as questionable heading into the final stretch of the preseason. The team says he would have played longer had he stayed healthy. He didn't.

It's a small thing, maybe. Preseason contact happens. But McCarthy missed six games in 2025, and the organization spent the offseason building around the assumption that Year 2 would be his full-season breakout — the O'Neill extension, the weapons in place, the late-season momentum to build on. A questionable tag in August doesn't derail any of that. It does remind you how quickly the math changes if he's not available.

Max Brosmer is the backup on the depth chart. That's the contingency. Minnesota has enough around the quarterback position — Jordan Mason, Justin Jefferson, the offensive line now locked in through 2030 — that a short absence wouldn't be catastrophic. But this team already absorbed one major preseason blow with Adams. Two would be a different kind of problem entirely.

Worth watching over the next week.