Thursday night’s blowout loss to the Chargers was the fifth straight game that the Vikings played without quarterback J.J. McCarthy and watching Carson Wentz try to battle through injury throughout the night raised the question of whether it is the right time to go back to McCarthy.
McCarthy injured his ankle in a Week 2 loss to the Falcons and the team said it was a 4-6 week injury at the time. We’ve reached the longer end of that window and a point where it feels like the 3-4 Vikings need to figure out what they have in their 2024 first-round pick.
McCarthy has been healthy enough to serve as the team’s emergency quarterback the last two weeks and head coach Kevin O’Connell’s comments in his postgame press conference suggested that the team will use their extended break before facing the Lions to finish the process of moving McCarthy back into the starting lineup.
“We worked out J.J. and he was close. J.J. and the medical staff kinda didn’t feel like he was there yet, but there was a lot of encouragement. . . . If J.J. is healthy, J.J. will play,” O’Connell said. “That’s been the case since the injury. That’s always been kind of my mindset. I believe we’re right, hopefully, around the corner from seeing him be healthy, have a week of preparation and go compete. That’s what he wants and that’s what he’s been working towards.”
A return against the Lions before a closing stretch that will feature a number of challenging opponents isn’t idle for easing a player back into action, but if McCarthy can’t handle that than the Vikings will have some decisions to make in the offseason about the direction they want to go at quarterback.
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