The Vikings Sold J.J. McCarthy Too Cheap and Too Soon

J.J. McCarthy after Michigan beat Iowa in the 2023 Big Ten Championship Game. Photo: Maize & Blue Nation, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The best thing the Minnesota Vikings have to show for the J.J. McCarthy trade is their kicker.

Stay with me. On draft night in 2024, Minnesota sent the No. 11 pick, a fourth-rounder and a fifth-rounder to the Jets to move up exactly one spot and take McCarthy at No. 10. The Jets threw in pick No. 203, a sixth-rounder, and that pick became Will Reichard, who made field goals from 54, 56 and 43 yards in Sunday’s 23-16 win at Tampa Bay and hasn’t missed a kick all season.

Reichard is still a Viking. McCarthy, as of Monday, is a New York Giant, traded (pending a physical) for a 2027 fifth-round pick.

A fifth.

I understand the Giants’ end of it. Jaxson Dart’s knee surgery ended his regular season, Jameis Winston went 14-of-22 for 118 yards in the Week 3 win over Tennessee, and a 2-1 team that thinks it can sneak into the playoffs needed a real option. The Giants also had the best reference check in the league, since head coach John Harbaugh’s brother Jim won a national championship with McCarthy at Michigan. (Thanksgiving in that family is a scouting meeting.)

Minnesota’s end is the part I can’t get past. I think the Vikings could have gotten more for McCarthy, and I don’t think it’s especially close.

Start with what they paid. Pick 11 became Olu Fashanu, a decent offensive lineman for the Jets. Pick 129 got flipped to San Francisco and became Isaac Guerendo, who has turned into a useful running back with a real future. Pick 157 got flipped to Carolina and became Chau Smith-Wade, who has been a little underwhelming. That’s three picks to move up one spot. On the way out, Minnesota got one pick back, and it won’t be made until next April.

I also get why McCarthy was available. Minnesota handed him the keys, and he spent most of the drive hurt. He tore his meniscus in his first preseason game and became the first quarterback drafted in the first round to miss his entire rookie year with an injury. The Vikings made him the starter in 2025 anyway so he could develop, going with him over Sam Darnold, a Pro Bowler coming off a 14-3 season (Darnold went to Seattle and won the Super Bowl, which I’m sure never comes up in Eagan). McCarthy then made 10 starts around a high ankle sprain, a concussion and a hairline fracture in his throwing hand.

There were flashes. In his debut he threw two touchdowns and ran for another in the fourth quarter to beat the Bears, and in December he threw three in a shutout of Washington. There was also a 57.6 completion percentage, 11 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and a 72.6 passer rating. He went 6-4.

This offseason the Vikings signed Kyler Murray, who won the job in August, and then Carson Wentz passed McCarthy for the backup spot. The franchise quarterback was suddenly the third-stringer, two injuries away from the field, and he didn’t make it to October of his third season.

(Side note: Kyler Murray has now pushed two different No. 10 overall picks out of town. Arizona drafted him first overall in 2019 and traded Josh Rosen, a No. 10 pick the Cardinals had traded up to get, the next day. Seven years later he shows up in Minnesota and does it again. Somebody warn whoever goes 10th next April.)

So yes, McCarthy was available. Why Minnesota sold now, for this, is a different question.

We’re three weeks into the season. Dart is done for the regular season. Murray lasted 11 snaps in Week 1 before a concussion. Caleb Williams has a Grade 2 hamstring strain that could cost him a month. Baker Mayfield dislocated the thumb on his throwing hand Sunday and will miss at least three weeks. (Williams and Mayfield both got hurt playing the Vikings, so Minnesota has had a front-row seat for the demand side of this market.)

And there will be more, because unfortunately that’s how this league works. The trade deadline isn’t until Nov. 10. Tampa Bay is 0-3, its coach’s seat is warming up and it’s about to start an undrafted rookie named Jalon Daniels, which is exactly the kind of team that overpays for a quarterback in October. McCarthy cost the Vikings nothing to hold in the meantime, and he doubled as insurance behind a starter who has already missed a game.

So what was the rush? Minnesota hit “cash out” on a live ticket, and the Giants, playing the part of the sportsbook, offered a 2027 fifth.

The part that bugs me most is that the Vikings are 3-0. They won Sunday on a punt return touchdown and their kicker while going 2-for-15 on third down, and Justin Jefferson left in the first quarter with a left ankle injury that was being evaluated Monday. That’s a team built to win this year, and a 2027 fifth-round pick doesn’t get it a receiver or a lineman this week. If you’re going to trade McCarthy in September, ask for somebody who can play in October.

History isn’t on Minnesota’s side, either. Teams give up on first-round quarterbacks all the time, and they usually get paid anyway.

Josh Rosen went 3-10 as a rookie with 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Arizona still got a second-round pick and a fifth from Miami.

Sam Darnold went 13-25 over three seasons with the Jets. They still got a second, a fourth and a sixth from Carolina.

Trey Lance is the closest match. San Francisco spent three first-round picks (plus a third) to draft him third overall, and he started four games. He broke his ankle in Week 2 of 2022, Brock Purdy (the last pick in that year’s draft) had the job by December, and the rest is history. Lance never looked like a No. 3 pick, then or since. The 49ers still got a fourth from Dallas.

J.J. McCarthy went 6-4, the best record of the four, with a better passer rating than Rosen. Minnesota got a fifth.

(Yes, some of the 2021 class went for less. Mac Jones and Zach Wilson were each moved for a sixth-rounder, but those were offseason deals, when nobody’s season was on the line. And here’s a fun one: the sixth the Jets got for Wilson was pick No. 203, which they sent to Minnesota in the McCarthy trade that same week. Hello again, Will Reichard.)

I wrote earlier this month that McCarthy failed the Vikings more than they failed him, and I haven’t changed my mind. But a mediocre quarterback who flashes is still worth something in a league where starters keep getting hurt, and a general manager whose starter is on crutches and whose season still has a pulse will overpay if you give him the chance. The Vikings didn’t wait long enough to find out who that was.

So here’s where that April night in Detroit stands. The Jets got Olu Fashanu and flipped the rest. The Vikings got 10 starts, a 2027 fifth-round pick and Will Reichard.

At least the kicker’s good.