gunnarthor

This is just two opinions pushed as fact. We lost 10 games in 2023 because Cousins went down. If he had been healthy, they would have made the playoffs.

Cool.

Cool. Is there anything we can learn from that? Or is it just "man, JJ must really suck because" post? For instance, 1) Did Stefanski do things that helped him that KOC isn't doing? 2) Did sitting and practicing for 11 weeks help? 3) Was his offense easier to learn/adapted by the coaches to him? 4) Does the Raiders defense suck? 5) Was Sanders an underrated prospect coming out of college and teams that passed on him will regret it? With JJ, we're basically stuck. He needs to play and he's playing really, really badly right now. Not sure how Sanders or Jackson Dart matter unless you're trying to suggest those teams did something else that made their transition easier.

I certainly don't dispute their draft success. It's why they are one of the best orgs. But it's always that one result that KAM haters rely on to attack him, for whatever reasons they have, ignoring everything else that makes the comparison relevant or irrelevant. Since KAM took over - 38-24 v 34-28. Obviously, by the end of the season, the Rams will likely go ahead and also have a third playoff appearance.

Sam Bradford. I understand why you forgot him.

The old GM blew three first round picks on QBs. But KAM is held to a higher standard for some reason.

I know this isn't really the point but using stats in this context always bothered me. It's not helpful. It's not an apple to apple comparison. It's comparing 6 games of JJ to everyone else's career. I'd love to see what all 852 QB's EPA was after six games, I'd bet JJ wasn't 851 on that list. We did something similar with Berrios after his rough rookie starts, showing he was the worst pitcher ever after his first 10 starts or whatever.

This article is basically right - https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/onsi/news/another-christian-ponder-its-already-getting-bleak-for-jj-mccarthy It points out that McCarthy looked better in his first three starts than his last three, which isn't great when you want to see improvement.

I'm not good at predicting trade value. I could also see a player for player trade instead of picks.

Honestly, this should be a different thread at this point but before the season, I thought the Vikings were more likely to let Nailor go and keep Addison to go with Jefferson and Felton, long term. Now I wouldn't be surprised if they moved on from Addison and kept Nailor. Good article on the few key free agents we have - https://vikingsterritory.com/2025/news/top_news/3-vikings-free-agents-2026

Replacing them with in-house options the same GM found? I get that we don't see KAM the same way so I suppose it's best to just see what develops. Maybe we get lucky, the Vikings run off six straight wins and next season looks a lot more hopeful.

Ignoring the Vikings, a lot of teams just look bad this year, no one looks like a world beater except maybe NE and Philly. Lions had to go to OT at home against the Giants, KC is awful for them, Seattle almost lost to Tennessee. Texans beat the Bills.

I mean, I think they keep Redmond (who is a ERFA) over Hargrave, Mason over Jones, Brandel/Jurgens over Kelly. I think they can also move on from Allen (Rodriguez/TID) without much of a problem. I mean at the end of the day, JJ is key. He needs to play better. There is no system where a team can win with a ****** QB anymore. But the Vikings seem to have the cap room to make the other spots better through other means.

Yeah, at the start of KAM's tenure, we were about 20m over the cap, fourth worst in the league. He was able to fix it, sign good free agents, and keep the team competitive. Lots of reasons to think he has built a lot of cap flexibility into this team as well.

Kelly and O'Neil will likely be gone, although I might be wrong on O'Neil. From the internet - "There has been a lot of talk about how the underperformance at the QB position this year is especially troubling because the team went all-in on free agency to take advantage of the rookie scale QB contract. The common refrain is that since the team is $50M in the hole for 2026, this amounts to mortgaging the future for a 2025 run. I’m here to point out that the situation isn’t nearly as dire as suggested. (All numbers below from OverTheCap) The Vikings are indeed nearly $50M in the hole in terms of effective cap space for 2026. That number includes the new team cap number, carryover, the estimate for the rookie contracts, and filling the roster. While that sounds daunting, it can be managed. Three relatively painless cuts in terms of on-the-field play will shave ~$30M off that number: Kelly ($12.1M), Hargrave ($11M), and Aaron Jones ($7.2M). The remaining amount, and more for any free agents, can be handled by extensions (O’Neill) or salary to bonus conversions. Theoretically, conversions for only 4 players (Murphy, Greenard, Jefferson, and Darrisaw) could yield $67M. Obviously it would become problematic in future years to defer that much in the way of cap hits, but it shows just how much flexibility there is. Additionally, the team has very few key unrestricted free agents. I might argue that Jalen Nailor is the top priority, which tells you something." I think this is basically right. The Vikings also could save about 19m if they cut O'Neil instead of extending him, with only about a 4m cap hit. So there are lots of ways for the 2026 team to look.

They literally did it before.

The cap thing isn't as bad as it sounds. There are several articles on that if you look. I don't think they'd trade JJ. The rest of the season is to see what they have in McCarthy. Also, I wrote this about KOC after the playoff loss - "I do hope we bring in another offensive mind to work with KOC and maybe even taking over play-call duties next year (maybe). I think someone from Cincy - similar offensive pieces, Buffalo - they led the league in blowout wins, which means they might be able to address how opponents get back into games, or Baltimore - Harbaugh tree. But if the only thing we get out of the last two losses is to blame it on the QB, we're not learning enough." Things are never as bad as they look. A different voice on the offensive side might be able to improve things as well. I suspect Flores won't get a HC job again so our defense will have some more stability. But, for now, JJ needs to show real improvement.

What choice do they have? Brosmer? As for JJ, I think he and KOC have a KG/Flip Saunders relationship. I don't think you'll see him go off.

Me too

Depends on how he looks in those games.

Bummer. Lions won.

Detroit doing some amazing clock management. 😃

I think the decision is something that isn't going to be made after six games. This was a bad game by McCarthy, no question. If he doesn't show improvement by the end of the year, Vikings are in an ugly spot. But going with the draft pick over Darnold was the right decision, regardless of whether it works out.

38-24.

Maybe, maybe not. He and KOC just got four year extensions. The last GM missed in a few qb picks - ponder, Bridgewater, Bradford. Wilfs seem patient