The Vikings moved on from experimental JJ McCarthy after the 2024 first-round pick made just 10 starts in two-plus seasons.
This adds McCarthy to a short list of first-round quarterbacks who, for whatever reason, didn’t last very long with the teams that drafted them.
Via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, Elias Sports Bureau identifies only four first-round quarterbacks over the past 25 years, who have started 10 or fewer games for the team that selected them.
Paxton Lynch, the Broncos’ 2016 first-round pick, only started four games in Denver. He never appeared in a regular season game for another team.
Trey Lance, who the 49ers traded for in 2021 to be the No. 3 overall selection, started just four games in San Francisco. (He has since made eight appearances with two starts for the Cowboys and Chargers.)
Johnny Manziel, a first-round draft pick of the Browns in 2014, started eight games in Cleveland. He never played for another NFL team.
McCarthy had exactly 10 starts with the Vikings. He won six. But the Vikings chose to take a fifth-round pick in order to move away from him.
While that’s far less than the first-round pick and more than they gave up to get him, it’s more than they would have gotten had he been cut before the start of the 2026 season. Which seemed like a real possibility in late August, especially after he slipped to third place on the depth chart.
Either way, the Vikings pulled the plug. And now they’ll have to hope that McCarthy doesn’t become the latest second (or third) act quarterback who becomes a star for someone else.
Of course, the Vikings would never say it out loud. They don’t need it. They know the only thing that will make their misadventures with McCarthy worse is seeing him become to someone else what the Vikings hoped he would be.
Gn sports
