Going into the 2025 season, the Minnesota Vikings will be waiting to see how first-year starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy acclimates to being the guy. It's going to be the number one thing that people want to see.
However, training camp is a very important thing for a majority of reasons. It's not just getting the starters ready for the season; it's also about developing and learning, something that head coach Kevin O'Connell makes a major focus. He made it known that the first part of the offseason is about learning and teaching. The way he frames the discussion leads into training camp as well.
"Rich, right now, the rules prohibit even Minnesota Vikings defensive players from lining up across from Minnesota Vikings offensive players. So we would be imagining one heck of an opponent if we said it was us coaches standing out there as a defense, or some of the other offensive players forming a defense. That's not what this time of year is about. This is the learning, the teaching phase. So much growth and development can happen during this time when there's really no negative outcomes. There's no plays that don't go your way and have a real impact on the team. They're all just learning moments right now, but there's going to come a time where that changes, and it's going to come very rapidly and quickly."
While the Vikings do have McCarthy on the roster, it's normal to have a developmental quarterback in the third spot so you can always have growth in your building.
That's where Max Brosmer comes in.
Despite not being drafted, Brosmer comes to the Vikings with a hefty $236,000 in full guaranteed salary (a year salary on the practice squad) and a $10,000 signing bonus. That is a heavy signal that the Vikings like what the player is and think he will stick around.
When you look at what he is as a player, you can see the vision relatively quickly. Brosmer does what the Vikings do best: throw it over the middle of the field.
Watching some Max Brosmer film and you can see why the Minnesota Vikings made him a priority UDFA signing. He's not just willing to throw over the middle, he thrives in doing so pic.twitter.com/ljt9X2Sw55
— Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno) July 2, 2025
As an anticipatory thrower over the middle, Brosmer is ahead of a few of his contemporaries. He sees things well and has the zip on those intermediate throws to hit tight windows.
NFL throw into a tight window for Max Brosmer pic.twitter.com/np1ibb7hZv
— Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno) July 3, 2025
Where things become interesting with Brosmer is whether his willingness to hit the tight windows will translate 1:1 into the NFL. The above clip zips it right between two defenders, but will better defenders in the NFL be able to attack the football? That's the big thing with his transition.
What will immediately translate is that Brosmer likes to throw over the middle of the field. A lot of quarterbacks and offenses don't like to do that at the college level, especially with the Air Raid being so prevalent across the landscape.
Brosmer does a really good job of attacking the middle of the field, and is both efficient and explosive, including a 93.1 passing grade on the intermediate level from 10-19 yards. O'Connell's offense loves to pepper in-breaking routes in his offense and that fits his skill set to a T.
There are a lot of positives to his game, but there is a reason why Brosmer went undrafted. He struggles to throw the ball deep with just a 32.7% completion percentage on throws over 20 yards. Plus, he can be a little gun shy. Brosmer will often take a little bit too long to make a decision and fire the football.
The other element is his decision making paired with his mechanics. They don't mesh well enough with any form of consistency.
Max Brosmer has potential, but isn't without his faults. Gets a little too big for his britches here, trying to throw open the crosser, but missed behind him, as the defender he needed the receiver to clear got the interception.
— Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno) July 3, 2025
Pressure matters, and it made an impact here pic.twitter.com/dKZibJFmO5
The above play is really interesting. It highlights what makes Brosmer really good in that he throws players open on those in-breaking routes. It also shows where there needs to be work. He makes a solid read for his capabilities, but it's a difficult throw. Where things go wrong here is the footwork. He doesn't step into the throw and in turn, doesn't get the ball out front of the defender. When you throw the ball behind the receiver here, it creates havoc, and in this case, an interception.
What's extra frustrating here is Brosmer thrives in this situation normally, but cleaning this up is going to be huge moving forward, especially if he want to make the team.
O'Connell spoke highly of Brosmer after one of their rookie minicamp practices.
"I think a lot of it was on display today. I mean, the starting point of just pretty efficient thrower of the football from a standpoint of fundamentals, technique, his ability to generate some pretty good revolutions and RPMs on the ball with pretty limited movement in the pocket. I have a lot of respect for P.J. [Fleck] and his staff and how they've coached football over there, from a standpoint of his high football IQ – I think, shows up when he can really arrive here, spend a couple hours in meetings, and he's out there making corrections in the middle of a seven on seven walk through leading into a period or whatever it is. So you're already seeing a lot of the things that we really identified in Max to bring them into a quarterback room that we're really excited about. And I think he had a great first day, and looking forward to seeing now. And that's our whole group. That's everybody out here. Pretty efficient, solid first day, looked like football. That's always the starting point goal. But now, can we come back and do the things that pros do, which is come back and have an even better day tomorrow? And my expectation [is] Max will be one of the guys leading that charge."
Don't be surprised if Brosmer ends up making the roster over veteran Brett Rypien, and becomes something with the Vikings in a depth role.
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