Minnesota Vikings Interested In Acquiring Retired Quarterback

Although it sounds a bit unusual, the Minnesota Vikings might pursue a retired quarterback as their starter for the 2026 season.

The Vikings were hoping J.J. McCarthy would perform well in his first season as the team's full-time starter. Unfortunately, the Michigan product only completed 57.6% of his passes for 1,632 yards with 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He didn't play well enough to solidify his status as the team's long-term starter.

In fact, ESPN’s Kevin Seifert previously reported that Minnesota is expected to “take a big swing” for an established quarterback this offseason.

“In the big picture, McCarthy is a talented player who just turned 23 and has a total of 10 NFL starts. Few NFL teams would give up on a quarterback with that profile, and many team builders are particularly enamored with optimizing a quarterback’s rookie contract. Adofo-Mensah was one of them, but his departure is a reminder of the range of outcomes that approach can lead to,” Seifert said. “If anything, these events increase the chances that the Vikings will take a big swing at finding a veteran quarterback who could start in 2026. The only thing more damaging than making the mistakes the Vikings made last season would be to repeat them this year.”

According to Ben Goessling of The Minnesota Star Tribute, the Vikings have been linked to Derek Carr. That's quite interesting considering the 34-year-old quarterback hasn't taken a single snap since the 2024 season.

"Carr's name came up more than I thought it would," Goessling said when discussing Minnesota's quarterback situation.