Vikings insiders shut down J.J. McCarthy trade speculation: 'It's not going to happen.'

McCarthy's name has popped up as a popular trade candidate amid Sam Darnold's career year.

Aug 10, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) warms up before the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images / Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

The Vikings are focused on winning a critical Week 18 game agains the Detroit Lions on Sunday that would secure them the No. 1 seed in the NFC heading into the playoffs. Meanwhile, off the field, analysts and pundits across the NFL media landscape have been months into speculation about what Minnesota will do at the quarterback position in 2025. Their latest trick has been turning up the heat on speculation the Vikings could deal rookie J.J. McCarthy in the offseason.

"They are not trading J.J. McCarthy," Matthew Coller told the Star Tribune's Ben Goessling on the latest Purple Insider podcast.

ESPN's Adam Schefter said on ESPN Radio on Wednesday he expects the Vikings to receive calls about McCarthy this offseason. Since then, there have been plenty of rumors and speculation, even trade ideas, thrown out on social media.

McCarthy's future in Minnesota was "thrown into doubt" because of Sam Darnold's career year. The 27-year-old has thrown for over 4,100 passing yards and 35 touchdowns while guiding the Vikings to a 14-2 record, now one win away from home-field advantage in the playoffs. Now, despite taking McCarthy with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 draft, it appears likely Minnesota will find a way to hang on to Darnold past the expiration of his one-year deal.

"I don't think they're trading J.J. McCarthy. It's one of those talkers, it'll get some mileage, everybody will do it, but it'll be the same thing as last offseason where we said, 'They're not trading Justin Jefferson,' but then it becomes, 'Well, what if this happened? What if they did?' and it's like, it's not realistically going to happen," Goessling said. "I think this is the same thing. I don't think they are going to move a guy they drafted. That they moved up to get. That Kevin O'Connell said is a franchise quarterback. It's not going to happen. I don't think there's any likelihood of that."

"Not when he's going to be 22 years old. Not after just one year of Sam Darnold. Not when they spent such a high draft pick on him and so much time and effort. And also put in the sweat equity into this year of training him how to be a National Football League quarterback. Having weekly meetings with Kevin O'Connell. Everything they did through training camp to develop him with the footwork, and the timing, and all that stuff. And they're just going to say, 'You know what? See ya. Go to the Jets. Go to a living hell, where some team is going to give us a couple draft picks.' It's just not going to happen," Coller added.

The most likely path forward for Minnesota this offseason appears to be franchise tagging Darnold and seeing if he can reproduce his magical 2024 season. That gives their young quarterback plenty of time to develop into an NFL-caliber starter, similar to what Green Bay did after drafting Jordan Love in 2020 and letting him develop behind Aaron Rodgers for two seasons.

"The Vikings, with another quarterback they believe in, it gives them leeway to have this go wrong," Coller said. "And the Vikings have had in their history, they have had quarterbacks that they drafted not perform the way they expected or had their knees explode randomly."

"So there's the fact that Sam Darnold would have a great backup quarterback for next season. There's the fact that McCarthy is extremely young and has a long time for his rookie contract. Things over years change so much in the NFL. This just gives you a great backdrop if something does go wrong, or fallback option. And also, there's the potential that Darnold just isn't this good again next year, and the roster does come apart and then they can turn to J.J. McCarthy," Coller added. "If Darnold is just Josh Allen, if he is just Lamar Jackson, he's just that good, then eventually you can decide to trade J.J. McCarthy. But why would you do it after one year?"

As Goessling pointed out, just because you keep Darnold past this season doesn't put a clock on making a decision on McCarthy.

"They do have ways of keeping Sam Darnold without making a six-year commitment, or a five-year commitment. It does not have to look like that, at least immediately," Goessling said. "So I think they'll have ways to figure out how to have both of these guys here."