The Minnesota Vikings‘ “open” quarterback competition between J.J. McCarthy and new arrival Kyler Murray will no doubt be one of the bigger storylines around the league this offseason.
Ostensibly, the Vikings would like to see an impressively, hard-fought battle that ends with McCarthy coming out victorious purely on his own merit. After all, the franchise drafted him with the 10th overall pick back in 2024, and he still has up to three years left on his heavily discounted rookie deal.
Even with a new general manager set to take the reins ahead of the start of the new season this fall, it is certainly in Minnesota’s best interests to see the former National Champion flourish. Especially given that whilst Murray has shown the ability to be a competent starter in the league, he has never shown himself to be a truly elite player at his position.
Vikings Insider Shares Doubt on ‘Open’ QB Competition
However, according to The Athletic’s Alec Lewis, those hoping or wanting to see McCarthy win the quarterbacking contest this coming summer in training camp will likely be disappointed.
After being asked about how open the race for QB1 was between the two leading candidates by Paul Allen of KFAN1003, Lewis seemed to have signifiant pessimism for McCarthy’s position.
“I would say it’s, it’s open, like…It’s open-ish…There is benefit in there being noise, because that means guys like Kyler Murray and JJ McCarthy, who need to maximize who they are and what they can be, like that can thrust them to being that.” Lewis said to Allen.
“I would be very, very, very surprised if somehow in training camp, J.J. McCarthy looked vastly better…there’s just no question in my right mind that Kyler Murray would be the large, large favorite.”
Does the General Consensus Support Lewis’ View?
The betting markets currently have the former Arizona Cardinals signal caller as the overwhelming favorite to start Minnesota’s first game of the season. Bet365 has Murray at -1000 (stake $1000, return $100) to be the Week 1 starter.
So it would seem that at least the sharp money appears to be fairly confident in the 2019 first overall pick’s ability to win the role outright in training camp.
But it is important to note that sitting in the mid-May pre-OTA portion of the season, we are far out from the season opener against the Green Bay Packers on September 13. We do not know exactly if and how Murray will fit into head coach Kevin O’Connell’s offensive scheme, or even if he will be a true personality and character fit for the locker room.
With young quarterbacks like McCarthy, progress tends to not be linear, with bursts of improvement often coming un-pronounced and out of nowhere. And it would not be impossible for the Michigan alum to take a big step forward this offseason as he gets more and more used to the pro game.
Nevertheless at this point, the job is unquestionably Murray’s to lose.
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