My, how the turntables have turned.
While Sam Darnold was out decidedly not throwing four interceptions, his replacement in Minnesota threw two of them, posted a 17.9 QBR and came home with a bad headache.
That’s right folks, JJ McCarthy has entered the NFL concussion protocol. Can he navigate this any better than he does opposing defenses?
To be fair, this is far more of a fun curiosity than it is meaningful to the upcoming game.
Ousted last season by the first-round selection waiting in the wings, Sam Darnold has essentially played to the same level as 2024, if not better.
Meanwhile, McCarthy has become the second worst quarterback in sports history, at least in one metric.
Now he goes through the almighty evaluation process, which has incredible variability on players’ timeline to return. It’s typically a minimum of five days to get cleared, so while some players have avoided missing time, it’s an interesting situation with a quarterback landing there on Monday (or extremely late Sunday night? How do these things work?).
If JJ McCarthy does not play, Carson Wentz is the team’s primary backup.
Except he’s now on Injured Reserve. So there is a non-zero chance that the Seattle Seahawks will see a fella by the name of Max Brosmer on Sunday. The undrafted rookie out of the University of Minnesota has thrown eight passes this season, so if you haven’t heard of him that’s on you. Brosmer has never been sacked in his career, so an opportunity to make history looms for Seattle.
Regardless, this quarterback thing has been an absolute disaster for Minnesota. Even beyond the hindsight of how 2025 has played out, Darnold is a beloved leader, and they let him walk for $30 million, which is extremely cheap in today’s NFL. Behind him was a dude who calls his gameday self “nine” and had never seen the field because of a preseason injury.
Minnesota is 4-7 and still boasts a legitimate defense. This will be much more interesting for the Seahawks, at least on that level, than the Tennessee Titans. But it’s hard to imagine the dumpster fire that has been the Vikings offense is going to turn things around in six days with their quarterback – such as it is – in concussion protocol.
Oh yeah, and it’s in Seattle.
Go Hawks.
