Next QB? Look beyond the names you are hearing?

[MaroonBells]

Howell was a terrible decision...I know you've been pimping Rogers a while now, I wasn't there a mos ago, but Ive come around after watching some Steeler games. 

I have no idea if he wants to play anymore, let alone where? Let alone with whomever the Steelers are going to backfill Tomlin with? Will that person even what him back? 

I suspect we could have added 2-3 more wins on a 9/8 year if he was healthy and at the helm, maybe more.

Hell, I wasn't even there months ago. And I wasn't there last year either.  I agreed with the decision to give JJ the nod. The only thing I didn't like was Sam Howell. I even predicted last summer that he would not be our QB2 when all was said and done. 

I came around to Rodgers in December when I realized that with just average QB play this team is certainly in the playoffs and maybe even winning 13 or 14 games. I'm 100% convinced Rodgers would've given us at least that.

I'm not saying he's the perfect choice. I hate the man. He has problems. We went over them all last year, and those things are still true. But there just isn't a perfect candidate out there. There are a few younger options that would be very intriguing. But I can't help but think that would be a big slap in the face to JJ McCarthy. Hell, I don't know. Maybe he needs that. 

Either way, he's another year older and he may or may not want to play another year. But I think if he does, and it comes down to the Steelers and us, or hell, ANYONE and us, Rodgers is going to choose the Vikings. I really do believe the reports that said he really REALLY wanted to play in this offense. Remember, he only signed with Pittsburgh after his conversations with the Vikings ended.

[pattersaur]

But look at where that got Pittsburgh.  1 and done with a poor performance from Rodgers against a tough D.  Is he still a solid QB.  This season he was.  But he's not anywhere near the MVP he was 4 years ago.  And at 42, he's 6 ft from the edge of falling off that cliff.

I think the Vikings need to find a viable backup and see how JJ McCarthy develops in 2026.  We need to know if he's the guy or not.  We can't sit him for another year and then start him in Year 4.  This team will look completely different next season and even more different two years from now.

Yeah, for me the JJM injury stuff is a huge problem and the Vikings need a much better Plan B this season. But solely based off his play, and how it improved as the season went along, I want him as QB1.

Bringing in Rodgers to be the starter with a tentative plan to go back to JJM the following season is wild to me. Either they believe in McCarthy or they don't. Another year of hemming and hawing with McCarthy tells me that almost no matter what happens, he was a bad pick for us at #10 overall. I'd much rather watch the kid play through it (if he can stay on the field) than see Rodgers and Valdez Scantling and Lazard padding their stats here next year. Do fans seriously want that? Ick

[StickierBuns]

Bringing in Rodgers to be the starter with a tentative plan to go back to JJM the following season is wild to me. Either they believe in McCarthy or they don't. Another year of hemming and hawing with McCarthy tells me that almost no matter what happens, he was a bad pick for us at #10 overall. I'd much rather watch the kid play through it (if he can stay on the field) than see Rodgers and Valdez Scantling and Lazard padding their stats here next year. Do fans seriously want that? Ick

This^

I personally can't think of something dumber than signing Aaron Rodgers for the 2026 season. Why now? You have to give JJM the 2026 season as well for all kinds of reasons, but a 42 year old QB? Doesn't make any sense on any level. Jefferson and McCarthy need to get to work this offseason and they will. They'll bring in some QB for 'competition', but he'll be much younger and will have to ok with eventually being QB2.

[comet52]

They'll bring in some QB for 'competition', 

Yup.  And it won't be tired old Aaron Rodgers, that guy is cooked. Not to mention he wouldn't in a million years be signed to "compete", he'd be the starter effectively ending JJM's purple career. JJM would be traded or released.

Aaron's game is mostly dink and dunk now and he bails on plays at the first hint of getting hit, and that's not what big game explosives hunter KOC wants to do.  He needs a guy to stand in there at the back of the 7 step drop and wait wait wait for the long developing bombs away stuff to come open.  Rodgers would be dead before week 5 trying to do that, carted out on a stretcher never to be seen again.  Before he'd let that happen it would devolve into what it's been for him elsewhere the last few years--coach calls play, Aaron calls different play.  What can coach do about it? Nothing.

Competition is just cover-your-ass for the guys at TCO.  "We need competition."  Right.  Because identifying a starter is just some FAFO exercise in the NFL that no team ever does.  Teams sign a guy or spend draft capital or both and then work like hell to make that guy the man.   JJM this year is a case in point.  If you have to have a bunch of washouts or unknowns battle each other in camp to decide who starts you are starting way behind any other team in the qb department.  It's like saying what's the route we want to take to 6-11 this year?  Taking JJM's 2026 camp reps away from him for a competitor is basically saying game over for JJM in purple.  

Not to mention that KAM/KOC planned this whole thing, ejected Darnold, miscalculated badly on Jones, then Howell, then had to go with bottom of the barrel Wentz at backup, and ran with JJM as #1 this year while getting the Wilfs to spend more than any other team in football to build what they thought would be a contender.  It's kinda early to just say "Oh, Mr. Wilf, that shit didn't work so now we're on to Mac Jones! Or how do you feel about back to the future of Kirk Cousins?  Excited?!"

[Zanary]

Kirk or Mac seem like the obvious choices, at the moment.