Another set of eyes on the QB Comp...
Teasley arrives from the Seattle Seahawks with a reputation for player evaluation. How will the Vikings approach their quarterback situation now that he’s here?
The Seattle Seahawks won a Super Bowl with a young quarterback they drafted in Nolan Teasley’s first year with the organization in 2013 and another one with a veteran free agent in Teasley’s final season there in 2025.
On Wednesday, Teasley was introduced as the Vikings’ new general manager, and the unique timing of his hire means he inherits a roster with both kinds of quarterbacks at the top of the depth chart.
How Teasley and the Vikings ultimately handle Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy in both the short-term and long-term could come to define his tenure.
One question that would make his job both more complicated in some ways and simpler in others is this: What will happen if Murray takes control of the starting job in 2026 and has success with the Vikings?
Kyler Murray and the Vikings salary cap
The Vikings are where they are and Teasley is where he is in part because of one man: Sam Darnold. The Vikings went 14-3 with Darnold in 2024, but his two worst games came in his final two games. With McCarthy slated to return from a rookie year injury and the Vikings itching to turn things over to their No. 10 overall pick in his second year, they let Darnold leave in free agency. He signed with Seattle and won a Super Bowl while McCarthy’s Vikings were out of the playoff picture before you finished Christmas shopping. Darnold worked in Seattle because he played well and had a relatively low cap number ($13.4 million). That would have worked in Minnesota last year, but his number this year ($37.9 million) would have been much more difficult. Murray at $1.3 million is a one-year bargain.
Sam Darnold decision all over again?
But if Murray plays well this season, as La Velle and I talked about, they could be faced with the Darnold question all over again. Do they pay the mid-career veteran QB after one year of evidence? Do they gamble again on a cheaper option like McCarthy, who would still be on his rookie contract in 2027? Or do they go with another drafted QB or another inexpensive veteran? It was already a potentially fascinating question before the Vikings hired Teasley, who of course comes from the organization that paid Darnold when the Vikings didn’t.
What Nolan Teasley said about QBs
The initial impression of Teasley is that he is a man of action more than words. His answers Wednesday tended to be precise and didn’t have wasted verbiage — he was direct but not evasive. An example was his answer to a question about his assessment of the Vikings quarterbacks. “In terms of managing it, we’re going to rely on the coaching staff,” Teasley said. “I think the goal from the outset of the offseason was to build a deep and competitive quarterback room, and I think that was executed.”
Player evaluation acumen
Teasley has a reputation for evaluating talent and matching it to systems. That’s important to any team, but it would be of the utmost importance if Murray does have a strong season that nets him a lucrative long-term deal here. The Vikings would need to lean even more heavily on the draft if Murray and Justin Jefferson were on the books for big cap numbers in 2027. That said, Teasley does come from an organization that pulled off the ultimate “competitive rebuild,” even if he never once uttered his predecessor’s phrase Wednesday.
Will McCarthy be traded?
After McCarthy’s intriguing comments about his relationship with Murray last week, speculation (not reports, which are different) about whether McCarthy wanted to be traded started to circulate. There doesn’t seem to be much upside in Teasley making that one of his first moves, but I suppose you never know.
strib
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
IceRatz16 wrote:
I can't see the full article Sticky posted. I know the quote references "Thursday," but is Lewis simply rehashing things McCarthy has already been doing throughout camp, or is he specifically referring to what happened yesterday?
If it's the latter, then it sounds like McCarthy has now put together multiple strong practices, if not been doing it consistently all along.
As for the observations about him stretching separately or jogging off the field before the other quarterbacks, I'm not sure how much stock I'm putting into that without seeing the full context. Lewis himself seems to acknowledge that only O'Connell truly knows whether any of that means something or whether it's just offseason filler that won't matter once the season starts.
That said, people seem to forget that Aaron Rodgers wasn't exactly thrilled sitting behind Brett Favre waiting for Green Bay to make a decision. He was frustrated, vocal about it, and fiercely competitive. At the time, many people admired that fire because it showed how badly he wanted the job. Rodgers is certainly a polarizing figure, especially among Vikings fans, but one thing I always respected was that he never pretended to be someone he wasn't. He was confident in his abilities, highly competitive, and unapologetic about wanting to be the guy.
And honestly, I see a little of that same competitive edge in McCarthy, and I like it.
If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't be all smiles and rainbows either. I'd be frustrated. I'd be motivated. I'd be obsessed with proving people wrong. In a true competition, your focus should be on winning the job, not making sure everyone feels warm and fuzzy about the process.
Once you've earned the position, then you lead the room and help everyone around you. But while the competition is ongoing, I'd expect a player to be singularly focused on his own performance.
Maybe that's just me, but this whole situation has felt unusual from the start. If McCarthy had entered the league behind an established franchise quarterback and spent a couple years waiting his turn, that's one thing. But after everything that's happened, it's hard for me to ignore how odd the optics of this entire situation have been, whether the organization is right or wrong in its evaluation.
At the end of the day, though, if McCarthy is the guy taking meaningful snaps in September and playing well, nobody is going to care where he stretched in June or who he walked off the field with after practice. But if he isn't, I'm sure this will come back around...
I have access and cut some snippets from The Athletic piece Sticky posted..For me (if it's true)this is where a lot of the smoke was coming from regarding the concerns the Vikings were having with JJM last season - beyond the mechanics.
Out of context? Maybe and I am still rooting for the kid..But I have more doubts now and I'm not so sure the staff and org has failed JJM to the degree some have called them out for. Is it possible JJM has failed them instead?
Too early (for me) to tell with just 10 games played. Who the heck knows where Teasley will net out either.
Let's let it play out and hope for the best I guess.
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O’Connell hasn’t said it this plainly, but this is one of the lessons from a disappointing 2025 season. Quarterbacks don’t just drive completions, yards and points. Their disposition, their connectivity and their urgency flow to the rest of the team like blood to the rest of the body. Spotting the circulation takes a microscope and expertise. O’Connell saw this lack of distribution as problematic.
Dating back to the NFL Scouting Combine in February, when asked what he would be seeking this spring and summer from the quarterback position, he said an “igniter.” Those abilities express themselves not through interviews or social media posts but through in-person action in real time.
In O’Connell’s eyes, real teammate interactions hold far more value than what’s said or insinuated in the press.
“It doesn’t mean that everybody has to be smiling every day,” O’Connell said. “When they speak to (the media), I want them to be open and honest.
Because I think it’s all part of having a transparent quarterback competition that allows them to truly demonstrate that they can consistently be the same guy every day.”
O’Connell hasn’t said this publicly, nor has any other Vikings staffer, but the lack of consistency from McCarthy in this vein contributed to the team signing Murray.
McCarthy’s day-to-day disparity first became apparent following his torn meniscus in the fall and winter of 2024. It forced many inside the TCO Performance Center to push for the team to sign Aaron Rodgers.
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
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