![\"Kyler](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/kyler-murray-minnesota-vikings.jpg\")
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The Minnesota Vikings<\/a> are hoping that, under head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell, Kyler Murray can find the consistency that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2019. Nonetheless, Murray will need to win the starting job over J.J. McCarthy, so it\u2019s not a given that he\u2019ll be under center Week 1.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, if Murray does edge out McCarthy for the starting job, he will be looking to help the Vikings get back to that 2024 season when Minnesota won 14 games. <\/p>\n Despite O\u2019Connell\u2019s success with Sam Darnold, FOX Sports Radio\u2019s Jason McIntyre doesn\u2019t see that success replicating itself in 2026 with Murray. <\/p>\n \u201cNothing tells me that [Murray is] absolutely going to cook in this scenario,\u201d McIntyre said on the March 13 edition of \u201cStraight Fire with Jason McIntyre.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI just don\u2019t see a world where all of a sudden it clicks, and all of a sudden Kyler\u2019s doing the homework, putting in the extra reps, first in, last out, all that nerdy stuff that you\u2019ve got to do to get over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n In 87 career games with the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>, Murray has posted a 92.2 passer rating while throwing for 20,460 yards with 121 touchdowns and 60 interceptions, per StatMuse<\/a>. <\/p>\n Moreover, McIntyre pointed out the uncertainty surrounding McCarthy, which could lead Murray to win the starting job.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, J.J. McCarthy may just not be good. It\u2019s possible he\u2019s not entirely good at football. I hope that that\u2019s not true. I really believe in this kid. I was a fan of him coming out of Michigan. He obviously did not look great for much of last year. They have a couple good pieces, with [Justin] Jefferson, [Jordan] Addison, and [T.J.] Hockenson, and Alexander\u202fMattison. I mean, they\u2019ve got some pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n Kyler Murray Expected to Win Vikings QB Battle<\/p>\n While the Vikings will let the players determine who wins the job in practice and out on the field, CBS Sports\u00a0NFL<\/a>\u00a0analyst Bryant McFadden already sees Murray being the starter over McCarthy.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s a quarterback competition, I visualize Kyler Murray winning that competition,\u201d\u00a0McFadden said on the March 12 edition of CBS Sports HQ<\/a>. \u201cI think this would be the same situation that we saw a year ago with the\u00a0Indianapolis Colts<\/a>\u00a0when they brought in Daniel Jones.<\/p>\n \u201cThey made it known that it would be a quarterback competition between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson. However it played out, at the end of the day, Daniel Jones won that job. So if that\u2019s the case for Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy, I visualize Kyler Murray winning that job.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Kyler Murray Will Win QB Battle<\/p>\n Additionally, if Minnesota decides to give Murray the job rather than have him earn the starting role in a competition, McFadden believes it\u2019s okay to make the former No. 1 overall pick the starter because he\u2019s a better player than McCarthy.<\/p>\n \u201cIf [the Vikings are] just giving him the keys to the car right now, I\u2019m okay with that as well, because I look at Kyler Murray\u2019s entire professional career, outside of what we saw last year in the injury-plagued year,\u201d McFadden added.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a more talented quarterback than J.J. McCarthy, and that\u2019s no knock on J.J. McCarthy, but he hasn\u2019t really gotten a chance to get his feet wet because of injuries.<\/p>\n \u201cThen when he\u2019s been in the lineup, he\u2019s been inconsistent. But Kyler Murray has shown the ability to be very, very productive in the National Football League. He\u2019s shown the ability to be able to put teams in positions to win ball games.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/strong><\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Vikings\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Stacy Revere\/Getty Images) The Minnesota Vikings are hoping that, under head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell, Kyler…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":656854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-656853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116231901344878089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}