“I’m very excited about where J.J. is at,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said in an end-of-season press conference. “He’s returned to on-field training. He’s returned to being right where we hoped he’d be at this point to have the type of offseason to be able to answer that question (about whether or not he can start beginning in 2025).”

Last summer, Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell gave J.J. McCarthy a ringing endorsement as the team's quarterback of the future. "Everyone should be excited that we got our young franchise quarterback in the building,” O’Connell said in August after McCarthy underwent season-ending knee surgery.

Whether the J.J. McCarthy era in Minnesota will begin in Week 1 of the 2025 season remains to be seen. But as general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said, “If that’s the course of action we decide,