Joe Thomas: Kyler Murray Has Already Won Vikings’ QB Battle with JJ McCarthy

As far as Joe Thomas is concerned, the Vikings quarterback competition is already over. Kyler Murray has won it.

Thomas's logic was clean. Minnesota spent a first-round pick on J.J. McCarthy and was prepared to give him every opportunity, because taking a quarterback that high essentially hands him the job. But when a team admits that didn't work and goes out to spend the kind of resources it took to bring in Murray, that move makes Murray the starter. The reason you do it, Thomas said, is the players around the quarterback, the receivers and playmakers who didn't trust McCarthy. That's why you make the switch. He sees McCarthy firmly planted as the backup, with a chance to keep developing and win the job again far down the line, but for now it's clearly Murray's.

Host Andrew Siciliano, in for Rich, was eager to see what Murray and Kevin O'Connell could build together. He pushed back gently on writing off Murray's Arizona years, noting it wasn't all his fault, that Murray took a team to the postseason, and that he's a former number one overall pick with real talent now playing on a contract someone else is paying.

The bigger excitement was the fit. Siciliano and Thomas recalled being on site for a Thursday night game when the undefeated Cardinals had Murray in the MVP conversation before Aaron Rodgers and the Packers came to town and won on a late end-zone miscommunication. Murray has had stretches as one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and the belief is that O'Connell, one of the calmest and best offensive minds around, is licking his chops to build an offense that unlocks him. Having revitalized Sam Darnold's career, O'Connell now gets to apply that same calm, consistency, and process to smooth out Murray's rough patches. Whether he can turn Murray into a top-five quarterback again is, as Rich put it, one of the great storylines heading into the season.