J.J. McCarthy joins Zach Wilson and Justin Fields on regrettable list of NFL QB draft busts

Welcome to the club, J.J. McCarthy.

You can still win a Super Bowl — just ask Sam Darnold and David Carr — but you’re already almost guaranteed to not make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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Minnesota’s decision on Tuesday to name Kyler Murray the team’s starting quarterback didn’t just elevate a former No. 1 overall pick bust who was coldly discarded by the rebuilding Arizona Cardinals as a franchise QB.

The Vikings also told the football world, again, that they don’t believe in McCarthy.

“He’s holding the pen on his story and we’re going to support him and try to just help him continue to improve as a young player in the most difficult position in sports,” Minnesota head coach Kevin O’Connell said.

McCarthy is a former No. 10 pick who was drafted way too high in a 2024 first round that featured Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye and Bo Nix.

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Before Minnesota has played its first preseason game, McCarthy has been tossed into a pile that includes Anthony Richardson (No. 4 pick), Justin Fields (No. 11), Zach Wilson (No. 2), Trey Lance (No. 3), Blake Bortles (No. 3), Marcus Mariota (No. 2), Mitch Trubisky (No. 2) and Josh Rosen (No. 10).

JaMarcus Russell (No. 1) is the forever king of NFL QB draft busts, while Johnny Manziel (No. 22) is a close second.

McCarthy’s struggles already contributed to the firing of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as Minnesota’s general manager, and could lead to the Vikings moving on from O’Connell if the team can’t rise to the top of a loaded NFC North.

Will Murray be better than Jordan Love, Jared Goff and Williams in 2026?

That’s a lot to ask from a 5ft 10in QB who once preferred playing video games over studying game film and spent much of his seven years in Arizona wildly scrambling with the ball in hand.

But the real, lingering problem for O’Connell and the Vikings is a 2024 draft decision that makes less sense than ever.

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Minnesota got it horribly wrong in March 2025 by letting Darnold go, and his $100 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks was cheap NFL money for a Super Bowl-winning QB.

O’Connell also foolishly backed McCarthy last season — preferring the rookie in purple and gold over future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers — despite a rookie campaign lost to injury.

“It goes back to when we evaluated him coming out (of college), the traits that we’ve seen in him as a winner, playing the quarterback position for a really long time,” said O’Connell, making it clear he was big on McCarthy at Michigan.

“There’s a reason why we selected him, and the belief that we’ve had in him goes back even before making that selection.”

Two years after Minnesota reached on McCarthy at No. 10, he’s been benched and has lost almost all of his trade value.

Darnold’s magical career turnaround at 28-years-old was the anomaly in the NFL, not the norm.

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Once you join the ranks of Wilson, Fields, Bortles, Lance and Trubisky, it’s almost impossible to get another real shot as a franchise QB.

McCarthy is only 23 and he’ll always be an NCAA national champion.

But his NFL future is already in serious question, since the Vikings chose a QB who wasn’t good enough to stick with the Cardinals and made the big decision before a single preseason game was played.