The Minnesota Vikings are undecided on whether quarterback J.J. McCarthy will play the season finale Sunday against the Green Bay Packers as he returns from a hairline fracture in his throwing hand.
McCarthy injured his right hand in Week 16 against the New York Giants and was not ready for the quick turnaround for a Thursday affair. He sat out the Christmas Day game against the Detroit Lions, which Minnesota won 23-10 behind Max Brosmer at quarterback.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters Monday that McCarthy is progressing.
“Swelling in that hand has come down a little bit,” O’Connell said. “And really, it’s just going to be about working through it this week and seeing what his grip strength is like.
“I’d love to get him one more game, for sure.”
McCarthy, the 10th overall pick of the 2024 draft, has been limited to nine career starts due to injuries. After sitting out all of 2024 due to surgery on a torn meniscus, he missed five games early this season with a high ankle sprain and missed Week 12 against the Packers while in concussion protocol.
O’Connell said the Vikings will “get Max ready to go” in the event Brosmer, the undrafted rookie from the University of Minnesota, will need to make his third start of the year. The Vikings also have Brett Rypien and John Wolford as backup options.
The Vikings placed defensive lineman Elijah Williams on injured reserve Monday. The undrafted rookie injured his ankle against the Lions and made nine tackles in seven appearances this season.
Minnesota (8-8) will miss the playoffs, though not because of its defense, which ranks sixth in the league at 292.7 yards allowed per game and 10th in scoring at 20.6 ppg allowed.
Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, may get attention on the coaching carousel this winter but O’Connell made clear Monday he wants to keep Flores in the building.
“Flo knows I love him. He was the guy three years ago that I identified to bring in here, and the growth and just our relationship and what he’s meant to me personally is so massive,” O’Connell said. “That’s not even taking into account what he’s been able to do defensively for our team. Been such a huge part of helping us daily, minute-to-minute kind of weather the different storms we had to navigate this year.
“I absolutely want Brian Flores to be the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings as long as we can have him,” he added. “I would say this, I do know that he’s demonstrated a lot of things that, having gone through the process of the head coach hiring process before, myself, I imagine he’s going to be a pretty popular guy there as well — and rightly so, he’s earned everything. (But) that doesn’t take away from the route we want to go to make sure he’s our defense coordinator for the foreseeable future.”
