At 4-6, the rest of the Vikings' season has a new primary objective

In another world, the Vikings properly defended the Bears' kickoff return with 50 seconds left on Sunday and then got a defensive stop to seal an unlikely comeback win. In another one, Cairo Santos hooked a second straight field goal wide left as time expired. In those worlds, the Vikings are 5-5 and have real life in the playoff hunt, even after a dreadful 57-minute performance from J.J. McCarthy.

In this world, Devin Duvernay sprung a huge return and Santos' game-winner went through the uprights to send the Vikings to 4-6 and all but eliminate them from playoff contention. Minnesota would almost certainly have to go 6-1 down the stretch to get into the postseason, which feels wildly unlikely unless their young quarterback can quickly flip a switch and fix his wide range of problems. It usually doesn't work like that.

The Vikings came into this season with real expectations. They believed they could develop McCarthy on the fly and win games in the process because of the roster they had put around him. It hasn't played out that way. He got injured in his second career start, missed five games, and has mostly struggled since returning to action. A couple heroic road wins within the division have been more than offset by the extent of McCarthy's ineptitude in three home losses.

As they move forward after another frustrating defeat, all the Vikings can do is take a day-by-day approach and try to win a football game this week at Lambeau Field. If they do that, they'll have a slight spark of hope heading into another tough road game in Seattle.

As analysts or fans, we can take a step back and look at the Vikings from a big-picture perspective. And with the playoffs likely out the window, it feels fair to say that the final seven games of this season have a new primary objective. It's no longer about wins and losses. The rest of this year is about trying to maximize McCarthy's development, in order to evaluate what to do at the quarterback position heading into 2026.

J.J. McCarthy — Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

The ideal outcome is that McCarthy takes real strides down the stretch, showing growth and improvement that gives him plenty of positive momentum heading into his second season. If he continues to be shaky but shows flashes of improvement in key areas like mechanics and accuracy, he'll remain the starter but may face training camp "competition" from a veteran backup.

The worst-case scenario is that McCarthy continues to look hopeless by finishing the season with a completion percentage in the low 50s and with nearly 20 interceptions in 12 games. In that world, the Vikings would have to bring in true competition for McCarthy and open up the possibility of moving off of him as their starter after just one season. That sounds harsh and is certainly unlikely, but it can't be completely ruled out. If he remains completely non-functional, the Vikings would risk alienating guys like Justin Jefferson and losing the locker room by continuing to trot McCarthy out there.

The hope is that it doesn't have to reach that point. It's only been five games, and there have been plenty of other quarterbacks who started their careers terribly and then turned it around. But for every Josh Allen, there's also a Josh Rosen, who got just one season as the Cardinals' starter after being drafted 10th overall in 2018.

The optimistic view is that McCarthy has shown flashes of real arm talent. He's risen to the moment when the Vikings have needed it, which we saw on the 85-yard touchdown drive at the end of Sunday's game. Against the Bears, he got rid of the ball on time, cleaned up the issue of pre-snap penalties, and wasn't sacked once. Now he just needs to start making accurate throws at a much higher rate.

Kevin O'Connell believes that as the Vikings continue to hone in on McCarthy's mechanics, the accuracy will come.

"There are some plays where he's making it hard on himself," O'Connell said on Monday. "That's probably the most frustrating part for him. It's talked about and repped and practiced at length, and then in those moments, in his fifth start — just the variance to it is causing his job to be more difficult than it needs to be.

"He's wildly capable of making the throws that present themselves. ... He's made of the right stuff. He's gonna keep working at it, we're gonna go back to work and continue to find every avenue, every way to try to help build the consistency to his mechanics. And then I firmly believe the accuracy will come from that. It's been tried and true and tested with other players, guys that have been on their (quarterback) journey before. And that's what we're gonna keep working towards."

Over the next seven games, we should learn a lot about what McCarthy's future will hold. Patience is needed right now, but it won't last forever. At some point, visible progress has to start being made.

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