Hall of Famer Reignites Beef with J.J. McCarthy
It just doesn’t stop with Cris Carter. The former Minnesota Vikings and Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter absolutely insists on questioning whether quarterback J.J. McCarthy is right for the purple team — and any good in the first place.
Carter’s comments have escalated from casual skepticism to full-blown framing, and it’s hard to ignore how often he surfaces when the Vikings have something messy to argue about.
Mind-bogglingly, Carter has made it a weekly routine to raise eyebrows over McCarthy, even when the youngster has played well.
Cris Carter Keeps Poking at J.J. McCarthy
Carter has strange beef with McCarthy.
Carter at It Again, Poking the Bear on All Things McCarthy
At this point, it’s safe to say that Carter is not a fan of McCarthy.
He told Kay Adams on Monday about McCarthy celebrating a touchdown before he physically scored, “These Michigan guys, that’s what I thought. To me, that’s not what KOC wants from his quarterback. Like, that alternate personality, number Nine, all that stuff. No one’s ever won in the NFL doing this. To me, he acts like a kid, he’s played like a kid, we’re stuck with the kid ’til next year.”
“It’s the first time in 40 years, maybe even 50 years, since the Vikings been playing inside, that they ever left the game satisfied after their quarterback threw for 150 yards. That’s where we are the last two weeks. We have lowered our standards so much to accommodate him.”
One must wonder whether Carter’s beef with McCarthy is as silly as Michigan-Ohio State carried over to the NFL.
Carter continued, “But it’s about winning, it’s about growing, and we knew that we had a young quarterback, we knew that he didn’t get a redshirt year last year. That year really hurt him. And this is what we’re stuck with. When Carson Wentz gets hurt, and now we can’t go to the backup — we tried that and saw what happened out in Seattle — so we’re stuck with him.”
“Hope he can stay healthy, because these reps that he’s getting, especially against the competition like Dallas Sunday night, they’re invaluable for his overall growth. I still believe he can be the franchise quarterback, but let me tell you something, right now, today, we don’t know.”
Stuck with him is the ultimate insult when discussing a young quarterback’s development — and Carter knows it.
A Weekly Tradition
Carter now does this every week.
He hasn’t been openly hostile toward McCarthy, but he’s been circling him for weeks, poking at the same spot over and over again. First came this tweet:
Then, two weeks ago, he escalated it by saying Kevin O’Connell was “scared to death” of McCarthy’s performance and unsure what the future even looks like
It’s clear Carter isn’t a McCarthy believer, and what makes it stranger is the timing. He tends to surface on Vikings topics when things tilt negative. During the 14–3 season in 2024, he was largely silent. Now that the situation is messier, he’s suddenly everywhere.
Last week, he went a step further, telling CardPlayer.com that the Vikings are “stuck with this guy.” At this point, it feels less like a critique and more like a fixation — and it’s hard to see what McCarthy actually did to earn it after performing well as of late.
Former Vikings QB Tommy Kramer Feels Differently
Need a different angle? Vikings quarterback from the 1980s, Tommy Kramer, has you covered.
Kramer posted on Twitter early last month, “McCarthy has that competitive, winning, leader attitude you need as a QB, which is huge, you need a guy who commands the huddle. The NFL is much faster than College, let’s give Coach O’Connell and JJ the time they need to clean some things up and see where it goes. Be happy for Darnold and Jones, every situation is different, all we can do is wish for the best for our guys.”
And a couple of weeks before that tweet, Kramer also tweeted, “I’m telling ya, stick with this kid, he’s a winner, he can feel the pressure, knows when to step up out of the pocket and he’s not afraid to take chances.”
So, yes, to an extent, it’s Carter v. Kramer in the court of public opinion on McCarthy.
McCarthy’s Performance in Last 2 Games
McCarthy has been rolling for two weeks now, starting at home against Washington and carrying it straight into a prime-time win in Dallas. Sunday night didn’t open cleanly — a tipped-ball interception showed up early — but that ended up being the only real turbulence. From there, McCarthy flipped a switch and never gave it back.
He pushed the ball downfield, kept the offense on schedule, and delivered the most complete statistical performance of his young career: 250 yards on just 15 completions, two passing touchdowns, and another score with his legs. The Vikings walked out of Dallas with an eight-point win, and McCarthy looked comfortable doing it.
Two hundred passing yards doesn’t mean much on its own, but context matters. For a young quarterback, that mark often signals the moment before things start speeding up. More importantly, McCarthy didn’t disappear for quarters at a time as he had earlier in the season. He played four steady, confident quarters instead of scrambling to find himself late.
The numbers backed it up. McCarthy posted an 85.6 QBR — elite territory — and finished sixth in the league in EPA+CPOE for Week 15. He was also sixth the week before against Washington. When efficiency shows up twice, it stops being noise.
Nevertheless, Carter persists. No kudos; only stuck verbiage.
Carter on Jefferson
Carter also tackled his perception of the McCarthy problem from Justin Jefferson’s standpoint.
He told Adams, “For one, this is the first time during JJ’s career — that meaning Justin Jefferson — that they can’t attack the full field. Ever since his rookie year, in KOC’s offense, they’ve been able to throw the ball and take deep shots downfield, especially off the play action. And you can see that he’s starting to press because he’s not (getting) the numbers that he’s used to.”
“Randy Moss had some of the same issues. He was so successful early in his career that when things became difficult — and they only got difficult with inconsistency at quarterback. So he’s pressing. Justin Jefferson’s a lot better than me. I think KOC’s doing a great job by meeting with him on a weekly basis, informing him where they are as far as the team, he has tremendous input. To me, I just would’ve said something.”
It’s worth noting that Jefferson has gone out of his way to support and empower McCarthy every step of the way.
Carter added, “He’s doing a great job of trying to be the team leader and everything that we need him to be, and I’m glad that he’s not doing things like that outwardly. He’s not doing what A.J. Brown is doing there in Philadelphia, because that would really hurt the growth of the quarterback and it would affect him in drastic way. Justin is doing the right thing.”
“He’s saying all the right stuff as the franchise player. I’ve talked to him off the record, so trust me, he knows what’s going on. But as a leader, he realized it’s most important that he says and stays on the right page with KOC at this point in his career.”
Win, lose, or draw in Week 16, Carter will likely have something to say about McCarthy in seven days or so. He can’t resist.
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