Vikings Fans Have Started Yet Another QB Conspiracy
After the idea of J.J. McCarthy “softly benched” blew up in some Minnesota Vikings fans’ faces, they’re on to the next conspiracy: the notion that QB3 Max Brosmer didn’t play on Thursday night because he “would make McCarthy look bad.”
They can’t get enough: after suggesting that J.J. McCarthy was “softly benched,” Vikings fans have concocted a new conspiracy theory about the QB spot.
Sometimes it’s just too mind-boggling to believe, but the internet does not rest with wacky theories to keep itself relevant.
New Vikings Conspiracy Theory: Max Brosmer Is Too Good to Play
The existence of the theory is real; the substance is false.
Max Brosmer the Subject of New Vikings Conspiracy
If Brosmer had played on Thursday Night Football, he would’ve performed well, and that would’ve made the Vikings’ coaching staff upset. That’s almost too bizarre to type, but that’s the working theory.
One Twitter account posted Sunday, “My conspiracy theory is that the Vikings refuse to start Brosmer because if the undrafted kid balls out and is better than Jerome Jerald McCarthy, it’ll make the front office look like a bunch of stupid [bad word]”
The tweet was seen by 37,000 people and retweeted over 25 times.
The Purple FTW podcast piled on by tweeting, “Why didn’t KOC play Brosmer more vs Chargers? Does he not trust Bros Show? He does. Otherwise why no other QBs on roster besides JJ? Does he not want Bros to shine? Yes. Because if Brosmer lit it up, there would be a QB controversy with JJ. That won’t help McCarthy’s development. Also 100% why KOC didn’t use his timeouts to try and score on the last drive.”
There you have it — a brand new conspiracy for the masses to indulge.
Meanwhile, McCarthy Is Back This Week at Lions
All signs point to McCarthy on Sunday at Detroit; the coaching staff has hinted that his high ankle sprain will be finally ready to go. The young passer will return under center in a strange season, too.
Minnesota’s season has sprinted out of the gate in the weirdest way possible — not disastrous, but unsettling, like a movie that starts with the wrong soundtrack. Things began unraveling almost immediately when the post–Week 1 injury report became a medical chart for key contributors.
Then, just as the team started to get its footing, McCarthy joined the infirmary gang with a high ankle sprain — not your garden-variety ankle tweak, but the kind of injury that lingers and tests patience. Predictably, fans and pundits blurred the distinction, tossing around “ankle injury” like it was a single, catch-all term, when this one clearly isn’t. High ankle sprains and regular ankle sprains are different. One takes 4-6 weeks to heal; the other takes a week or so. The conspiratorial crowd didn’t care; they’re all the same to that group.
Yet injuries only tell part of the story for Minnesota. The defense, once the stabilizing force of this franchise, has unraveled since the bye week — a shocking regression for a Brian Flores-led bunch that was once defined by violence and control in equal measure.
McCarthy, the guy who could be passed on the depth chart, according to conspiracy theorists, by an undrafted rookie signal-caller, must hope his team’s defense rebounds and that he’s ready for a tough division battle.
Coaches Want to Win; They Don’t Care Who Does It
Vikings coaches would’ve turned to Brosmer if they felt he was ready. They did not. Coaches — who, by design, are on the hot seat at all times — don’t sabotage a team of 53 adults to embolden a conspiracy theory that would, by the way, result in “too much winning.”
Minnesota would have a vested interest in Brosmer playing well. It wants him to do that.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell talked about why Brosmer didn’t play last week after the game: “The confidence that we have in Max Brosmer and the upside that we see in Max is real, but we also wouldn’t want to send him out there and force a level of trying-to-figure-it-outness that’s probably beyond a guy playing for the first time.
“That was kind of where the decision was to continue to go with Carson as long as Carson felt like he was healthy enough to keep playing and the medical tidbit as well.”
He didn’t want Brosmer to flop and subsequently ruin his confidence. He’s seen this movie before, especially in 2023 with Jaren Hall. Need more Vikings examples?
In 2021, fans swore up and down that Kellen Mond needed a look in the regular season. The head coach said that wasn’t a good idea. Mond later flamed out of the NFL.
In 2023, fans swore up and down that Jaren Hall needed a look in the regular season. He got his look and flamed out. He’s no longer in the NFL.
In 2025, fans swear up and down that Brosmer needs a look in the regular season. The head coach said that wasn’t a good idea just yet.
Maybe the coaches know better than fans in living rooms, and want to win games rather than lose them? Just maybe?
The Death of the Soft Benching Conspiracy
It’s also convenient that the Vikings, through their actions, debunked the previous quarterback conspiracy theory.
When McCarthy injured his ankle in Week 2, many called it a “soft bench” assignment because the young passer played poorly that game. They claimed the injury had been faked from the very top of the organization.
Fast forward to Week 9, and McCarthy will return to his QB1 post against the best team in the NFC — in a road game. You don’t softly bench a player and turn around to insert him back into the lineup in a hostile environment and versus a team you haven’t defeated in three years.
Neither conspiracy makes sense — which is probably why they’re … meritless conspiracy theories.
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