Another Round of Joe Burrow Buzz Hits the Vikings
A couple of days before Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy fired up his best game as a pro, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky linked Cincinnati Bengals passer Joe Burrow to the purple team.
From Burrow’s bleak body language to fresh national chatter about his future, the Vikings keep sneaking into the conversation any time Cincinnati’s QB situation melts down.
Burrow recently sounded despondent about this career and future in Cincinnati, prompting the NFL world to wonder what a trade might look like in the offseason. According to Orlovsky, the Vikings might be in the mix if the trade theories come true.
Joe Burrow to Vikings Talk Won’t Go Away
Burrow to Minnesota will remain a hot-button topic.
Orlovsky on Burrow’s Path to Vikings
Burrow’s self-professed melancholy hit the airwaves worldwide last weekend, drawing comparisons to Andrew Luck’s stunning retirement six years ago.
Orlovsky deduced that Burrow’s time in Cincinnati could be winding down and said, “It’s the beginning of the end for Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. The organization has absolutely failed him. If I’m the Jets, if I’m the Raiders, if I’m the Vikings, if I’m the Steelers, I am figuring out a way, coming off of what happened just yesterday, getting together and saying, ‘How do we get Joe Burrow? How do we start the process of making Joe Burrow our quarterback?”
It’s a bit comical that the Pittsburgh Steelers found their way onto Orlovsky’s Burrow list; there’s no way Cincinnati would trade Burrow to its most hated foe.
But the Vikings were represented, according to Orlovsky, nevertheless.
Another Wretched Outing by Bengals
Burrow and his Bengals were dreadful in Week 15, losing a shutout to the rival Baltimore Ravens by a score of 24-0. The recently-saddened passer did his team no favors, delivering 225 passing yards, no touchdowns, and 2 interceptions.
To add insult to injury, Cincinnati has also been eliminated from the playoffs, and Burrow returned not long ago from a bad case of turf toe to keep postseason hopes alive.
He did no such thing, and by Week 15, the man is posting 21.4 QBRs from ESPN, which is terrible.
Meanwhile, Vikings QB Cooks
For the Vikings, McCarthy opened Week 15 at Dallas with a tipped-ball interception, but that was the extent of his turbulence. From that point forward, he played like someone who finally found the switch. He hit chunk throws, kept the offense on schedule, and stacked his best statistical outing as a pro: 250 yards on 15 completions, two touchdown passes, plus another score on the ground. His team won by eight over the Cowboys.
Passing 200 yards isn’t headline material in a vacuum, but for McCarthy it marks a real checkpoint — the kind of incremental milestone young quarterbacks tend to hit right before things start to accelerate. More importantly, he didn’t vanish for long stretches as he had earlier this year. He delivered four full quarters of competent, confident football rather than waiting until the final minutes to find his footing.
The analytics side loved it, too. McCarthy posted an 85.6 QBR, which lives in the All-Pro neighborhood, and he finished sixth league-wide in EPA+CPOE for Week 15. That mirrors his showing from the previous weekend against Washington, where he also landed in the sixth slot. When efficiency metrics start repeating themselves, that’s usually the sign of a quarterback settling in — not stumbling into a one-off outlier.
He’s played so well in the last two games that McCarthy is starting to show signs for the future, indicating he can be a franchise quarterback in 2026 and beyond.
McCarthy Can Make All of This Moot
Now, McCarthy must sustain the recent turnaround.
No matter what, having Burrow on the roster is probably a wiser play than employing McCarthy, but McCarthy is affordable and won’t cost three 1st-Round draft picks (and change) via trade. Life will be much easier if McCarthy morphs into a Top 12 or so quarterback.
But, for example, if he totally regressed in the next three games, the Burrow trade theories would be prevalent in the offseason, if Burrow requests a trade in the first place.
Not Everyone a Fan of Burrow to Minnesota
Over at a Green Bay Packers-themed site, the support for Burrow to Minnesota is nil. There’s even some paranoia.
Lombardi Ave.‘s Freddie Boston wrote last week, “Coach Kevin O’Connell is under pressure after the Vikings’ regression this season, but he’s still an excellent play-caller and would make Minnesota a perfect landing spot for Burrow. Sending him to an NFC team makes the most sense for Cincinnati.”
“The other names on Orlovsky’s list all reside in the Bengals’ conference. OK, be right back. I need to go throw up. As awful as it is to type those words, it’s the painful truth. If Burrow becomes available via trade, he won’t find a better landing spot than in Minnesota.”
It’s worth noting that the Bengals could simply play hardball and do nothing with any Burrow trade request. They’ve proven that they have no problem with that in recent years.
Boston added, “Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah should admit defeat on the McCarthy era and go all-in to make a trade for Burrow. Burrow has struggled to stay healthy, largely because the Bengals haven’t protected him, but on talent alone, he is as good as any quarterback in football.”
“For now, this is just the stuff of nightmares. We can only hope it doesn’t become an agonizing reality.”
Burrow turned 29 last week.
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