Vikings Rumors Zero In on the Ravens Cheating Angle, a New QB in 2026, Jalen Nailor
The Minnesota Vikings have a 4-5 record after 10 weeks, needing a dub this weekend to survive emotional playoff elimination. Along the way, the rumor mill remains active, as is the case pretty much every week.
Vikings rumors zero in on the Ravens’ alleged cheating angle, a possible new quarterback for 2026, and what Jalen Nailor’s situation means going forward.
Here’s a peek at the Purple Rumor Mill for Week 11, a meeting with the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Vikings Rumors for November 15th, 2025
It’s the weekly Purple Rumor Mill from VikingsTerritory.
Rumor: The Ravens used illegal methods to bait the Vikings into false starts last weekend.
The Vikings had eight false starts last weekend, and one player claimed those were induced by Ravens defensive players.
Running back Aaron Jones dragged the whole thing into daylight this week, mentioning to the media, “They’re making move calls up front, so sometimes it sounds like it could be J.J. McCarthy saying ‘hut.’ They’re making move calls, and you see them stem. So they’re trying to get them to jump, as well.”
It’s a serious accusation. Defensive players aren’t allowed to mimic a quarterback’s cadence — because if they were, Sundays would turn into a nonstop false-start circus. And Jones isn’t some reckless rabble-rouser, either. He’s measured, respected, and not the type to toss out nonsense just for attention.
On the other side of the table, almost predictably, Ravens skipper John Harbaugh isn’t buying any of it. He did his diligence. He dug through the tape. And he’s adamant there was no cheating.
Harbaugh stated, “One of the players said that. I read five other players and the head coach said, ‘No.’ But it did catch my attention, yes. So I went back and I watched it. We didn’t have a game plan for that. If we did, I wouldn’t have been happy. But we’re not going to do anything illegal. If you stem, you make a move call. You’re allowed to say ‘move.’ You’re not allowed to say ‘set’ or ‘hut’ or anything else or a cadence, which we never have done.”
He added more after combing through the film: “But then I watched all of them, and none of them did we stem. Not once did we move. They were doing a lot of on-two, trying to draw us offsides. And then they were doing some shifts where they could uncover man/zone and try to see what we were in. They jumped a few times when they were doing that to try to get to their alerts and their change of plays. So, like Coach O’Connell said, it wasn’t anything we were doing.”
So that’s where it stands — one respected halfback hearing something suspicious, and one longtime coach insisting the tape backs him up. The league will stay quiet, but the debate is there.
Rumor: Mike Florio says the Vikings need an open quarterback competition next season.
Florio lit the match on this week’s offseason chatter, pushing the idea that the Vikings should start imagining an environment where more than one quarterback is chasing the QB1 job — not just J.J. McCarthy.
He opined on his show, “The Vikings need a quarterback competition. I think they need to sign somebody in the offseason, not as the ‘you’re going to be the starter and J.J.’s out.’ I think they need to make him earn it against someone. They need him in day-to-day competition to push him toward his ceiling. And whatever his ceiling is, it is what it is.”
Then he kept going: “Right now, I am concerned the ceiling isn’t where it needs to be because we can’t have one week where it all clicks. It’s not like he’s ever going to be a gunslinger. He’s never going to be Matthew Stafford. It’s going to be about what he can do at the right time — make the right play in the right spot. Sometimes we win, sometimes we don’t.”
McCarthy’s contract keeps him in Minnesota through two more seasons after 2025, with a fifth-year option looming in 2028, so this isn’t a short-term situation. The development arc matters. The investment matters. The patience level matters.
Florio finished with the sharpest line of the segment: “I think they need to be looking for somebody with a higher ceiling. So they need to either push him toward that higher ceiling internally or just pull the plug.”
The Vikings will probably disagree with Florio about a different passer in 2026, but if they do not, and the man is not a rookie from the 2026 class, these names could make sense:
- Aaron Rodgers
- Anthony Richardson
- Drew Lock
- Kirk Cousins
- Kyler Murray
- Mac Jones
- Max Brosmer
- Shedeur Sanders
- Trey Lance
- Will Levis
Rumor: Jalen Nailor is suddenly a target for a second contract in Minnesota.
Jalen Nailor put up one of the best games of his career last weekend — 6 grabs, 124 yards, and a touchdown — even as Minnesota faceplanted in a home loss to the Ravens. And with McCarthy back in the lineup after missing five games with a high ankle sprain, the connection between those two has become one of the few bright spots of the Vikings’ season. Since Week 9, McCarthy and Nailor have synced up in a way that makes the WR3 conversation feel real, not hypothetical.
In McCarthy’s four starts this year, Nailor is pacing toward roughly 850 receiving yards over a 17-game season. That’s a dramatic contrast from the stretch with Carson Wentz in September and October, when Nailor stayed mostly quiet. McCarthy + Nailor actually looks like something — timing, trust, production — all the ingredients that didn’t show up with Wentz.
At the halfway point, Nailor sits at 19 catches for 302 yards and 2 touchdowns. That stat line doesn’t scream superstar, but it does signal a player turning the corner.
And here’s the part that’s shifted the entire narrative: for most of the last nine months, a Nailor extension felt like a non-story. Nice depth piece, useful when healthy, but more of a high-end WR4 than anything else.
Now? That has changed.
The coaching staff has been pounding the table for Nailor for three years, and he’s finally playing like the guy they kept insisting he could be. If this trajectory holds, he may have earned a legitimate shot at a second contract in the Twin Cities.
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