Vikings QB Decision Might Be Simpler Than Expected
Minnesota Vikings fans have spent the last month spinning offseason quarterback theories on Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray, and Malik Willis, to name a few, but the solution could evidently be as simple as re-signing Carson Wentz, the QB2 from 2025.
The Vikings could keep the quarterback plan simple, and Wentz certainly knows the drill.
That’s the latest and greatest idea from Star Tribune, as Ben Goessling floated Wentz back to Minnesota as a viable offseason path.
A Familiar Name Could Stabilize Vikings Quarterback Room
Most haven’t considered Wentz an option for the 2026 offseason addition.
Goessling on Wentz
Sizing up the Vikings’ offseason, Goessling wrote about Wentz, “As the ethics of playing Wentz through his painful left shoulder injury became a topic of national discussion in October, sources said one of the reasons the quarterback carried no ill will toward the Vikings was because his stint as the team’s starter might help him earn a contract in 2026.”
“Could that contract be with the Vikings? It’s possible, though the team might circle back to Wentz after considering its options at QB. Assuming Wentz, 33, plays in 2026, he’d likely do so on a one-year deal.”
That’s a much rosier estimate of the Vikings’ plan for Wentz than most envisioned in the early parts of the offseason. In fact, many thought he’d retire, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
Wentz in 2025
The veteran signal-caller racked up 243 passing yards per game in 5 starts last season, delivering a 6-touchdown to 5-interception split. Put plainly, he was a mediocre quarterback who flashed some big throws at times and proved why the league considers him a backup in other games.
NFL.com’s Nick Shook ranked Wentz as the NFL’s 43rd-best quarterback of 2025 and explained, “Carson Wentz deserves credit for trying to play through an assortment of injuries in a vain attempt to keep the Vikings afloat. His efforts also didn’t come without the mistakes we’ve watched him make since he began his nomadic journey through the NFL.”
Per EPA+CPOE, Wentz ranked 20th of 40 qualifying quarterbacks last season. Utterly average. But impressive for a backup.
Would He Be Enough?
The problem? The Vikings already did this. They opted to pluck Wentz off the couch late in the summer of 2025 after realizing that Sam Howell didn’t have the juice for QB2. Many criticized the organization for not signing an upper-echelon QB2 in free agency, as the club preferred to wait until the draft to trade for Howell.
Once Wentz took the baton as QB2, the Vikings endured injuries to J.J. McCarthy, and Wentz eventually saw the field as a starter in five games. Minnesota won two of them.
McCarthy later returned, and the club finished 2025 with a 9-8 record, though it was eliminated from all postseason contention by mid-December. Fans didn’t even get to flirt with playoff scenarios in Weeks 15, 16, 17, or 18.
How would things be different if Minnesota made Wentz the QB2 in 2026? Just hope the outcome would change?
Signing Wentz as the “other” quarterback this offseason feels like a repeat of 2025, which didn’t end well.
The Viking Age‘s Brad Berreman on Wentz: “If he wants to play next season, Wentz should be able to find an opportunity to be a backup somewhere. He also, most likely, wouldn’t have to wait until late-August (when the Vikings called him last summer) for that opportunity. Unless he wants to wait that long for the perfect opportunity to surface, but if that’s the case, retirement is probably a better idea.”
“If the Vikings get to where they’re considering bringing Wentz back, then all of their other plans to add a quarterback this offseason have gone unbelievably awry. Let’s hope it doesn’t get anywhere near that point, and it truly shouldn’t.”
Perhaps an Avenue Reserved for the Fallback Plan — Again
Wentz can, however, live on an island of “just in case.” That is — the Vikings try to trade for players like Mac Jones and Kyler Murray but come up short. They then can’t land Malik Willis in free agency; he prefers a place where he can start, like Arizona or Miami.
Theoretically, Wentz can be an option reserved for the worst-case scenario, where the big fish don’t swim to Minnesota, but the Vikings find a way to re-sign Wentz and possibly add another backup like Marcus Mariota.
Wentz should be commended for his gutsy 2025 efforts. That doesn’t mean he should be the almighty 2026 contingency plan for McCarthy. We’ve seen that movie before, and it wasn’t four stars.
For the Vikings’ purposes, Wentz should be treated as a QB3 — or absolute emergency QB2 fail-safe.
You must be logged in to post a comment.