NFL.com Predicts Winner of Vikings QB Battle
If you ranked the Minnesota Vikings’ top storylines heading into July, the upcoming quarterback battle would probably take the cake — even if Kyler Murray remains the frontrunner to earn the spot. NFL.com came along to size up the competition this week, and according to Nick Shook, the job is Murray’s to lose.
Shook was actually pretty matter-of-fact about his prediction. He doesn’t consider the outcome very suspenseful.
Murray Has the Edge, But McCarthy Still Factors into the Long Game
Shook: Murray Will Win QB1
Shook analyzed which NFL players could most improve this season, mentioning Murray as a top candidate.
Along the way, he announced his QB1 prediction for the Vikings: “Murray’s shift from Arizona to Minnesota isn’t quite the discovery of an oasis, but it’s certainly a better situation for the former No. 1 overall pick than the one he inhabited in the desert.”
“After dealing with injuries and logging just five games in 2025, Murray is now playing under quarterback expert Kevin O’Connell and has the privilege of throwing passes to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Jauan Jennings and T.J. Hockenson in a stable offensive scheme that helped Sam Darnold post a career year in 2024.”
If Darnold could explode in the Twin Cities, so can Murray — is the working theory for many.
“Yes, he’s going to win the job over J.J. McCarthy, and I believe he’ll form a beautiful partnership with O’Connell, the coach of a team that is a reliable quarterback away from a return to the playoffs. Expect Murray to become that quarterback and rebuild his reputation along the way,” Shook concluded.
Most of the World Agrees
By now, most Vikings fans and NFL followers understand that Murray will win the quarterback battle sometime this month or next, and he’ll get a chance to maintain that gig throughout the 2026 campaign. Per sportsbooks, he’s a -770 favorite as the calendar flipped to July, which implies an 88% chance of prevailing.
Murray started 87 games for the Cardinals over seven seasons, compared to McCarthy’s 10 since 2024, and Murray has all the necessary tools of a franchise quarterback. McCarthy may, as well, but there’s a reason Murray was drafted first overall in 2019, and McCarthy was chosen 10th in 2024 — Murray’s skills are just superior.
Of course, if Shook is incorrect and McCarthy scores the upset, it will have meant that he had seriously turned the corner in his development — even Murray couldn’t stand in his way. Many Vikings fans are secretly hoping for the outcome; it’s just unlikely, given Murray’s track record held up against McCarthy’s.
Cinema at Training Camp Regardless
Minnesota really hasn’t featured a real quarterback battle since 2014 — the dawn of the Mike Zimmer era. That summer, rookie Teddy Bridgewater, veteran Matt Cassel, and the once-promising Christian Ponder vied for the top job, with Cassel prevailing briefly before losing his title due to injury early in the 2014 season.
The Vikings, too, started to have a junior quarterback battle in 2024, but two things occurred: 1) Most fans understood that Sam Darnold would be the quarterback while McCarthy watched and learned indefinitely; 2) McCarthy tore his meniscus during the first preseason game, ending the battle on a sorrowful note.
Therefore, many newcomers to Vikings football have never experienced this — two guys battling it out in Eagan heat with the top prize of the QB1 scepter.
That’s coming to Vikings training camp in four weeks.
Golden Opportunity for a Long-Term QB1
Both combatants have the chance of a lifetime, believe it or not. The Vikings drafted McCarthy for this very task in April 2024 — to be the franchise quarterback for perhaps a decade. A host of injuries have dampened that forecast, and in his first year as a starter, McCarthy looked pretty damn shaky, sans a few clutch moments that generated intense highlights — and memes.
Murray, on the other hand, can be another Baker Mayfield, cast off by his employer in pursuit of something better, with the player landing elsewhere and seizing a QB1 job for the long haul. That happened to Mayfield in 2023, and now in Tampa Bay, he’s just their franchise quarterback. That can occur for Murray in the Twin Cities.
And if all else fails, the Vikings have a new general manager named Nolan Teasley, who would, in theory, have the opportunity to size up the 2027 NFL Draft for a new quarterback, a convenient time for it because the next class of signal-callers already appears to be overflowing with talent.
Rookies report to Eagan for Vikings training camp in 24 days.
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