MIN · QB
Projected Points (PPR)
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J.J. McCarthy sits third on the Minnesota depth chart behind Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz, a demotion from the games he actually played this season. Across ten starts he handled nearly the full offensive workload when on the field, at 94.3% of snaps, and threw the ball two hundred forty-three times. That volume produced a hundred forty completions, a completion percentage of 57.61%, one thousand six hundred thirty-two passing yards, eleven passing touchdowns and twelve interceptions. He added thirty-seven rushing attempts for a hundred eighty-one yards and four rushing scores. The rushing production kept his floor from collapsing even as the passing efficiency lagged. Right now none of that matters for weekly deployment: Kyler Murray is the listed starter, and Carson Wentz sits above him too. Barring a change at the top of that chart, J.J. McCarthy is not on the field.
The case for J.J. McCarthy rests on what he already showed with the job: ten starts, a hundred thirty-seven point three eight PPR points, and thirteen point seven points per game, numbers that reflect real target volume for Justin Jefferson and real touches for Aaron Jones Sr. running behind him. Four rushing touchdowns on thirty-seven carries suggest a designed rushing package that a competent play-caller can keep using if he ever gets back into the lineup. That is a plausible foundation for a age-based rebound if circumstances change. The case against is that circumstances have already changed, and not in his favor. He finished thirtieth among players at his position in PPR scoring despite the near-full snap share he carried during his run as a starter, and a completion percentage of 57.61% alongside twelve interceptions against eleven touchdowns is the profile of a passer who struggled with accuracy and decision-making under pressure. Minnesota did not stand pat with that evidence; Kyler Murray now holds the starting job, and Carson Wentz was brought in as insurance above J.J. McCarthy on the chart as well. That is two players the organization is trusting over him, not one, and it reflects the same read on his 2025 tape that the raw numbers support. Justin Jefferson's presence as a true difference-making receiver did not save the efficiency problems, and there is no reason to think it would this time either. A team does not stack two quarterbacks above a passer who profiles as a franchise arm; it does that with a passer whose interception rate and completion rate raised real questions. The honest read is that his two-hundred-plus attempt sample already happened and it did not settle the competition in his favor.
Leave J.J. McCarthy on the wire in nearly every format. He is buried third on his own depth chart behind Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz, and a player who cannot get on the field returns zero fantasy value regardless of what his per-game numbers looked like during his prior run as a starter. Do not stash him on the premise that his four rushing touchdowns and thirteen point seven points per game will resurface soon; there is no path to snaps in front of him today. If your league requires stashing every rostered quarterback with any professional track record, he is a deep bench-only hold at best, never a helper on your active lineup. The only scenario that changes this is an actual shift in Minnesota's announced starter, and even then his 57.61% completion rate and twelve interceptions from this season are real questions a new opportunity would have to answer before he is trustworthy again. Track the depth chart, not the box score, and revisit only if the chart itself moves him up.
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