Minnesota's quarterback uncertainty could land Derek Carr. Analysts point to the Vikings, with offensive weapons, as his most likely next stop.
The Minnesota Vikings are in an interesting position heading into the offseason. They do not feel settled at the quarterback position and don't feel that they have their starter.
The lack of certainty for Minnesota at the important position is suboptimal, but to their advantage, the rest of the league knows that they need a quarterback, too. With that, signal callers looking for a new destination will likely already be considering the Vikings over the next few months.
Several analysts see the Vikings as a top destination for Carr. John Breech of CBS Sports writes that the former star quarterback's most likely destination might be the Minnesota Vikings.
"The Vikings are currently in a nightmare situation at quarterback. They took at gamble at the position in 2024 and hit the jackpot, but then they threw all their money away in 2025. And of course, we're talk about Sam Darnold here. Darnold led Minnesota to a 14-3 record in 2024, but the Vikings got greedy and thought they could do better, so they let him walk in free agency and decided to roll the dice by going all in with J.J. McCarthy. In his first full year as a starter, McCarthy looked much closer to being a bust than someone who can eventually be Minnesota's franchise quarterback.
The Vikings have already proved they can win games with the right quarterback and Carr seems like the perfect veteran who could come in and help. ...
If you give Carr the right weapons, he generally does pretty well, and the Vikings have some receiving weapons in Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson. Carr might have to compete with McCarthy for the job, but that's likely a competition where he would be feeling pretty confident."
New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill (7) celebrates a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Browns with New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr (4) at Caesars Superdome. Matthew Hinton-Imagn ImagesThe Vikings probably are the most likely trade destination for Carr, if they want to be that. Minnesota, however, is in a strong enough position that it could actually have leverage in deciding which quarterback it targets.
Arizona's Kyler Murray and San Francisco's Mac Jones are probably the best combination of potential and reasonable trade moves that the Vikings could make. Add the possibility of quarterbacks like Kirk Cousins looking for a new place to take a starting job and Minnesota has options.
We'll keep an eye on where the Vikings go with their quarterback pursuit. The good news is, Minnesota appears to have the power in which direction they want to go. We'll see how the team responds to being in control of its destiny this offseason.