John Randle's fiery critique demands the Vikings chase elite quarterback talent, not settle for playoff mediocrity. The team must aim higher.
It's the story of the weekend in Minnesota sports: Former Vikings edge rusher John Randle is not interested in adding an underwhelming addition at quarterback for 2026.
Randle made his thoughts clear on quarterbacks J.J. McCarthy, Kirk Cousins and Derek Carr. He does not appear to expect any of the three players will carry the Vikings to Super Bowl success in 2026.
Randle said the following of the potential addition of Kirk Cousins.
“We’ve been down that road before. No. We want to move on from you… You have what, maybe one playoff game? I want more.”
Of course, the Vikings want better than what they had with Cousins or McCarthy at quarterback, though Cousins fared much better in his stint in Minnesota. The knock on the quarterback was not that he failed to be productive. Cousins had no problem pushing for just under 5,000 yards in a season. The issue was he could not get it done in the playoffs.
Many view Cousins as the most likely option for Minnesota this offseason, even with the rumors that Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray would welcome a trade to the Vikings. Murray has that franchise quarterback skill set that the Vikings covet and still presumably has a long career ahead of him. Add his production in a franchise like Arizona, and you could see Murray being a good fit. Still, Cousins seems to be the favorite of sorts.
Then there's Derek Carr, who retired last season despite still probably having some quality football left in the tank. Whether that is still the case after taking a year off from football is still to be seen.
The worst-case scenario is the Vikings come up emptyhanded in adding a quality quarterback in free agency. We're talking something along the lines of adding a player in the Carson Wentz tier of quarterback, who might be slightly better than McCarthy but may not move the needle for the Vikings offense. Or, worse yet, they don't even add someone of Wentz's caliber and run it back with McCarthy.
The next worst thing, it appears Randle infers, is that the Vikings add a player who's just good enough to get the Vikings to the playoffs but not get them over the top. The reason Minnesota drafted McCarthy was so it could get through that ceiling. It seems Randle believes, based on what Carr and Cousins have done over their careers, the two quarterbacks aren't going to figure it out in the playoffs if they haven't to this point.
The Vikings need to push for the best quarterback available. And while Joe Burrow may not be an option, quarterbacks like Mac Jones, Daniel Jones and Kyler Murray might be available. Minnesota will look to execute a plan that gets the best quarterback possible onto the roster.