Minnesota VikingsOur read
Written Mon 12:02 am Central, for week 6
It's Minnesota's bye in week 6 of 2026, so McCarthy sits in your lineup spot while his team is off. His next game is week 7 at home against the Colts, a Sunday 12:00 pm Central kickoff. Even for that one, the depth chart lists him second among the Vikings' quarterbacks behind Kyler Murray, and his only game this season gave him 0.2 PPR points with no touchdowns. Leave him on the bench and plug in a fill-in QB this week.
Written Oct 17, from his facts through last season
One game all season, 0.2 points, and it took until week 5 of 2026 to get it after weeks 1 through 4 of 2026 went by without him. He has carried no injury designation since early in the 2026 season, so the absence is not something we can still blame on a designation. What we can blame it on is the depth chart: Kyler Murray is first in Minnesota and Carson Wentz is third, which leaves McCarthy holding a clipboard behind two names O'Connell, who calls his own plays, chose to keep ahead of him.
The case last year was thin and it stays thin. He played 10 games in 2025, averaged 12.3 points, and beat the position's weekly median in half of them, with a high of 23.5 in week 15 of 2025. Five more weeks went to injury or a reserve list and two healthy weeks went to the bench, which is why our preseason number was only 56 points for the whole season, built on 6 expected games at a 9.3-point pace. His season pace so far is nowhere near that and there is no reason to think the snaps arrive.
There are two players left in his tier before a 3.7-point gap, so the dropoff behind him is real but it is not worth much on a roster today. His bye comes in week 6 of 2026, right now. We would move on and find a warmer arm for the spot.