Roughly 24 hours after J.J. McCarthy revealed he hasn’t yet been told he’ll enter training camp as the Minnesota Vikings’ undisputed starting quarterback, Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had an opportunity to squash rumors linking Aaron Rodgers with the club while speaking with reporters.
While Adofo-Mensah seems willing to go forward with McCarthy as Minnesota’s QB1 whenever head coach Kevin O’Connell makes such a decision, it sounds like the Vikings haven’t yet completely taken adding Rodgers to the roster off the table.
“A player like him is always gonna be in those conversations,” Adofo-Mensah said about Rodgers on Wednesday, as shared by Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. “But from our delineations at that time, we’re happy with where we are going forward. Obviously, the caliber of player [he is], it had to be part of our conversations.”
A 2024 first-round draft pick, McCarthy hasn’t taken a single meaningful in-game snap as a pro because he needed a full meniscus repair last summer. Nevertheless, the Vikings let both 2024 first-choice starter Sam Darnold and backup Daniel Jones leave in free agency earlier in March.
“Right now…we’re happy with our [quarterback] room,” Adofo-Mensah said. However, ESPN’s Kevin Seifert noted that Adofo-Mensah suggested he and O’Connell haven’t had their final Rodgers-related conversation of the offseason as long as the future Hall of Famer remains unsigned.
“For me to sit here and say anything is 100% forever, that’s just not the job,” Adofo-Mensah added during his comments.
On Tuesday, Seifert reported that the Vikings were “leaving open the possibility of revisiting Rodgers this summer if he is still available.”
A quarterback-needy Pittsburgh Steelers team seemingly hasn’t given Rodgers any type of deadline regarding when he could put pen to paper on a deal. If it’s true that he prefers to sign with the Vikings over the Steelers after Minnesota went 14-3 this past season with Darnold as its starter, Adofo-Mensah’s “right now” comment could give the 41-year-old a reason to remain available just in case McCarthy either doesn’t look the part in springtime workouts or experiences some type of physical setback before training-camp practices get underway in July.
