- Kyler Murray wins Minnesota's quarterback competition: The Vikings named Murray their starter over J.J. McCarthy five months after signing the former No. 1 overall pick to a one-year contract.
- Murray regains fantasy football upside: Kevin O'Connell's offense and Justin Jefferson give Murray a path back to weekly starting status after he ranked among the top 12 fantasy quarterbacks in points per game in each of his first five seasons.
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The Minnesota Vikings have named Murray their starting quarterback over J.J. McCarthy, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Tuesday.
The decision puts Murray atop the depth chart just five months after he signed a one-year contract with Minnesota, providing the former No. 1 overall pick with an opportunity to revitalize his career while giving the Vikings another chance to stabilize a position they have struggled with since Kirk Cousins left for Atlanta.
Murray, entering his eighth NFL season, has never quite reached the heights typically associated with a No. 1 overall pick, but his play has generally remained above a respectable baseline. His lowest PFF grade came as a rookie in 2019 (64.2), while his career-best mark came in 2021 (82.9).
Kyler Murray: PFF grades and rank since 2019
| Season | Snaps | Offense | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,008 | 64.2 | 29 |
| 2020 | 1,102 | 82.8 | 13 |
| 2021 | 993 | 82.9 | 9 |
| 2022 | 718 | 67.2 | 25 |
| 2023 | 538 | 70.8 | 24 |
| 2024 | 1,065 | 82.1 | 11 |
| 2025 | 318 | 72.2 | N/A |
Injuries have increasingly complicated that picture. Murray was limited to five starts in 2025 and has played a full season only once since 2021. Still, he earned a 72.2 PFF grade last season, ranking 21st among 43 qualifying quarterbacks.
Last season, Murray completed 110 of 161 passes for 962 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions across those five starts, recording four big-time throws and three turnover-worthy plays. His 1.4% turnover-worthy play rate trailed only Joe Burrow among qualifying quarterbacks, though his 2.3% big-time throw rate ranked 39th at the position. Accuracy remained a strength, as Murray delivered an accurate pass on 69.3% of his attempts, the best rate among qualifying quarterbacks.
His ability to create with his legs also remained intact. Murray carried 29 times for 173 yards and a touchdown in 2025, averaging 6.0 yards per attempt and 3.10 yards after contact per attempt while forcing seven missed tackles. Six of those carries gained at least 10 yards.
Wins Above Replacement
Kyler Murray · QB
That production is hardly an outlier. Murray has been one of the NFL’s most productive rushing quarterbacks since entering the league, totaling 535 carries, 3,202 rushing yards and 32 touchdowns across seven seasons. He has averaged 6.0 yards per carry, forced 59 missed tackles and produced 113 runs of 10-plus yards over that span. His best rushing season came in 2020, when he amassed 822 yards and 11 touchdowns on 133 carries while earning an 86.5 PFF rushing grade.
And there is evidence that the high-end playmaking ability remains. As recently as the 2024 regular season, Murray ranked seventh among qualifying quarterbacks with 27 big-time throws and second with 7.3 yards per carry.
Murray also excelled when simply asked to keep the offense on schedule. On throws that earned a 0 PFF grade — plays on which the quarterback is generally expected to execute the concept without doing anything exceptional, positively or negatively — Murray generated 0.028 EPA per attempt, fifth among qualifying quarterbacks in 2025. He completed 76.9% of those passes and averaged 5.1 yards per attempt.
The contrast with McCarthy is significant. McCarthy generated -0.200 EPA per attempt on zero-graded throws, ranking 35th among qualifying quarterbacks, while completing just 61.9% of his passes and averaging 4.4 yards per attempt. Murray's ability to execute the routine aspects of quarterback play at a much more efficient level provides another indication of what Minnesota could gain by putting him at the controls of Kevin O'Connell's offense.
McCarthy did flash upside last season, generating the second-highest big-time throw rate among qualifying quarterbacks, but inconsistent mechanics and poor accuracy continued to undermine his play. He delivered an accurate pass on just 51.7% of his attempts, ranking 42nd among 43 qualifying quarterbacks, while his 60.1 PFF passing grade ranked 35th.
The struggles weren't confined to difficult situations, either. McCarthy earned a 69.7 passing grade from a clean pocket, 37th among qualifiers, while his 45.5 passing grade under pressure ranked 24th.
The fit offers reasons for optimism. O’Connell has coaxed productive quarterback play out of several starters during his Minnesota tenure, including Sam Darnold, who finished as a top-10 fantasy quarterback in 2024. Kirk Cousins also finished inside the top 10 in 2022 and ranked among the top 10 quarterbacks in fantasy points per game in 2023.
Murray also gets another elite receiving option in Justin Jefferson. His best stretch in Arizona came while playing alongside DeAndre Hopkins from 2020 to 2022, with Murray finishing as fantasy’s overall QB2 in 2020 during Hopkins’ final All-Pro season.
Murray finished among the top 12 fantasy quarterbacks in points per game in each of his first five NFL seasons before his production declined over the past two years. Now, with Jefferson at his disposal, an offensive line that could benefit from improved health and an O’Connell offense that has consistently produced fantasy-relevant quarterbacks, Murray has a legitimate path back to being a weekly starter in single-quarterback fantasy leagues.
More importantly for Minnesota, he now has the opportunity to prove he can still be one on Sundays.
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