In Week 1 of the season, J.J. McCarthy led the Minnesota Vikings to a comeback victory over the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.
It was a big moment for the young quarterback, and a moment many thought would springboard McCarthy into a promising season. However, this year has been anything but that for him. The Vikings quarterback ended up missing five straight games with an ankle injury and has had some underwhelming play in his four games on the field.
Now, McCarthy and Minnesota are preparing for their second matchup of the year with Chicago, and Vikings fans are trying to remind themselves to stay patient with their young quarterback. Minnesota’s fans have even reached the compare-to-early-Josh-Allen part of the process, and rival fans were quick to point out that this is an official sign things aren’t going well.
https://t.co/gDGX1tFei7 pic.twitter.com/GH899Rsnjz
— BriskerSZN (@BriskerSzn) November 10, 2025
Bears fans troll Vikings fans for comparing J.J. McCarthy to Josh Allen
This has become a rite of passage, of sorts, for struggling young quarterbacks in the league. If a quarterback throws a lot of interceptions early in their career, their supporters will quickly remind you that Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions as a rookie. If a quarterback is just playing inconsistently, and the concerning moments are outnumbering the promising ones, out comes the Josh Allen career arc. While fans mean well when making these comparisons, it typically just makes their quarterback the butt of the joke.
Right now, McCarthy is in that spot after only playing four career games. The Vikings are 2-2 with him starting, and the second-year quarterback is completing 53.7% of his passes for 692 yards and five touchdowns, while also throwing six interceptions. McCarthy also has 110 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the season.
Unfortunately for Minnesota, which is 4-5 on the season, that isn’t good enough right now. Not only are the Vikings last in the NFC North, they’re watching Sam Darnold lead the 7-2 Seattle Seahawks, while also waiting to see if McCarthy has what it takes to be the guy in Minnesota.
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As the Josh Allen comparisons emphasize, it’s still early, and McCarthy can eventually figure things out, but the Bears will try to prevent him from figuring them out on Sunday.
