Minnesota Vikings Favored to Draft Michigan Quarterback J.J. McCarthy

The Minnesota Vikings are expected to be in the quarterback market during April’s draft.

Could J.J. McCarthy be their guy?

FanDuel has released odds on the teams most likely to draft the Michigan signal-caller, and the Vikings have been instituted as the favorites.

Minnesota has +450 odds to draft J.J. McCarthy, followed by the Denver Broncos and the Las Vegas Raiders at +600. All three teams need a quarterback, and none are drafting high enough to nab Caleb Williams, Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels.

Top-12 Candidates to Draft J.J. McCarthy

• Minnesota Vikings +450
• Denver Broncos +600
• Las Vegas Raiders +600
• Seattle Seahawks +900
• Los Angeles Rams +1100
• Atlanta Falcons +1100
• Pittsburgh Steelers +1300
• New York Giants +1600
• Los Angeles Chargers +1600
• New England Patriots +2000
• New Orleans Saints +2000
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers +2000

Minnesota has the No. 11 overall pick in the draft, along with the No. 42 selection in the second round if he falls that far. The Vikings have regularly been paired with quarterbacks in mock drafts as a reboot at the position seems likely.

Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is set to be an unrestricted free agent in March. He has played well for Minnesota but is coming off a torn Achilles and Minnesota could choose to go young at the position and kick off a rebuild.

Williams, Maye and Daniels are not expected to be in play, as all of them could get selected within the top three picks.

McCarthy is commonly viewed as a second-tier quarterback prospect alongside Bo Nix and Michael Penix, Jr., and FanDuel believes the Vikings could be looking closely at all of them.

Here are the odds for the Vikings to draft each of those three quarterbacks, per FanDuel:

Vikings’ Odds to Draft QB prospects

• J.J. McCarthy +450
• Bo Nix +470
• Michael Penix, Jr. +480

McCarthy threw for 2,991 yards with 22 touchdowns and four interceptions in 2023.

His college coach with the Wolverines, Jim Harbaugh, is heading to the professional ranks this season as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, but he has Justin Herbert at quarterback.

Even though Harbaugh has been singing the praises of McCarthy, the Chargers understandably have the longshot odds of +1600 to draft him, though that number is probably shorter than it would be without the previous relationship.

Here is a look at all the other NFL team odds to draft J.J. McCarthy, via FanDuel on February 13th:

• Washington Commanders +2900
• Detroit Lions +2900
• New York Jets +2900
• Chicago Bears +4000
• Dallas Cowboys +4000
• Tennessee Titans +4000
• Arizona Cardinals +5000
• Cleveland Browns +7000
• Indianapolis Colts +7000
• Kansas City Chiefs +7000
• Jacksonville Jaguars +7000
• San Francisco 49ers +8500
• Baltimore Ravens +8500
• Cincinnati Bengals +9500
• Miami Dolphins +9500
• Green Bay Packers +9500
• Carolina Panthers +9500
• Philadelphia Eagles +9500
• Houston Texans +9500
• Buffalo Bills +9500