Nine Starting Quarterbacks Since 2023: Minnesota's QB Carousel Keeps Spinning

The Minnesota Vikings are 1-0 and tied for first place in the NFC North. They got there in the strangest way possible — and the strangeness is the story of the week.

Kyler Murray's Vikings debut lasted three offensive possessions. On his first pass, he forced a throw into double coverage and Keisean Nixon intercepted it. Later in the first quarter, sliding at the end of a third-down scramble, he took a hard hit to the head from Green Bay safety Javon Bullard, who was flagged for unnecessary roughness but not ejected. Murray was ruled out with a concussion and did not return. His final line: 8 attempts, 28 yards, one interception, a 27.5 passer rating.

Per ProFootballTalk, Murray is now the ninth different quarterback to start a game for Minnesota since 2023 — tied for the most in the league over that span with Cleveland, which is not the company a franchise wants to keep.

Wentz Steadies a Listing Ship

What happened next is why the Vikings aren't panicking. Carson Wentz came off the bench and threw for 133 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, finishing with a 123.5 passer rating. Minnesota scored 22 points in the fourth quarter and turned a 22-39 final into a 39-22 laugher over the Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The supporting cast showed up too. Justin Jefferson caught eight passes for 92 yards, Jordan Mason punctuated the comeback with a fourth-quarter touchdown run, and Brian Flores' defense generated four sacks and a pair of takeaways while finishing plus-one in turnover margin — the group's identity in miniature.

It was, as Yahoo's postgame framing put it, a thrilling win with red flags.

O'Connell's Day-at-a-Time Reality

Head coach Kevin O'Connell said Monday that Murray came in feeling "pretty good" and that the team would take his recovery "a day at a time." Multiple reports, including one from ESPN's Adam Schefter, suggest Murray is unlikely to play Sunday at Chicago. He remains in the concussion protocol.

That puts Minnesota in the same spot it was in last week, just with less runway: a veteran backup, a game-manager script, and a defense asked to keep the score low enough for Jefferson to win it late.

There's a longer-term question buried here too. J.J. McCarthy — the 2024 first-round pick once billed as the quarterback of the future — was demoted to third string behind Wentz before the season even opened. Minnesota then went out and acquired Murray. Whatever the Vikings thought the position would look like in 2026, it doesn't.

Sunday at Soldier Field

Week 2 sends the Vikings to Chicago to face a Bears team that just beat Carolina 59-37 while piling up 560 total yards. Caleb Williams was near-flawless — 269 passing yards, two touchdowns, no picks, a 124.1 rating, plus 65 rushing yards and two more scores on the ground. D'Andre Swift averaged 6.9 yards per carry; Kyle Monangai averaged ten.

But Chicago also surrendered 37 points to a Panthers offense that shouldn't scare anyone, and 59-point outbursts are built on short fields and turnover luck far more than sustainable execution. Minnesota's defense, which sacked Packers quarterbacks four times in Week 1, is a different test than Carolina posed.

The market has the Bears as roughly 5.5-point home favorites with the total hovering around 48.5 — a number that already assumes Murray sits. That's a meaningful amount of respect for a team that needed a fourth-quarter avalanche to beat a division rival it has beaten eight times in the last ten meetings.

The stakes are simple. Both teams are 1-0 in the division, and the winner leaves Soldier Field alone atop the NFC North. Minnesota has won this series consistently, has the better defense and the best receiver on the field, and just proved it can win without its starter.

The carousel keeps spinning. Somehow, the Vikings keep winning anyway — for now.