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In Joseph Heller’s wonderful World War II novel “Catch-22,” a bombardier faces a winding conundrum as he considers his self-preservation: he will only be grounded from flying dangerous missions if he is considered insane, but asking not to fly those missions is proof of his sanity and therefore reason to send him back up into the sky.
The novel’s title has come to more generally symbolize problems that offer a similar paradox.
The NFL is not war, but some consider it a proxy. If J.J. McCarthy can talk of his alter ego and rewiring neurological pathways, it feels like I have license to make a literary comparison here.
Here is the Catch-22 with McCarthy and the Vikings: The more he plays, the worse he has looked. But the worse he has looked, the more he should play.
On Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast with Judd Zulgad from SKOR North, I got into this and other contradictions that make the Vikings’ QB situation both fascinating and confounding.
Let’s get into it more here at the start of today’s 10 things to know:
- McCarthy’s best game in terms of passer rating was still his debut against the Bears, even though that was a largely uneven performance buoyed by a magnificent fourth quarter. He was bad (and injured in the process) against the Falcons, then came back after sitting out five games to beat the Lions — only to have two atrocious games since then. His performance would be worthy of a benching under different circumstances.
- But playoff hopes have faded quickly for the Vikings, and McCarthy’s development is the prime focus of the final seven games. Even if he continues to struggle, he should play. Information is more important than wins at this point.
- Another confounding aspect of his performance so far: McCarthy seems to make the easy things look hard while making the harder things look easy. He has a command of the offense and protection schemes. He understands leadership. He is even improving considerably in getting through his progressions efficiently. Those are often more veteran qualities.
- His struggle has mainly been the thing he has been doing the longest: the mechanics of throwing the ball, where deficiencies have created baffling inaccuracy. There have been too few Catch-18s between McCarthy and Justin Jefferson, in particular.
- McCarthy was given the keys to a team that took an unusual approach to roster-building in 2025: Stack up proven veterans at almost every position in an attempt to win now, while leaving themselves vulnerably exposed without experience at starting quarterback (the most important position in all of sports).
- In one particularly memorable and poignant passage early in Catch-22 (which I just fetched from the bookshelf), two characters (Clevinger and Dunbar) are discussing aging, death and the hard parts of life. Says Clevinger: “Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it’s to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?” “I do,” Dunbar told him. “Why?” Clevinger asked, to which Dunbar replies: “What else is there?” If that doesn’t explain what it is to be a longtime Vikings fan and to still hold out hope for McCarthy, I don’t know what does.
- If you aren’t already subscribed to the Star Tribune’s Extra Innings newsletter on the Twins, the latest edition is another reason why you should be.
- The Twins also made a trade for a backup catcher.
- The Gophers football team is 6-0 at home this season and 0-4 on the road. Some of that has to do with the level of opponent in both cases, but there will be no excuse for being noncompetitive against Northwestern on Saturday at Wrigley Field.
- The Wolves have their own lopsided record: 10-0 against sub-.500 teams, 0-5 against winning teams. They will try to change the latter against 9-6 Phoenix tonight.
