Scoggins: Eyes, ears and gut say Carson Wentz will be the Vikings’ QB against the Eagles

The Vikings quarterback predicament has been debated and guesstimated so intensely it’s as if we’re all playing the board game Clue. Who will start Sunday against the Eagles? Will it be Professor Wentz or Colonel McCarthy in the bank with a dagger?

The head coach isn’t revealing his answer yet. The affable Kevin O’Connell was uncharacteristically terse Wednesday when asked where things stand with his quarterback decision.

“They stand in the same place they did Monday when I answered that question,” he said.

Alrighty then.

I began the week predicting that J.J. McCarthy would return to the starter’s role after missing three games because of a high ankle sprain.

I would like to retract that guess. Eyes, ears and gut tell me that Carson Wentz will remain the starter for at least one more game and quite possibly longer.

Let’s read the tea leaves, shall we?

“Ankle is getting there,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s 100 percent right now.”

That doesn’t sound like a guy who will be ready to play an NFL game on Sunday. He also called it a “really annoying injury.” He was listed as limited in practice on Wednesday.

The organization is not going to send McCarthy back onto the field until there is 100% confidence that he has no physical limitations. McCarthy’s mobility is an important part of his skill set, so “getting there” physically does not meet the threshold of being ready to run the offense.

O’Connell’s answers in media sessions both Monday and Wednesday were equally enlightening.

Unprompted, he called McCarthy’s high ankle sprain a “a unique, real injury,” which likely was intended to shoot down conspiracy theories about whether McCarthy’s absence was a soft benching disguised as an injury.

O’Connell noted that several negative factors came into play in McCarthy’s tough outing against the Falcons in his second start — injuries along the offensive line, his ankle injury, a lack of practice time after the birth of his child — but the coach’s willingness to discuss his bye week sessions with McCarthy on footwork fundamentals didn’t come across as random. That part didn’t sound like a quarterback ready to start Sunday, either.

“He’s an accurate passer,” O’Connell said. “What I have learned about him is when he plays with that ideal base, balance and body position, you’re going to see the ball come out with a lot of revolutions and it’s going to go where he wants it to go.”

O’Connell has wisely — and likely purposely — not given concrete timelines and assessments publicly so that he doesn’t box himself in on deciding how the situation unfolds.

This season began under a complicated premise: A first-year starting quarterback on a veteran team built to win now and become relevant in the playoffs. The picture became muddier with McCarthy’s shaky start and injury.

The organization drafted McCarthy to be a franchise quarterback and the only true way for him to work through growing pains is to gain experience in games. That was the basis for my theory that he would return as the starter this week. A wise friend reminded me that Wentz went 9-for-9 passing with a touchdown on the final drive against one of the NFL’s best defenses to pull off a win against the Cleveland Browns in the most recent game. How do you tell him to take a seat after doing that?

That puts a spotlight on the Nov. 2 game in Detroit. McCarthy’s ankle should be fully healthy by then. Two weeks in an NFL season can feel like an eternity because so much can change. It’s the Vikings, though, so questions about the quarterback situation are evergreen.