How J.J. McCarthy’s Injury Affects Rookie of the Year, Vikings Odds Markets

Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell announced Tuesday that rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy will undergo knee surgery this week to repair a meniscus injury.

There’s no clue as of yet when he’ll return.

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, doctors won’t know whether he’ll require a simple meniscus trim or full repair until he goes under the knife.

The Vikings selected McCarthy 10th overall to be their quarterback of the future. However, he was vying with Sam Darnold to be QB1 entering the season, but speculation was the well-traveled veteran would have been under center anyway while the rookie waited in the wings.

So, what does this mean for the Vikings odds?

It turns out not that much.

The Action Network’s director of predictive analytics Sean Koerner already had projected Darnold as slightly more valuable than the rookie out of Michigan against the spread. McCarthy was rated as a 0.5-point downgrade ATS from Darnold before the injury.

“We are still far enough out and I wasn't expecting McCarthy to start right away, so the projections may not change much,” he said. “Hopefully it's not a severe tear. We will see a lot more Nick Mullens/Jaren Hall this week which lowers the Vikings preseason power ratings.”

The sportsbooks tend to agree as there wasn’t much movement at FanDuel.

Minnesota was already a longshot to win the NFC North and remain so at +1000. They’re also +300 to make the playoffs, +4000 to win the NFC and +8000 to win the Super Bowl. While oddsmakers aren’t bullish on their prospects, they remain 1.5-point favorites over the Giants in Week 1 to kick off the year.

McCarthy’s Rookie of the Year chances obviously took a massive hit. He had the sixth-best odds entering the week at +2000. Those odds have now doubled at FanDuel to +4000.