Who Should I Start? Joe Burrow or J.J. McCarthy

Sunday, January 4, 6:23 PM

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow finished off the 2025 season on a strong note during Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns. Burrow completed 29 of 39 passing attempts for 236 yards with three touchdowns and one interception in the loss. Burrow did everything he could, but the special teams unit let him down this week. Burrow finishes the season with 1,809 passing yards with 17 touchdowns and five interceptions in eight games after missing a good portion of the year after having surgery to fix a turf-toe injury. The 29-year-old is clearly one of the best QBs in the league, but his inability to stay healthy is hurting this team. Burrow has missed significant time in two of the last three seasons. The hope is that he'll be able to put together a fully healthy season in 2026.

Sunday, January 4, 3:08 PM

Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (right hand) exited during the third quarter of Sunday's Week 18 contest against the Green Bay Packers. He is officially listed as questionable to return. Given that Minnesota is eliminated from playoff contention and Green Bay is penciled into the No. 7 seed, it seems somewhat unlikely that the Vikings will put McCarthy back into the game if he's not fully healthy. For the time being, Max Brosmer has taken over at quarterback. At the time of his departure, McCarthy had completed 14 of his 23 pass attempts for 182 yards, zero touchdowns, and zero turnovers. He also had seven rushing yards. Injuries continue to be a common theme for the former first-round pick. McCarthy missed the entire 2024 season, and he played 100% of the snaps in fewer than half of the Vikings' games this year.