Entering training camp, there was plenty of speculation as to who would be starting at quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Most of that speculation was centered around newly-signed QB Kyler Murray beating out second-year signal-caller J.J. McCarthy after what we saw happen in 2025. Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell wasted no time making it clear who his QB is for 2026.
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On Tuesday, O'Connell announced Murray as the starter going into this season. While this move isn't a surprising one for the NFL and fantasy football communities, it is nice that we can put speculation aside and start to project how Minnesota's offense will look for 2026.
One of the biggest players impacted by the move is elite WR Justin Jefferson, coming off his worst NFL season in 2025. With improved QB play under Murray, can JJ bounce back in both real-life and fantasy? Matt Harmon and Justin Boone break down the news on the latest episode of the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast, and talk the impact on Jefferson.
Overall, talk coming out of Vikings' training camp is that the offense opens up a bit more with Kyler under center, per Boone. With McCarthy, the Vikings were trying to hide him within the offense a bit — not ideal for Jefferson.
The fantasy community cares about Jefferson the most among skill position players in Minnesota and Boone believes this move to Murray will be good for the Pro Bowl wide receiver.
Harmon isn't as excited about the move initially. McCarthy was apparently making a push during camp and looked better, but it's still Murray who is the guy. Harmon doesn't feel differently about Murray as a fantasy QB; he has him ranked QB15 as of now.
Harmon is second-guessing himself on Jefferson. He wasn't worried so much two months ago but now thinks there could be a scenario where we see McCarthy come in late in the season, during the fantasy playoffs. So Harmon has Jefferson down at 15th overall in his consensus half-PPR rankings, with RBs like James Cook, Saquan Barkley, Ashton Jeanty, Derrick Henry and Kenneth Walker III ahead of Jefferson.
The analyst is also skeptical of Murray overall, which Boone believes is fair. While Murray may not come in and be the end-all-be-all of QBs, Boone feels the Vikings just need him to come in and provide "average QB play."
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