Kyler Murray or Carson Wentz? Carson Wentz or Kyler Murray?
The answer could be neither.
This week’s apparent soft benching of Murray, who has a hamstring injury that possibly wouldn’t have kept him from playing if the Vikings had beaten the Lions on Sunday, gives Wentz a chance to beat the 6-1 Bills on Monday night. If he pulls it off, Wentz could keep the job for the remainder of the four-game gjallarhorn gauntlet that ends with trips to Wisconsin to play the Packers and Mexico to play the 49ers.
If Wentz fails, the Vikings may mobilize. Immediately.
The Vikings will have roughly 16 hours after Monday night’s game ends to close a deal with another team for a quarterback. On Monday, we made the case for a trade for Colts quarterback Daniel Jones. As the week has unfolded, a variey of indications have emerged that it’s a real possibility.
Jones, who surely is dismayed by the Colts’ decision to prematurely throw in the towel by trading away guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Bucker, would likely welcome the chance to return to a team with which he spent a couple of months in 2024 — and to lead the effort to propel the neo-Purple People Eaters to the postseason.
The other possibility would be to try to bring Kirk Cousins home. That would be more difficult. At 4-4, the Raiders are on the fringes of contention. Win or lose on Sunday at San Francisco, why disrupt something that’s working? Cousins currently ranks third in passing yards with 2,124 and second in touchdown passes with 19. His passer rating of 101.4 is higher than Josh Allen’s.
Even if the Raiders would be inclined to move Cousins and ride with Fernando Mendoza, it would cost far less to get Jones than it would to get Cousins. Especially since the Colts may already be planning to cut Jones before a $4 million roster bonus comes due in March and $6.51 million of his $33.49 million salary becomes fully-guaranteed.
With a new G.M. coming next year, why wouldn’t the Colts want a clean slate? Doing so would wipe out $38 million in non-guaranteed cash for 2027. Trading Jones would result in getting value; cutting Jones would get them nothing.
It may all come down to Monday night. If Minnesota wins, chances are nothing happens. If Minnesota loses, Tuesday could become a very interesting day.
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