J.J. McCarthy out for 2024 season as Vikings’ hopes fall on Sam Darnold
NY Post
The injury news went from bad to worse for Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy on Wednesday.
The team announced that McCarthy, who was selected 10th overall in this year’s draft after winning the national championship at Michigan, is out for the season after undergoing surgery on his meniscus.
Sam Darnold now becomes fully entrenched as the Vikings starting quarterback.
He spent last season backing up Brock Purdy in San Francisco after spending two years in Carolina and his first three NFL seasons with the Jets, who selected him third-overall in the 2018 draft. He has a one-year, $10 million contract with Minnesota.
Darnold’s teams have gone 21-35 in the games he’s started, but there’s some optimism for him this year, now that he’s coached by Kevin O’Connell, a highly regarded offensive mind.
The Vikings face the Giants in the Sept. 8 season opener at MetLife.
The luck of the schedule draw is again working against the Giants.
Brooklyn center Nic Claxton missed a second straight game due to a personal matter, though he is expected to rejoin the Nets on Monday.
PITTSBURGH — Aaron Rodgers threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Calvin Austin III with 55 seconds left, and the Steelers beat the Ravens 26-24 on Sunday night when Baltimore’s Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal as time expired, giving Pittsburgh the AFC North title.
DETROIT — The Knicks are returning to the site of the biggest shot of Jalen Brunson’s Knicks career, the place he silenced those profane chants from Detroit fans by sending Ausar Thompson stumbling out of the frame with a crossover.
Aaron Rodgers went through every emotion possible on his way back to the playoffs for the first time since the 2021-22 season, when he was still with the Packers.
It didn’t take long after Adam Fox’s shoulder injury for his absence on the power play to — again — become glaring. The Rangers had just started to make strides with their first unit after struggling to start the year before Fox exited their Nov. 29 loss to the Lightning and didn’t return for a month.
The Yankees are taking another flier on a veteran to bolster their infield depth.
More like head-banned.
The Raiders clinched the first-overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft before they even took the field on Sunday.
Matt LaFleur might have work to do to keep his job.
Veteran quarterback Philip Rivers became one of the NFL’s feel-good stories of the year when he returned midseason for the Colts after a nearly five-year retirement.
As if Matthew Schaefer’s rocket-fueled rookie season needed another signature moment, here it came Saturday night. The 18-year-old spent all day feeling under the weather, then took a shot to the ribs in the third period that sent him to the tunnel, thinking he might’ve broken something.
Is there a better way to ring in the New Year than the annual Serby Says 2025 NFL Awards?