There's one thing Justin Herbert and J.J. McCarthy have in common: they've both played for Jim Harbaugh. Outside of that, it's hard to come up with similarities between the LA Chargers' franchise quarterback and the Minnesota Vikings' signal-caller.
Herbert is an elite quarterback among the best in the league. McCarthy has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league this season, and is entering an all-time territory no quarterback wants to be in. The two pass-throwers represent the opposite ends of the quarterback hierarchy and provide vastly different futures for their respective franchises.
As jarringly different as Herbert and McCarthy are, it's bewildering to think there is a past in which mainstay NFL pundits put them in the same category. In fact, because of Harbaugh, there were culprits who legitimately seemed to think the Chargers should swap Herbert for McCarthy.
That, or they were just trying to make good TV.
This idea is going in @getnickwright’s super interesting and fun bucket, even though it’s not realistic:
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) March 17, 2025
“If the Vikings are this squeamish about J.J. McCarthy… call the Chargers and see if J.J. + a first-round pick could get you Justin Herbert.” 👀 pic.twitter.com/gwaJCm3o4R
Nick Wright's J.J. McCarthy-Justin Herbert take is as bad as it gets
FOX Sports' Nick Wright, who is a noted Kansas City Chiefs fan and occasional Justin Herbert denier, thought he was onto something here back in March. Obviously, this was never going to happen for more reasons than can fit into this article, but the courage to actually say this on air is something.
First of all, it wouldn't have even been logistically possible if the Chargers wanted to make the worst trade in NFL history. Herbert would have carried too much of a dead cap hit on his massive deal to make this work. This idea instantly fails for that reason.
But even if it was possible, the Chargers were never going to consider anything even close to this. The Chargers have one of the best quarterbacks in the sport and at the time, McCarthy was an unproven commodity who many thought would flounder away from Ann Arbor in the NFL.
This isn't a Jared Goff-for-Matthew Stafford swap. This would be swapping the new Corvette for a banged-up 1980s Jeep Cherokee (shoutout to my best friend Tyler and his Jeep Cherokee from high school that included home entertainment speakers in the back. It was the best.)
The sad part is that this wasn't an unheard-of take at the time. Believe it or not, there were actual people in the NFL media world who thought it would've been a smart idea for the Chargers to trade Herbert to the Vikings after Harbaugh was hired.
The logic then was that Harbaugh could draft McCarthy to bring his Michigan quarterback to the NFL. Yeah, sure, Harbaugh would outright sabotage the future of his new organization just so he could keep the vibes high with McCarthy.
McCarthy has been awful, and it's not like it's a surprise. He was the C- student who got an A+ on the group project at Michigan because of his teammates. Nobody watched that Michigan team and thought that McCarthy was the one carrying the team. He was just asked not to get in the way.
Now, in the NFL, McCarthy is actively getting in the way of the Vikings' success. His 54.1% completion percentage with six touchdowns and 10 interceptions in six starts looks like when I tried playing All-Madden for the first time when I clearly wasn't ready for it.
Chances are the Vikings will consider a quarterback change this offseason. And no, Nick Wright, it won't be via Justin Herbert and the Chargers.