EAGAN, Minn. -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy has a "very, very small hairline fracture" in his right hand, coach Kevin O'Connell said Tuesday, and won't play in Thursday afternoon's game against the Detroit Lions.
Rookie backup Max Brosmer will start, but the Vikings have not ruled out McCarthy from playing in their final regular-season game in Week 18 against the Green Bay Packers.
McCarthy's availability for that game will be based on "his grip strength and his ability to grip the football and throw the ball," O'Connell said.
In either case, it's the fourth significant injury McCarthy has suffered since the Vikings made him the No. 10 pick of the 2024 draft. He has played in only nine of a possible 34 games, including the playoffs, because of a torn meniscus in his right knee, a high right ankle sprain, a concussion and now the fractured hand.
His past three starts have been his best this season, producing the ninth-best QBR (69.1) in the NFL over that period, but he has been unable to stay on the field for more than four consecutive games without injury.
"It's just a bummer," O'Connell said, "because it's been really fun. ... I know the week-to-week judgment of players and decisions and all these things that are noise in many cases, I understand it all. But the most fun part of this, and the most real part of it, is coaching the young player on his journey where we've really started to see kind of some things click for him."
The Vikings are still not certain when the hand injury occurred. Game video from Sunday showed McCarthy hitting his hand on the helmet of New York Giants defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris after a throw with 2:57 remaining in the second quarter of the Vikings' 16-13 victory at MetLife Stadium.
But McCarthy managed to throw a short completion on the next play, and then he scrambled 12 yards for a touchdown after that. He opened the Vikings' next possession by handing off to tailback Aaron Jones, but on second down he dropped the ball as he tried to throw a screen pass. Giants safety Tyler Nubin recovered the fumble and returned it 27 yards for a touchdown with 17 seconds remaining in the half.
O'Connell said Tuesday that he had no indication McCarthy was injured until the fumble, and noted that McCarthy gave "a pretty significant high-five" to receiver Justin Jefferson after his touchdown. But when he got to the sideline following Nubin's return, McCarthy grimaced in pain when an athletic trainer grabbed his hand.
"If you think about it," O'Connell said, "most of the times he's ended up missing time, he's either stayed in the game or we find out the next day just because he's such a competitor and always wants to stay in the game, which I value so tremendously at that position. But yeah, it was obviously very unfortunate because even though he didn't know it at the time, he was unable to do his job, which obviously would have altered my thinking in the moment ... As I told J.J., in those circumstances, there's nothing wrong with letting us evaluate you and see if we can get you back out there and Max will step in, and at least allow us to handle the end of the half accordingly with how we see fit to try to maintain the momentum we had at that time."
Brosmer will step in this week against the Lions, giving him a chance to improve upon his Week 13 debut. Starting against the Seattle Seahawks while McCarthy was in concussion protocol, Brosmer threw four interceptions -- including an ill-advised throwaway on fourth down that Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV returned 85 yards for a touchdown. The Vikings were shut out 26-0, and Brosmer's QBR (5.0) for that game ranks No. 472 out of the 480 quarterback starts around the NFL this season.
Brosmer said he relied on a circle of supporters both inside and outside of the organization to get him past that moment, largely by avoiding the temptation to make major changes in his preparation.
"My dream has been to play in the NFL for a long time," Brosmer said. "And for me mentally to define myself by one game wouldn't be fair to the younger me, watching me play football in the NFL. ... You look back and are like, 'Oh, do I have to change my preparation or tweak small things?' And that's ultimately what you do. It's just tweak really small things. And the bigger you try to fix issues and the bigger steps you try to take is usually when you start to fall back a little bit."