Sometimes in sports media, you have to stand out to succeed. But it's one thing to offer bold opinions ("hot takes"), and it's another to argue a point with nothing to back it. Colin Cowherd is undeniably successful, but too often on his FS1 show "The Herd with Colin Cowherd", he takes things too far.
Earlier this offseason, Cowherd picked the Minnesota Vikings to finish last in the NFC North.
"Vikings will be a very good fourth-place team. I think letting Sam Darnold go, I think they may regret it," Cowherd said on the May 6 edition of his show.
Cowherd has long been a Sam Darnold fan, to an extent that literally no one else has ever been. So his opinion that the Vikings will regret letting what could be a one-year wonder go in free agency is no surprise.
However, he has now taken a different track toward essentially saying Minnesota will be awful next season.
Colin Cowherd makes non-sensical argument against Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy
On Wednesday's edition of his show, Cowherd noted some reporting that came out of Vikings' minicamp this week about quarterback J.J. McCarthy, specifically the fact that, on Tuesday, he threw an interception for the third straight day of practices that have been open to the media.
"There's so much mystery here. Why does Minnesota keep flirting with other quarterbacks? And there's too many conflicting reports on J.J. McCarthy. There's a lot of stuff I just don't know. I feel sometimes there's a little bit of a spin job here."
The Vikings "flirting" with other quarterbacks included letting Darnold leave (which Cowherd has already said that he thinks they'll regret), letting Daniel Jones go when he wanted a better opportunity to start (he was right, by the way) and Kevin O'Connell extending some professional courtesy to his friend Aaron Rodgers.
Cowherd then dove into his belief about how franchise quarterbacks typically have at least one "wow" trait.
"To be a great franchise quarterback, there has to be a 'wow' trait. Let's just go through them. Mahomes: arm talent. Allen: sheer force of size. Lamar: athletic ability. Stafford: has one of the great arms in the last 30 years in the league. Burrow: composure and accuracy. Herbert: big, strong, power arm. C.J. Stroud: accuracy. Hurts: strength, pound for pound. Kyler Murray: elusiveness.
You start stacking up these quarterbacks, there's a trait
."
McCarthy has played in one preseason game, a game in which he performed well before the news of the knee injury he suffered during it was revealed. Other than that, it's been this year's OTA practices as his body of work. But based on pre-draft evaluations from more than a year ago, Cowherd thinks McCarthy does not have a "wow" trait.
"Go back and look at the people I trust. I never buy, when you say this about a quarterback, 'that guy is a winner.' Everybody under Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban, and Steve Spurrier's a winner. I don't wanna hear that. If you go back and look, his arm is modest, his escapability is modest, his release wasn't super quick."
Then Cowherd had to mention Darnold.
"There is no great trait. That's why I was always a Darnold fan. Darnold is tough, with a big arm. He can be reckless, but there are times you watch Darnold, his ability to make big throws while moving is special.
...I don't get McCarthy's wow trait. I don't see the wow."
To his credit, and as teased by his facial expressions during the anti-McCarthy soliloquy, Cowherd's co-host Jason McIntyre offered a rebuttal.
"Can we see McCarthy play a real game? Not just preseason, not OTAs, can we see him play a real game? Maybe a trait will emerge. And he was a pretty mobile quarterback, obviously not Josh Allen or Lamar. How about this? There isn't anything he doesn't do well. He has a big arm. He's mobile. He can process. He showed everything at Michigan."
Of course, Cowherd couldn't let what McIntyre said lie uncontested.
"No, go read the [scouting reports], he doesn't have a big arm. He does not have a big arm. His arm is considered modest. It is a middle-of-the-pack arm, middle-of-the-pack escapability. In fact, they question his release. His release, at times, can be a little plodding."
By all accounts, with acknowledgement that it's only OTAs/minicamp, reporters who have actually been on-site at TCO Performance Center have passed along no apparent issues with McCarthy's arm strength (or anything else, for that matter).
Purple Insider's Matthew Coller even challenged Cowherd on X to book a Vikings reporter as a guest if he wants to truly find out how McCarthy has looked.
Cowherd used his general disregard for the 2025 Vikings, how much he loves Darnold, and a failure to get complete information from Day 1 of minicamp to diminish McCarthy.
The first thing is fine, since he's entitled to an opinion. The second thing is (and will remain) fairly weird. The third thing, however, is borderline inexcusable in a job like he has.
