The NFC North could be one of the best divisions in football in the future as long as young quarterbacks such as Caleb Williams and J.J. McCarthy live up to the hype. Jared Goff just inked an extension, and Jordan Love showed what he could do last season as the Packers’ starting quarterback.
It’s hard not to get a little excited when you think about two-star rookies like Williams and McCarthy squaring off. That’s why Chris Burke with The Athletic has Week 12 circled. He’s projecting McCarthy to be starting for the Vikings by then, and it will be a Williams vs. McCarthy showdown.
“Assuming Williams doesn’t follow the Justin Fields path and McCarthy taps into most of his extremely high upside, the NFC North’s quarterback situation could be as rock solid over the next several years as it gets for a division. McCarthy isn’t a lock to start in Year 1, as Sam Darnold probably will enter camp as Minnesota’s QB1. But there should be ample Williams-McCarthy matchups in the near future, and this could be the second of them in 2024 — these teams also play Week 12, in Chicago.”
The star collegiate quarterbacks never played one another in college. So when the two of them take the field as Bears and Vikings, it will be a big game for multiple reasons.