Who is Max Brosmer's backup?

Seahawks-Vikings 5 most important players

The Seattle Seahawks are facing off against quarterback Max Brosmer on Sunday, the third-string quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings and the killer in the first Scream movie:

Brosmer’s story is a better read if you’re a Vikings fan than for us because this is just one game for the Seahawks. It could be the rest of the season in Minnesota. Whether the Seahawks win or get the shock of a lifetime, it will all be over by Sunday night. This calamitous situation that the Vikings are dealing with at quarterback is set to last for months, if not years.

Step 4 in that process (step 1: decide on J.J. McCarthy, step 2: lose Carson Wentz as an option, step 3: lose McCarthy as an option) is Brosmer, an unheralded recruit out of Georgia in 2019 who accepted the only scholarship offer that he got, which was from New Hampshire.

Six years later, Brosmer is starting against the Seahawks despite being an undrafted rookie who might not even be in the NFL were it not for the fact that Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was able to keep closer tabs on him as the quarterback for the University of Minnesota.

I am not going to say whether Brosmer will do suprisingly well or play as poorly as expectations would assume because it’s only one game and nobody really knows what will happen on Sunday. Kurt Warner and Tony Romo were undrafted surprises, and Brock Purdy may as well have been undrafted.

So instead I’ll pivot to a different question: What happens if the Vikings have to turn to their fourth different QB of the season? Fittingly, 2 of his last 3 appearances came against the Seahawks, including in the playoffs. These are the 5 most important players in Seahawks-Vikings:

QB Max Brosmer, Vikings

The optimism that Vikings fans have for Brosmer is twofold:

• He’s described as “smart”

• He’s not J.J. McCarthy

Seriously, it seems to me that almost every Vikings fan is excited to see Brosmer which just wouldn’t be the case if almost any other team had to replace the starter with an undrafted rookie…let alone against the Seahawks…let alone when the previous starter was supposed to be a young franchise QB.

Brosmer’s NFL draft profile highlights strengths as reading a defense, going through progressions, and “attacking zone defenses with anticipatory throws” at the intermediate level, with weaknesses being a lack of athleticism, a lack of arm strength, and any time he’s forced out of the pocket/out of rhythm. Lance Zierlein also noticed a low release point that causes more batted balls at the line of scrimmage.

In other words, Seattle’s defensive line and defensive coordinator dialing up pressures that QBs rarely see coming seems like a shitty way to start your career if you’re Max Brosmer.

Even Brosmer stated that he works so hard because he’s not athletic and he needed to overcome more than most quarterbacks at the FBS level. Brosmer was one of the top FCS players in the country from 2022-2023, transferring to Minnesota as a grad student in 2024 and doing as well as any Gophers quarterback has performed in the last 25 years. Which is not a very high bar, but he’s made it this far.

Should O’Connell need to turn to his backup quarterback for any reason though, the Seahawks gotta face this guy again:

The last time that they saw JOHN WOLFORD he was starting for the Rams in the 2020 wild card round. Seattle knocked Wolford out of the game in the first quarter after he went 3-of-6 passing, which led to Jared Goff’s last win as a member of the Rams. Just one month earlier, Wolford started against the Seahawks after Sean McVay had all but benched Goff for him, but he went 14-of-26 for 178 yards and two interceptions in a loss that helped seal a division win for Seattle.

Since that season, Wolford spent one season as Matthew Stafford’s backup in L.A., then one season backing up Baker Mayfield in Tampa Bay, then one season backing up Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville; in other words, Wolford has spent the last seven seasons playing for Sean McVay or a former Sean McVay coordinator. (He didn’t backup Lawrence and Liam Coen wasn’t the coach yet, so that’s my mistake there.) That now includes O’Connell. Minnesota signed Wolford to the practice squad just one month ago and they’re sticking with him over promoting the other quarterback option they have, which is Desmond Ridder.

In a game that was supposed to be all about Sam Darnold’s revenge against his former team, somehow all of the nation’s attention is on who is under center for Minnesota. By the end of the game, it could be their fourth different quarterback since deciding not to bring back Darnold.

RB Kenneth Walker, Seahawks

In the previous two seasons there was so much discourse about “Brian Flores blitzes so often!” and “Isn’t it cool and innovate that Flores calls the blitz so often!” and sure enough the Vikings defensive coordinator led the NFL with a 51.5% blitz rate in 2023 and a 38.9% blitz rate in 2024.

Things never change: The Vikings lead the NFL with a 42.9% blitz rate in 2025, six percentage points higher than second place Falcons (who the Seahawks face next week).

(If you don’t know what blitz means exactly, it usually just means sending anything more than 4 pass rushers at the quarterback; this could put more heat on the QB but also leaves a defense more vulnerable in the secondary if the QB gets the pass off before the blitz gets home.)

There is, however, one huge difference between Minnesota’s 2024 defense and their 2025 defense:

• The Vikings faced the most pass attempts in 2024 (637) and the 4th-fewest rush attempts

• The Vikings are facing the most rush attempts in 2025 (350) and the 3rd-fewest pass attempts

The Vikings were a good team last year, which meant that more teams were playing from behind and passing the ball which allowed Flores to be more aggressive by knowing what to expect on the next play. As such, Minnesota ranked fourth in sacks (49) and first in turnovers forced (33). This season, the Vikings are bad so they’re 13th in sacks (27) and 28th in turnovers forced (9).

The Flores blitz rate of 42.9% has resulted in 27 sacks, 35 QB knockdowns, 41 QB hurries, and a pressure rate of 29.1%.

The Mike Macdonald blitz rate of 19.5% has resulted in 36 sacks, 40 QB knockdowns, 64 QB hurries, and a pressure rate of 29%.

So the Seahawks are getting a lot more production out of four pass rushers — allowing Seattle to keep 7 in coverage — than Flores is getting out of 5+ pass rushers and a weakness in the secondary.

All this pre-2025 discourse of the Minnesota Vikings having the best coaching staff in the NFL because of O’Connell running the offense and Flores running the defense, it all just evaporated and dried up with other farts in the wind because Minnesota can no longer pass the ball due to extremely incompetent play at quarterback. I think everything just points back to the change at quarterback, as the Vikings have dropped from 6.8 Y/A to 5.3 Y/A and a 35/12 TD:INT ratio to a 13/15 TD:INT ratio.

What in the world does this have to do with Seattle’s running back? Well, I already highlighted Zach Charbonnet last week so I’m going to pivot to Walker for a few reasons:

• RBs picking up the blitz will be a factor

• If the Seahawks get a lead, they need to hold a lead on the ground

• In a Darnold “revenge game” he might only get 15 pass attempts

We have managed to get this far into the year without mentioning Walker very often but he’s quietly had his most complete season yet. Over the last eight games, Walker has averaged 4.8 yards per carry and would be on a pace for nearly 1,100 rushing yards despite playing in fewer than half of Seattle’s offensive snaps.

The top RB games against the Vikings in 2025:

In watching D’Andre Swift rush for 125 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles on Friday, I couldn’t help but think “Damn, that could totally be Kenneth Walker some day as the running back that fans don’t really think their team needs until he’s playing really well for somebody else.” Not that Swift’s former teams really miss him (Lions, Eagles are set at RB) but they did have to spend serious resources to get those replacement running backs.

I’m not saying that the Seahawks have to re-sign Walker, I’m just saying that I could see Walker becoming a much bigger star in the future. How could we not all see that as a possibility? If the Seahawks get an early lead, it will turn into a heavy dose of Walker and Charbonnet. If the game is close, then their role as pass blockers could be just as important.

DB Nick Emmanwori/TE Elijah Arroyo, Seahawks

If you haven’t watched All-22’s 35-minute video of Emmanwori this week, you gotta:

There is perhaps no more valuable skill from a coach these days than getting value out of rookies. Just look at the Vikings as a prime example of the inverse cause/effect:

Minnesota thought that McCarthy would open up their salary cap for at least 4 years, if not 5, if not 6, because that’s the upside to a starting QB on a rookie contract. But if the QB fails, it’s just a waste of cap space and the need to pay another starter.

Drafting someone like Emmanwori in the second round means that the cost savings aren’t as dramatic as a QB or an edge rusher BUT if Macdonald is getting Kyle Hamilton-esque value from him this early in his contract, that’s still the same as saving something like $10-$15 million at the safety position compared to the top-paid players.

Now times that by four years. To get 4 great seasons out of Emmanwori instead of just 2 or 3, that’s just as huge as dialing up a creative blitz.

On that note I want to turn to someone we don’t talk about nearly as much as Emmanwori, which is fellow 2025 second round pick Elijah Arroyo. It’s been almost a month since Arroyo caught a touchdown against the Moons and in the past three games he’s had 2 catches for 10 yards on 4 targets. His playing time is down a tick, although not enough to say it’s concerning.

I’m not worried about Arroyo, I’m just asking if he’s going to be any more of a factor this season than he’s been so far, which isn’t much. Arroyo is 25th among all rookies in receiving yards (179) and one of the reasons for that is that Seattle is 31st in pass attempts and he can’t control that. If Klint Kubiak can find a way to squeeze more value out of Arroyo this season, it’s another boon to the Seahawks already boonful rookie class.

Vikings Front-7, Vikings

Can we take a moment to appreciate how high the expectations were for this defense to be “unlocked” by Flores? The website Sharp Football Analysis ranked Minnesota as having the very best front-7 in the NFL going into the season (the Seahawks were 11th) and highlighting that additions Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave were enough to boost the Vikings by 24 spots in the rankings compared to 2024.

Allen and Hargrave joined a unit that already featured Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and 2024 first round pick Dallas Turner. All five of those players have fewer sacks than teammate Jalen Redmond, who only has 4 sacks.

Redmond is being touted as one of the league’s breakout stars this season but that maybe only does more to emphasize how not-scary a scary-looking group has been so far. Especially compared to Seattle’s front-7.

Plus, Redmond is Questionable (Hip) this week, as is Greenard (Shoulder), and starting left tackle Christian Darrisaw (Knee). The Vikings ruled out starting guard Donovan Jackson, their first round pick, so potentially even more opportunites in the trenches for Byron Murphy and Leonard Williams.

Another reminder that preseason rankings are not that useful.

Seaside Joe 2462