Is Max Brosmer the Vikings’ Next Hometown Underdog Story?

In Matt Fries' first piece for Wide Left, he dissects Vikings quarterback Max Brosmer, undrafted free agent from the University of Minnesota. Could he be a dark horse for the backup quarterback job?

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Minnesota Vikings fans love hometown players. Whether it’s Jim Kleinsasser, Adam Thielen, or CJ Ham, local players seem to quickly develop the fanbase’s support. Combine a local product with an underdog story, and you’ve got a player with an opportunity to quickly ingratiate themselves.

That’s why the hype built around Max Brosmer after two preseason games makes sense. Brosmer was the University of Minnesota’s quarterback last season, and put up solid stats as the Golden Gophers improved to an 8-5 record after finishing 6-7 in 2023. Brosmer started his college career at the University of New Hampshire, where he played until transferring to Minnesota in 2024. He was born in Iowa, establishing him solidly as a Midwesterner and giving fans the feeling of rooting for a local product.

As someone who has no reason to follow Minnesota’s football team, I was agnostic on Brosmer joining the team. At the time, he felt like a camp body who would be buried on the depth chart, summarily ignored during practice, and cut after playing cleanup duty in the final preseason game.

The Vikings’ two preseason games, however, have proven that Brosmer is more than the Joel Staves and Nate Stanleys of the world. He’s led legitimately impressive drives in each game, and the competition ahead of him, Sam Howell and Brett Rypien, have not separated themselves from him either. As it stands, Brosmer has a real shot to make the team.

Has Brosmer earned the opportunity to make the team? I dove deeper into the tape to see if it matched up with the impressions he left from the broadcast. Let’s dive in.

Unexpected Polish

The most impressive thing about Brosmer’s performance through two games is that he doesn’t look like a rookie, particularly an undrafted one. That’s an incredibly cliché sentence, but let me explain.

College players often lack practice time to focus on fundamentals. Most college offenses focus on spreading defenses out. They let the QB sit back in shotgun formations and throw to open space. College QBs rarely take under-center snaps or time their footwork up with the route that they’re throwing. There are a myriad of little details that you don’t expect a rookie to have down right away. That’s what makes the play below so impressive.

On this play, the Vikings are running a seven-step play action concept. This is a nuanced play, and the details begin at the stem of the dropback. The first is the play fake, where Brosmer both gets good extension with the ball and keeps his off hand on his chest, creating a believable fake.

Then there’s the dropback depth. You can see that the ball is snapped at the 32-yard line, and Brosmer’s back foot hits the 22-yard line before he hitches up. That drop depth of 10 yards is typical for a seven-step drop, but so is the hitch. Offensive linemen are coached to block for specific landmarks.

Defensive ends are, by rule, faster than offensive tackles, so if a QB drops too far, the defender can just run around his blocker to get to the QB. On the play, you can see that left tackle Henry Byrd is working to push New England Patriots edge rusher Truman Jones past the depth of the pocket, and Jones’ hands swipe the hash at the 32-yard line, exactly the level that Brosmer dropped back to. Byrd did a fine job on the play, but might have looked bad if Brosmer had drifted further backwards or failed to hitch like he was supposed to.

The hitch also matters for the timing of the throw. The timing of this play is coached as seven steps, hitch, and throw. You can see that match wide receiver Myles Price’s route, as Price is breaking outside at the 44-yard line while Brosmer separates his hands to begin his throwing motion.

There’s also the technique needed to throw on the move around the pocket. As a QB, that means keeping your feet about shoulder-width apart to get a good throw off. The natural inclination when moving forward will be to “heel click” or bring your feet together. You can see that Brosmer’s base does narrow a little as he climbs the pocket, but it’s not a concerning amount.

There’s a ton of detail to dissect with this play, and I haven’t even discussed the throw. It’s a laser, hitting Price in stride for what would have been a big gain if it wasn’t called back due to a penalty. Brosmer made the throw despite Patriots’ defensive lineman Jahvaree Ritzie having a hand directly in his face. It looks like he had to lower his arm angle just to even get the throw off. That kind of adjustment is nice to see.

The distance on the throw is also impressive. This is a throw to the sideline from the opposite hash. While NFL tracking would only count this throw as 17 air yards, it really travels about 39 yards from the point Brosmer threw it from. He certainly shows NFL-caliber arm strength with this play.

Dane Brugler’s Scouting Report on Max Brosmer, from The Beast, 2025

The combination of nuanced footwork with clear arm talent would be impressive for a drafted player, but it’s even more impressive for a UDFA. Quality QBs are in high demand, and usually undrafted QBs have the physical talent but not the mental acumen, or vice versa. You wouldn’t expect one to show flashes of both.

When a QB enters the NFL, no matter how well he performed in college, there’s a step up on the mental side of the game. There are a multitude of reasons for this. You jump from a wide pool of talent in college football to a much narrower, more experienced pool of NFL talent capable of handling a larger mental workload. NFL coaches have more time with players than college coaches are allowed to have. Therefore, the NFL’s offensive schemes and opposing defenses are more complex.

It was notable that Vikings’ HC Kevin O’Connell called out Brosmer’s mental acumen when he joined the preseason broadcast in the third quarter. O’Connell praised “what [Brosmer]’s been able to do absorbing our offense, and, really, even right now, just in total command making sure our run is protected the way we want.” Here’s the play O’Connell was referring to. On it, you can see Brosmer tap his foot to call Price closer to the line of scrimmage, helping with the blocking angles on the run play.

Brosmer further showed that command later in the game, as well as in the clip below, pointing to kick running back Tre Stewart out to the wing position, making the rush angle much harder for the opposing defensive end.

All of those flashes combine to make an impressive, well-rounded skillset. But single plays can be misleading. Consistency is key for NFL QBs. Brosmer needs to consistently execute those skills to stick at the NFL level.

Mental Processing

The first thing that pops off the tape when watching Brosmer is his decisiveness. He’s extremely willing to “grip it and rip it” – take the snap, dropback, and throw it to his first read.