Max Brosmer’s First NFL Start: Undrafted Vikings QB Makes Week 13 Debut vs Seahawks at Lumen Field

On November 30, 2025, the Minnesota Vikings turned to undrafted rookie quarterback Max Brosmer for his first NFL start against the Seattle Seahawks, instantly transforming a little-known depth-chart name into one of the day’s most talked-about storylines in pro football. With starter J.J. McCarthy sidelined after failing to clear the NFL’s concussion protocol, Brosmer stepped into the Week 13 spotlight in Seattle’s notoriously loud Lumen Field, an arena that has swallowed up far more seasoned passers.

Brosmer’s rapid ascent is striking: after five seasons at FCS New Hampshire and a breakout graduate year with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, he still went undrafted in April 2025 before signing with the Vikings as a free agent and making the 53-man roster out of camp. That journey — from FCS standout to Big Ten starter to undrafted pro and now emergency QB1 — has been framed as a “long shot” saga that few front offices expected to play out this quickly.

Inside Minnesota’s own building, the mood is part pride, part curiosity. Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck publicly congratulated Brosmer after Minnesota’s win over Wisconsin on Saturday, calling his debut a rare and meaningful moment for the program, which has produced few NFL starters under center in recent decades. The Gophers facility has reportedly been “buzzing” all week as staff and players tracked one of their own suddenly heading into Sunday as an NFL starter.

Nationally, expectations are far more volatile. Oddsmakers have the Vikings as heavy underdogs in Seattle, and analysts have highlighted how stacked the deck appears against Brosmer: a hostile road environment, an elite Seahawks defense with a punishing pass rush, and a Minnesota offense already searching for consistency. Yet former NFL head coach and current analyst Steve Mariucci leaned all the way into the hype cycle on NFL Network, dropping a wildly optimistic prediction that Brosmer could throw for 485 yards in his first start — an “astronomical” stat line that would instantly drop him into NFL lore if it somehow came true.

Within the Vikings organization, the tone is more measured. Reports over the weekend described a sense of “cautious optimism” in the building, built on months of internal belief in Brosmer’s processing and poise, even as he saw only brief “garbage-time” snaps earlier this season. Coaches and executives have long viewed him as more than a typical camp arm, but Sunday’s game marks the first real test of whether that private evaluation can survive four quarters against a playoff-caliber defense.

For NFL fans — and especially for Minnesota and New England transplants who followed his winding college path — Brosmer’s debut today is less about point spreads and more about possibility. In a league where late-round and undrafted quarterbacks are often treated as placeholders, his story offers a different kind of entertainment: the chance to watch, in real time, whether one Sunday in Seattle is the beginning of something much bigger or just a memorable cameo in the Vikings’ ongoing quarterback saga.