J.J. McCarthy had a nightmare start to his professional football career. The Michigan Wolverines icon suffered a right knee injury in the Vikings' first game of the 2024 preseason, which ruled him out of the entirety of the 2024 campaign. That made him the first QB drafted in the first round of the modern draft era to miss his entire rookie season due to injury.The Minnesota Vikings are now set to start the 2025 preseason with a game today against the Houston Texans. Let's explore McCarthy's status for the game.Is J.J. McCarthy playing today?Yes, J.J. McCarthy is scheduled to play in today's game against the Houston Texans. Barring any unfortunate occurrences, McCarthy will be throwing in preseason Game 1.According to ESPN, Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell has pencilled in his star QB for some minutes against the DeMeco Ryans-coached Texans. However, there's a chance that today's game will be the only time that McCarthy will feature in the preseason. O'Connell said:"You would love to play him as much as possible, but I think with those two days of joint practice (with the New England Patriots), and the type of reps that the other guys on the offense will get from a physicality and workload standpoint, we will more than likely use those two days as our real days."The Vikings coach continued:"Obviously, that is subject to change based upon on how those go, how we feel coming out of those. If we need to get a little more work, we will. Then we will assess that final preseason game as it comes."The Vikings have lined up preseason games against the Houston Texans, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans.J.J. McCarthy gearing up for NFL debutThe Minnesota Vikings are entrusting the starting quarterback job to J.J. McCarthy, and the franchise has a lot of confidence in the 2024 first-round draft pick. So much so that they let Sam Darnold walk in free agency after the shot caller had the best season of his professional football career.McCarthy excelled with the Michigan Wolverines at the collegiate level. He was an impressive game manager and was a crucial part of Jim Harbaugh's 2023 national championship-winning squad. The Vikings loved what they saw and promptly selected him with the 10th overall pick of the 2024 draft.J.J. McCarthy missed all of his rookie season due to injury, but he's gearing up for his professional football debut in 2025. He'll be tasked with leading a high-powered Minnesota offense in the upcoming campaign.Barring any unfortunate occurrences, McCarthy's regular-season debut will be against the Chicago Bears. Another standout matchup in the regular season will be the Week 8 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, who are coached by McCarthy's former coach, Jim Harbaugh.