Max Brosmer: From One College Offer to the Minnesota Vikings Roster
Thomas Maxwell Brosmer — most people just call him Max — is a quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Jersey No. 12. Born March 28, 2001 in Davenport, Iowa, and yes, if you’re wondering how to say the last name: it’s BROHZ-mur. He went undrafted in 2025, signed with Minnesota for $250,000 guaranteed, survived training camp, and made the 53-man roster. By December he was starting NFL games. That’s the short version. The full version is more interesting.
Roswell, Georgia — and a Football Career That Almost Didn’t Scale
Brosmer grew up moving. Born in Iowa, lived in Toronto for a stretch, then landed in Roswell, Georgia, where he attended Centennial High School. He played four years there and was, by any local standard, exceptional — over 7,200 passing yards and 61 touchdowns across his high school career, with a senior season of 3,459 yards and 31 touchdowns. Georgia Sportswriter Association All-State. Regional Offensive Player of the Year. Two-time North Georgia Offensive Player of the Week. None of that got him a second look from Power Five programs.
When the recruiting cycle closed, he had one offer. The University of New Hampshire.
His father Colin played club volleyball at Ohio State. His mother Jayna, who battled breast cancer in 2024 — the same year he transferred to Minnesota — is a nurse, as is his grandmother. That family background pushed Brosmer toward biomedical science as his undergraduate major at UNH, and he started a master’s program in kinesiology there before transferring. He has one brother named Fish. None of this is particularly relevant to fourth-down conversion rates. It does explain why he plays with an unusual amount of patience and composure for a young quarterback who grew up in relative obscurity.
Five Years at New Hampshire — The Long Way to the NFL
New Hampshire runs FCS football — that’s Division I, but the subdivision below the Power conferences, with lower budgets, smaller stadiums, and almost zero national media attention. Brosmer spent five full seasons there. His freshman year (2019) he started immediately, completing 183 of 311 passes for 1,967 yards with 16 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Not bad for a true freshman who had exactly one scholarship offer.
The 2020 season barely happened. COVID pushed UNH’s schedule to a single spring 2021 game. Then, going into what would have been his redshirt sophomore year, Brosmer tore his ACL in preseason practice and lost the entire 2021 season as a medical redshirt. That injury granted him something valuable: an extra year of eligibility on top of the COVID year, giving him an unusual six-year college window to develop.
He came back in 2022 and threw for 3,157 yards with 27 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. In 2023, his final UNH season, he led all of FCS Division I with 3,464 passing yards and added 29 touchdowns. That year he won ECAC FCS Offensive Player of the Year, was named to the All-ECAC Offense team, and was a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy — college football’s academic-athletic award, given annually to the player who best combines football performance, academic achievement, and community leadership.
Over his full UNH career: 760-of-1,225 passing for 8,713 yards and 70 touchdowns. Not quite household names on the opposing schedule, but the production was undeniably real.
One Season at Minnesota Changed Everything
After his record-setting final year at UNH, Brosmer entered the transfer portal. He had the COVID year of eligibility remaining, plus some. He chose Minnesota — a Big Ten program, a different level of competition entirely — for one final college season in 2024.
He set the school record for single-season completions with 268. His 66.5% completion rate ranks second in Minnesota program history for a single season. His 2,828 passing yards rank third in program history. He threw 18 touchdowns against 6 interceptions and went 8-5 as a starter, finishing by winning the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. By any measure, it was one of the five best statistical seasons a quarterback has ever had at the University of Minnesota.
Film analysts started paying attention. One prominent pre-draft evaluator described him publicly as his favorite Day 3 quarterback and “by far the best anticipatory passer” he had watched that cycle — specifically praising his intermediate throws. He accepted an initial invite to the Hula Bowl (a second-tier all-star game), then upgraded to the East-West Shrine Bowl after his UNH numbers gained traction, and eventually earned an NFL Combine invitation. His Minnesota Pro Day confirmed what the Shrine Bowl suggested: legitimate arm talent, football IQ, and the kind of leadership that comes from six years of college football when most of your peers are on year three.
Nobody drafted him anyway. Thirty-two teams passed. The Vikings did not.
The UDFA Signing — $250,000 and a Shot in Purple
On April 26, 2025, roughly two minutes after the NFL Draft concluded, Brosmer signed with Minnesota as an undrafted free agent. The deal: three years, $2.98 million total, with $250,000 guaranteed — above average for a UDFA, reflecting genuine organizational interest rather than roster filler. Head coach Kevin O’Connell also traded for Sam Howell the same day, but the Brosmer signing was a local story: the Gophers’ best recent quarterback staying in the same city to back up the team he spent all year playing across town from.
He had, it turned out, already been mentoring Drake Lindsey — the true freshman who replaced him as Minnesota’s starter in 2024. The mentorship didn’t stop at signing day. Brosmer has requested Gophers game film from Lindsey weekly throughout the 2025 season, reviewing it and sending feedback. “There’s gonna be mistakes, there’s gonna be some amazing plays,” Brosmer said in November 2025. “I just do my best to pick through the film with a fine-tooth comb.” Lindsey told reporters he had “100% faith the whole time” that Brosmer would make the Vikings. He’d watched him work.
Training Camp, the 53-Man Roster, and What He Showed Before the Real Games
Making a 53-man roster as an undrafted quarterback is not common. Seven UDFAs made Minnesota’s initial roster after the 2025 preseason. Brosmer was one of them, which speaks to what he showed between August 9 and August 26. In the preseason finale against Tennessee, he threw a 36-yard touchdown to Dontae Fleming and a 21-yard score to tight end Bryson Nesbit. Against Houston in the preseason opener, he was composed and accurate enough that the coaching staff felt comfortable keeping him over more experienced candidates.
He made the roster on August 26. The plan was simple: be the QB3, learn the offense, don’t play unless something breaks.
Something broke almost immediately.
The 2025 NFL Season — Thrown Into the Deep End, Repeatedly
J.J. McCarthy, the Vikings’ second-year starter and former No. 10 overall pick, struggled badly in 2025. The offense sputtered. McCarthy’s accuracy and decision-making raised serious questions, and injuries kept pulling him out. Over seven games, Brosmer appeared — sometimes in relief, sometimes from the start — and by season’s end had gone 47-of-71 passing (66.2%) for 328 yards, zero touchdowns, and four interceptions.
Those numbers do not flatter him. Neither do they fully describe what happened.
Week 13 at Seattle: The Start Nobody Would Have Chosen
McCarthy entered concussion protocol with the Seattle game approaching. On Friday, November 28, the Vikings announced Brosmer would make his first NFL start on Sunday, November 30, against the Seahawks at Lumen Field. The Seattle defense that year was among the best in the conference. Brosmer had not started an NFL game in his life. He got three days to prepare.
He went 19-for-30 for 126 yards and threw four interceptions. Minnesota lost 26-0 — the franchise’s first shutout since 2007. The performance looked catastrophic on paper. It was rough in practice too. But the context matters: a rookie undrafted quarterback, three days of prep, road game, hostile environment, one of the stronger pass defenses in the league. Every quarterback who has ever thrown four interceptions in their first start is not automatically finished. Most of them, frankly, never got that start at all.
Week 17 at Detroit: The Win That Made No Statistical Sense
McCarthy’s right hand fractured in Week 16 against the Giants. Brosmer came on in relief, completed 7-of-9 for 52 yards in a win. Then O’Connell announced he’d start the Christmas Day game in Detroit.
What happened on December 25, 2025 was genuinely strange. Brosmer was sacked seven times. He threw for fewer than 70 passing yards — 51 yards on 9-of-16 passing to be exact. The Vikings won 23-10. Minnesota’s defense forced six Detroit turnovers, which did most of the actual winning. Brosmer didn’t turn it over, handed the ball off when he needed to, and stayed out of the way of his own defense.
He became, per multiple researchers, the only quarterback in the Super Bowl era to throw fewer than 70 passing yards, get sacked seven or more times, and still win the game. It belongs in a very specific kind of trivia category — the category of wins where the quarterback’s primary contribution was surviving.
Week 18 against Green Bay: he came on again in relief of McCarthy (hand), went 7-of-8 for 57 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions. Lost a fumble. Won the game.
Across the full 2025 season, he completed passes at 66.2%. That rate, in isolation, is perfectly fine for a backup. The 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions reflect the circumstances — limited snap counts, starts against Seattle’s defense, a receiver corps asked to run in limited packages. His QBR of 14.3 tells the story of a quarterback who was never quite in rhythm or given enough rope to find it.
Off the Field: NMDP, Biomedical Science, and Staying Off Twitter
His Instagram bio reads: “ATL | Vikings Marketing | Join the NMDP Registry.” The National Marrow Donor Program advocacy is personal. His mother’s cancer diagnosis in 2024 sharpened what was already a medically-oriented family background — both she and his grandmother are nurses, and his undergraduate degree from UNH is in biomedical science. He started a master’s in kinesiology before leaving for Minnesota. The NMDP push, which he returns to in offseason social media, is not a sponsored obligation. It’s a cause.
He deliberately stays off social media during the football season. Asked in November 2025 whether he was aware of the fans lobbying for him to get more snaps, he said: “To be honest, not to the extent that you’re speaking on. I do my best to get off social media throughout the year.” Lindsey laughed beside him. The clip circulated online for weeks.
Where He Stands in 2026
The Vikings entered 2026 with a dramatically different quarterback room. Kyler Murray signed a one-year deal and is the presumptive starter. J.J. McCarthy is QB2, fighting off Carson Wentz, who re-signed on a one-year contract. Brosmer is fourth on unofficial depth charts — at best, competing for a practice squad spot. The $244,000 in guaranteed money from his original contract has already been paid. Minnesota can cut him with no financial penalty.
That’s the honest situation. Four quarterbacks for four spots, and the top three are all veterans with meaningful starting experience. There’s a real argument that Brosmer’s 2025 debut — particularly the Seattle game — made it harder to advocate for keeping him on the active roster. His completion percentage was good. Everything else about his stat line was not. Kevin O’Connell has struggled with developing young quarterbacks in his tenure; Kellen Mond didn’t last, Jaren Hall lasted one season, and Brosmer’s sample size in live NFL games remains small.
None of which makes him a lost cause. He’s 25, still early by quarterback development standards, with a legitimate college résumé and a coaching staff that kept him around once already based on what he showed in practice. The career record at UNH and Minnesota — 1,027-of-1,627 (63.1%) for 11,544 yards, 88 touchdowns, 31 interceptions, plus 15 rushing touchdowns — represents real output across six full seasons. His floor is a practice squad arm. His ceiling depends entirely on whether he gets another shot in live games, which right now requires injury at a position the Vikings suddenly have well-staffed.
Training camp will tell the story. It always does.
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