The Minnesota Vikings knew J.J. McCarthy came with a lot of unknowns when they selected him 10th-overall in 2024. He was 21, and ready-made quarterbacks like Jayden Daniels and Michael Penix had entered the draft in their mid-20s. McCarthy also only threw 713 passes in Michigan’s run-first offense, 654 of which he threw in his final two seasons.
“There’s a level of projection with all these guys, right?” Kwesi Adofo-Mensah admitted on draft night. “But once you get around the person, a lot of the guesswork goes away.”
The Vikings know McCarthy well. Last year, he suffered a meniscus tear and missed the entire season, and he’s recovering from a high ankle sprain he sustained in Minnesota’s second game against the Atlanta Falcons. Still, he’s been around the facility, preparing for his next opportunity.
McCarthy is structured and intentional with his preparation. However, he’s in his second year of his rookie contract, and there’s still a lot the Vikings don’t know about him.
He threw for 143 yards, two touchdowns, and a pick-six at Chicago in Week 1. Most of his positive stats came during Minnesota’s furious comeback. A week later, McCarthy threw for 158 yards and two picks in a 22-6 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
J.J. McCarthy was 11 for 21 against Atlanta, but Kevin O’Connell attributed some of his inaccuracy to the high ankle sprain he sustained in the third quarter. McCarthy went into the blue tent, and the medical staff taped him up, but the Vikings didn’t know the extent of his injury until after the game.
O’Connell insists that they didn’t bench McCarthy due to performance. It’s evident where McCarthy sustained his injury, which came on a borderline hip-drop tackle. Still, McCarthy has a 67.2 quarterback rating in his first two games, and that’s with his comeback efforts in Chicago. There was no reason to rush him back.
“No, not at all,” O’Connell said after the Atlanta game regarding whether the Vikings had turned to Carson Wentz because of McCarthy’s performance. “In fact, it was pretty crushing this morning to hear that for me. Look, for J.J., he’s in a long process, a long journey right now, where there’s going to be some ups and downs.”
O’Connell’s work with reclamation projects like Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, and Kirk Cousins, to some extent, suggests that he’s being honest about the timeline of a quarterback’s journey. The difference with McCarthy is that O’Connell got to start from scratch with a player Minnesota drafted.
The Vikings took McCarthy because they believed he could become their franchise quarterback. They likely moved on from Darnold after his 35-touchdown, 4,000-plus-yard season because they wanted to build a team around McCarthy’s rookie contract. However, he’s played 120 minutes of NFL football, and we still don’t know when he’ll return or how he’ll play.
“We talked about our process, [which] we think was really thorough,” Adofo-Mensah said on draft night. “Get them in a classroom environment. Learning an offense is not going to be a problem for him, that’s for sure. Really just getting the reps under your belt. How close can you get to your 3,000 hours?”
Therein lies the issue. McCarthy spent his rookie season learning O’Connell’s offense. He attended position meetings on the offensive and defensive sides to understand each player’s responsibilities. He ultimately did enough to convince the Vikings to move on from Darnold in a year where they have Super Bowl aspirations.
The issue is that McCarthy’s knowledge of O’Connell’s system hasn’t translated to the field. He’s been late out of the huddle. When he’s rushing to the line, the defense knows he can launch off the line of scrimmage because he’s immediately calling for the ball.
McCarthy occasionally progresses through his reads but doesn’t know where to go with the ball. His accuracy likely wanes when his footwork isn’t correct. The offensive line is more likely to false start or cause a delay of game if McCarthy is late getting out of the huddle.
“Part of this journey is making sure you acknowledge what it felt like in the moment,” O’Connell said after McCarthy’s Week 2 performance.
“Did I take the right footwork? Did I play with the kind of technique and fundamentals and have my eyes in the right spots? And what plays did I do that? What did that look like? And then what plays maybe could it have been a little bit more consistent? Then, what did those plays turn out like?
Minnesota has three competing forces to consider after the bye. Carson Wentz has been sufficient as a backup. Still, McCarthy supposedly has more upside, and the Vikings would like to develop him. However, they’re playing the Philadelphia Eagles, who won the Super Bowl last year, and are still in playoff contention at 3-2.
Wentz isn’t the player he once was with Philadelphia, and he occasionally freezes up while progressing through his reads. Still, he can get in and out of the huddle and move the chains. If McCarthy can’t do that, the Vikings need to stick with Wentz. Otherwise, they should allow McCarthy to continue chipping away at his 3,000 hours so they can learn what they have in him.