Have you been enjoying the Carson Wentz experience? I haven’t.
I spent thousands of dollars to travel all the way to Dublin for the privilege of watching a former franchise quarterback fulfill his lifelong dream of playing quarterback for his hometown team.
Fret not, my fellow McCarthy truthers, because according to Kevin O’Connell, J.J. McCarthy will practice in “some capacity” ahead of Sunday’s noon game against the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s only Minnesota’s second noon game through six games, which is great since I won’t have to wait all day just to watch the most offensively challenged brand of football imaginable.
It’s great timing, too, because O’Connell has provided very little clarity on the quarterback situation heading into this game. Neither Wentz nor McCarthy is 100% healthy coming out of the bye week, according to O’Connell, who still hasn’t named a starter.
Will Carson Wentz be the starter this week? Mayyybeee. Could J.J. McCarthy be healthy enough to play? Possiblyyy.
Standard media procedures call for the starting quarterback to hold a press conference on Wednesday. Screw it, let’s have both Wentz and McCarthy do a presser to further conceal the Vikings’ true intentions! I’ll betcha Kevin O’Connell was in his office with an evil grin on his face when he came up with that idea. Gamesmanship aside, has all this quarterback uncertainty created an identity crisis for the Vikings offense?
Minnesota’s game plan against the Eagles could vary drastically depending on who starts. Let’s begin with the most likely scenario, which is Wentz under center this week. Assuming this happens, there won’t be much turnover from what we’ve already seen from a schematic standpoint.
O’Connell will be forced to press every button as a playcaller to make Wentz’s life easier. O’Connell has essentially run a preseason-like offense for a veteran quarterback with experience in a McVay offense because they signed him late. Still, it’ll be worth it if Wentz can give McCarthy more time to acclimate.
What would happen if J.J. McCarthy retakes his starting job this week?
In that case, I would expect the Vikings to reimagine their entire offense with McCarthy under center. When asked if the Vikings planned to ramp up J.J. physically during the bye to get him ready to start, O’Connell alluded to a potential identity change moving forward:
We’re going to spend some time as a coaching staff making sure we’re self scouting and taking a look at exactly what we’ve been, how much of what we are is tied to the adversity we’ve dealt with injuries, and then what do we want our identity to be as a team here as we attack the post-bye part of the season.
My takeaway from this is that O’Connell has a substantially different vision for a McCarthy-led offense compared to a Wentz-led offense. Part of that has to do with experience level, but I wonder how confident O’Connell is in McCarthy’s ability to operate in a pass-heavy scheme. We all know that McCarthy was in a run-first offense at Michigan and didn’t push the ball downfield often, but his footwork is also not where it needs to be. Due to those factors, I’d expect a more run-heavy approach.
I’d guess there’s a 95% chance that one of Wentz or McCarthy starts on Sunday. However, there is a slight chance that neither quarterback is healthy enough to start, which would clear the way for Max Brosmer to start against the Eagles.
That is the chaos timeline, and there are really only two potential outcomes. Either Brosmer is in over his head and looks like Jaren Hall against the Green Bay Packers — which is, coincidentally, a game I also attended — or he plays well enough to create an entirely new quarterback controversy that could last far longer than the Wentz vs McCarthy debate.
I suspect that Carson Wentz will play this week. However, I don’t believe the Vikings will actually know who’s starting until close to gametime. That means they’d have to plan for multiple different passers under center. This level of uncertainty surrounding the quarterback position so close to Week 7 could create an identity crisis for the Vikings’ offense until there’s some consistency and continuity at the position.