“He’s been here,” O’Connell said, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s been on the grass, practicing, doing the things that help you build a layer of consistency where you can not only take it to the game with you but then the ebbs and flows of the position, whether it’s the pocket breaking down or maybe it’s once the injury happened being firm on that back foot. What the combination of a lot of those experiences can do to your fundamentals is a very, very normal thing for a young player.”
McCarthy said fine-tuning mechanics will be a “seesaw” for his entire career.
“Making sure we put it in a situation where it’s like, ‘Oh, I felt that,’” McCarthy said, “and I know I’m fine after feeling that, so it’s constantly kind of pressing that bandwidth of pain tolerance and mobility of that muscle, joint, whatever it is you’re trying to heal up.”
Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz (11) warms up during practice at the TCO Performance Center in Eagan on Wednesday. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
O’Connell said he and Wentz “haven’t really talked about” him facing the Eagles, who drafted the quarterback at No. 2 overall in 2016.
Wentz — the Bismarck, N.D., native and two-time NCAA FCS national champion at North Dakota State — saw his five-year run with the Eagles peak in 2017. He was in MVP discussions during a 10-2 start before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the Eagles’ 11th win.
After beating the Vikings in the NFC title game with backup quarterback Nick Foles, Philadelphia won the Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium over Tom Brady’s Patriots. The Eagles turned back to Wentz, but a season-ending back injury in 2018 and a concussion in his only playoff start at the end of the 2019 season preceded his benching for Jalen Hurts in 2020.