It would be an understatement to say J.J. McCarthy has had a slow six-game start to his NFL career. After another dud of a performance on Sunday in Green Bay, McCarthy's numbers through his first six games are historically poor.
But even if much of the public may already be ready to give up on last year's No. 10 overall pick, his teammates certainly aren't. They still have faith in their 22-year-old QB, even with the results on Sundays being what they've been.
Justin Jefferson, whose production has taken a major hit with McCarthy on the field, said he'd describe the first six games for the Michigan product as "tough."
"Just because it's early,"Jefferson said. "He's new to the game, he's new to the NFL. He's learning, just like everyone else had to learn as a rookie. And he obviously had to go through the mental stage of having to overcome an injury the first year. So just a tough transition for him. But I feel like him learning these past couple games and this season, I feel like he's gonna bounce back in a different way than everybody else (thinks)."
Jefferson, in his comments to the media, has stood behind McCarthy throughout the ups and downs of this season for the Vikings' young quarterback. He maintains that the talent and the mentality are there for success to eventually come.
"Talking to him and seeing the arm talent that he has, seeing his composure, seeing the confidence that he comes with every single day, seeing the poise that he has throughout the game," is why Jefferson still believes in McCarthy, he said. "He's relentless, he's confident to go out there, he just has to carry it on week after week and just show up on Sunday with that mentality that he's been having the whole entire week."
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Jefferson isn't the only veteran on the Vikings' offense who believes brighter days are ahead for McCarthy.
"I feel like J.J. came out, he's competed very hard in the first six games," running back Aaron Jones said. "We haven't made his job easier around him. ... I always lift his head up and tell him I'm proud of him. 'One day, you're gonna look back at these times and be thankful for the process. The ones who've counted you out, they're gonna have to recount.'"
If McCarthy is going to turn it around, it doesn't seem like it'll happen this week. He's in the concussion protocol, and although he's making progress, he isn't expected to play in Sunday's game against the Seahawks.
Trying to do too much?
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Kevin O'Connell had an interesting comment about McCarthy in his weekly interview with KFAN's Paul Allen on Tuesday. The Vikings' head coach essentially said he's felt his young QB pressing at times to try to make up for a previous mistake.
"I think what I have felt from him at times is a previous play, where maybe he had the possibility of making a play and for whatever reason, the play's not made, the throw's not made, maybe the completion's not there, the yards don't come. And then he will circle back on that play in the execution of maybe something similar, maybe something different later on in the game. And that's when you've seen some of the second-half forced throws.
"Really trying to, at times, do a little bit too much, based upon some things that he thinks are the right way to go about things. If you're ever trying to force something to happen, many times it'll come back to get you."
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