JJ McCarthy - Minnesota Vikings training camp practice (August 7, 2026)
JJ McCarthy - Minnesota Vikings training camp practice (August 7, 2026)
The Minnesota Vikings are now two weeks into training camp and there have been a few major takeaways already.
So far, the Vikings defense has been ahead of the offense. That is normal, especially when Brian Flores is in his third year as defensive coordinator and head coach Kevin O’Connell hasn’t even picked a QB yet on offense.
Of course, there are other things to keep an eye on, including a Rob Brzezinski 2026 draft class that — at least early on –looks much more NFL-ready than any class former GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah ushered in during his four offseasons in charge.
JJ McCarthy bounces back at Minnesota Vikings training camp
However, on Friday afternoon, there were some notable happenings in the Minnesota Vikings quarterback competition between Kyler Murray and JJ McCarthy, despite practice itself being less intense, per reports.
Just 24 hours after Murray began to really pull away during a flawless practice on Thursday, he came back to the pack Friday. Meanwhile, by all accounts in attendance, McCarthy enjoyed his best day of training camp so far.
And that’s a wrap- practice over. McCarthy definitely sharper than Murray today
— Warren Ludford (@wludford) August 7, 2026
Quarterback J.J. McCarthy had one of his better days of camp as the competition with Kyler Murray continued. McCarthy hit wide receiver Dontae Fleming on a deep out, a route McCarthy has excelled at this summer, and also threw three touchdowns in a four-play red zone sequence.
According to Matthew Coller on his latest episode of Purple Insider, Murray completed 9 of 15 passes on the day (60%), including what he and his colleagues around him deemed to be 3 positive plays, 4 negative plays and 8 routine plays.
JJ McCarthy was much more on point, completing 14 of 17 passes (82%), with 3 positive plays, 13 routine plays and just 1 negative. If you didn’t notice, that’s a lot of routine throws (foreshadowing).
Coller bases his positive/routine/negative play determinations on whether or not the quarterback did his job on each individual pass play better, worse or about as well as any average NFL QB would be expected.
JJ McCarthy back in the race… or maybe not?
Those watching practice on Friday at TCO Performance Center saw JJ McCarthy at his best for the first time since training camp started, which made Kyler Murray’s difficulties stand out a bit more.
However, those on the local beat who have been at every practice remain skeptical over the idea that McCarthy has climbed back into the MN Vikings QB race, after an impressive practice to start the weekend.
Vikings just wrapped another padded practice. Not a very riveting one, to be honest. Lot of special teams work early on and run game focus.
I’d give the QB edge to McCarthy, who looked sharp. But there weren’t many eye-popping throws from either guy. Murray continues to get more…
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) August 7, 2026
Even though McCarthy won the day in my opinion, he has yet to even approach the best we’ve seen from Kyler when he’s at his very best. The problem is Kyler has yet to showcase those heights on consecutive days. Dilemma for KOC is: does this mean the competition should continue?…
— Jason Harmon (@JasonHarmonNFL) August 7, 2026
When you peel back the rep counts for the two quarterbacks, it’s easy to understand the skepticism. Yet again, on Friday, it was Murray who dropped back to pass 14 times (per Coller) with the Minnesota Vikings’ starting offense compared to just seven first-team dropbacks for McCarthy.
Related: New Experiment at Safety Forces Vikings Number Change
And on a day being described as JJ McCarthy’s best of camp so far — most in attendance described Friday’s practice, overall, as one of very few offensive highlights. Emily Leiker (Star Tribune) described it as “pretty highlightless”.
It was overall a pretty highlight-less day offensively. Murray hit Tai Felton deep once in a later 11-on-11 period when the first-team offense was playing the second-team defense… in the final 11-on-11 period… Murray took all of the ones versus ones reps… McCarthy took all of the twos versus twos.
That makes sense considering all the “routine” throws made by the former No. 10 overall draft pick out of Michigan, and the struggles reportedly had by his QB counterpart/teammate.
Nonetheless, give credit McCarthy for bouncing back and taking a positive step forward in his development. He needs more days like this, no matter where he stacks up on the QB depth chart at the end of camp.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings are back at practice on Saturday afternoon. We will also get to hear from some players, and possibly coaches, out at TCO Performance Center, as well.