I have a love/hate relationship with preseason football.
On the one hand, beggars can’t be choosers. After a desolate, barren desert of an offseason, I’m not gonna turn my nose up at a puddle of water just cause a camel spit in it. When you’re desperate for football, you’ll take anything.
Arguably, the most frustrating part of the preseason is how desperate we all are, though. The general public reacted to J.J. McCarthy’s seven pass attempts against the Houston Texans like the most dramatically polarizing Rorschach test of all time. Pre-conceived bias either made you overrate an efficient drive with a few nice plays, or look at a few balls that could’ve been a bit more accurate as signs that the sky is falling and the Vikings drafted Christian Ponder 2.0.
The preseason demands measured, nuanced analysis, which is hard to come by these days. That’s why it’s kinda nice that our last piece of evidence to ruminate on this preseason from McCarthy is leaving such a positive impression.
McCarthy is shutting things down this preseason as far as the actual “games” are concerned. Sam Howell is set to start this weekend against the New England Patriots, meaning the Patriots defense’s last impression of McCarthy will be his Thursday performance, which, according to reporters present, he was slicing through them like a perfectly cooked fish filet.
If you’re worried about a biased perspective, here’s a tweet from The Athletic’s Patriots reporter Chad Graff:
The Patriots’ final joint practice of the summer is over and it was a butt kicking.
Minnesota was better in just about every drill. The Pats hit a Hail Mary, but few highlights outside that.
Defense got carved and offense was left to dink and dunk amid lots of pressure.
— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) August 14, 2025
McCarthy’s offseason seems to be characterized by a promising series of fits and starts. That makes sense when you consider that he’s a first-year starter who missed his entire rookie season, that he’s been without his two most important offensive players, Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw, and that he’s going against one of the best defenses in the NFL every day.
Still, even when he’s been inundated by pressure or when the offense fell out of sync, the local beat has remained pretty consistent, and he’s shown exactly the type of flashes and incremental progress you’d hope to see from a young player. And we’re talking about the Minnesota local beat, one that’s usually prone to doom and gloom.
This week’s joint practices against New England began with a lot more of the same. Fits and starts. Flashes and inconsistency. The Patriots defense has some similar DNA to Minnesota’s, and they seemed to stymie McCarthy a good bit on Wednesday, specifically.
Then on Thursday, McCarthy proved he can grow from mistakes and miscues, and came out firing on all cylinders.
One of J.J. McCarthy’s best days of camp in terms of throwing with touch. He’s been on one.
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) August 14, 2025
Kevin O’Connell on J.J. McCarthy’s strong day: “It felt decisive. Incredible amount of conviction to some of the decisions he made, location of the football.”
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) August 14, 2025
JJ to Addison pic.twitter.com/IVJz1ymuCU
— Dustin (@Dust_Vikings) August 14, 2025
Decisiveness. Conviction. Touch. That should be music to your ears as a Vikings fan.
From a schematic standpoint, decisiveness is the No. 1 trait you’d hope to see from the young QB, and we saw evidence of this in his brief action in the first preseason game. I think about the fourth-down scramble specifically, where he diagnosed the incoming interior blitz immediately and knew he’d have space to the outside to pick it up with his feet. Scrambles often get the label of desperate improvisation by a young player, but that play was calculated and diagnosed pre-snap.
J.J. McCarthy getting it done with his legs on 4th down 🔥
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/AHI3Ww9DiF
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) August 9, 2025
McCarthy has shown he’s got command of Kevin O’Connell’s offense, and we’ve seen time and time again that it can carve a defense up when a QB can trust their eyes and throw with conviction. That may be the biggest opportunity for growth in the offense from Sam Darnold to McCarthy, who has shown signs of being able to trust his reads in the short/intermediate game rather than constantly holding out for a big play to open up downfield.
Finally, from a mechanical standpoint, touch is the area where McCarthy needs to show consistency and growth. For all the lazy pundits who’ve characterized him with a weak arm, McCarthy has a hose. His biggest problem is that he likes to fire every ball with that kind of heat, even when it’s not necessary, and it may cause his accuracy to suffer. Then, when attempting to throw with touch, especially on downfield throws, he tends to underthrow them. It’s a balancing act that will improve with repetition and coaching.
I fully expect some of these touch concerns to boil over into the regular season and may even resurface more once the bullets really start flying. But it should get fans very excited that when going against a real opposing defense in joint practices this week, the evidence is there that McCarthy has those touch throws in him.
JJ to Aaron Jones. My God. pic.twitter.com/yycoV65VfT
— Jason Harmon (@_jason_777) August 14, 2025
The next few weeks of practices are mostly closed to the media. McCarthy is done playing in preseason games. Thursday really was his last impression he’ll leave us with until he walks out of the tunnel at Soldier Field.
It’s likely too bold to assume that McCarthy is gonna wheel and deal every game this season like he did on Thursday. It’s one practice in a much larger body of work. But it’s exciting to see a glimpse of what the ceiling for this offense may look like.
In a situation that’s honestly a better projection to a real football game than the traditional preseason games ever are, McCarthy showed out. And if we were watching these plays in high definition on the NFL Network, as opposed to in clips on Twitter, even Colin Cowherd might backtrack his negativity towards McCarthy.
If you’re going to leave one last impression for the next few weeks, it’s nice to make it such a strong one.
“I think I’m one of the most accurate guys out there”
Love the confidence from QB1
🎥: Vikings pic.twitter.com/BouoUprkIo
— Jason Harmon (@_jason_777) August 14, 2025