Kevin O'Connell sends a bold message to Minnesota Vikings fans about J.J. McCarthy
We've heard it all about the quarterback position this offseason. From Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones potentially returning to the Aaron Rodgers rumors, the discussion has been all over the place. What often gets lost with this entire discussion is the presence of J.J. McCarthy and how much the franchise likes him. They selected him […]
We've heard it all about the quarterback position this offseason. From Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones potentially returning to the Aaron Rodgers rumors, the discussion has been all over the place.
What often gets lost with this entire discussion is the presence of J.J. McCarthy and how much the franchise likes him. They selected him at 10th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft to potentially be the first franchise quarterback the Vikings have had since Fran Tarkenton.
Kevin O'Connell gushes about what J.J. McCarthy brings
What McCarthy brings to the table is the most important element to this entire discussion. It's why the Vikings believed he could be their top quarterback. Head coach Kevin O'Connell made an appearance on This Is Football with Kevin Clark and raved about what he does well.
"I think the biggest thing for me is, when we went through that process last year, and a lot of the things that you mentioned. I mean, his ability to throw the ball in windows over the middle of the field, to be accurate in the weighty downs. He was really effective on third downs. I think he had a pretty historical clip (on third and seven), plus his red zone passing. Like everybody can say that percentages of attempts well. He didn't throw a lot of bubble screens. He didn't throw a lot of RPOs. He didn't do a lot of those things. He was in a pro style offense, where they were running the football, they were marrying the run in the pass on early downs. They needed high-quality execution on some of those weighty downs. And that's really what we'd like to be with our offense."
O'Connell broke it down perfectly. McCarthy is currently an idea due to his lack of reps across the board. What he does bring is a relatively small but effective sample size of him being an elite player in the biggest high-leverage situations on the field.
The other main reason that fans should be excited is from a redshirt year. There are things outside of throwing the football that he learned a lot about that will help him have a great leg up on other first-year starters.
"And then the other thing I would say is just he's had, you know, that same player has had a year now of being around a guy like Sam Darnold called through his journey, a one-year journey with the success Sam had. He got to watch it. He got to see what meetings were like. What's it like when I install third down plays and we talk about the reads and we talk about the detail of how we're going to play against this opponent who plays like this this week. And I think he's been around all that. Yeah, he's not a rookie. He's been able to have, you know, that pseudo redshirt year, albeit without the reps we have wanted, but, but I'm really confident, really excited to see him hit the ground running.
"I think the big thing to remember is JJ is still such a young guy. And so, from a standpoint of just being around it, you know, being, you know, you know, just totally submerged in a football world where there is no class, there is no, you know, there really are no distractions. Other than for him, we wanted him to focus on getting healthy. Super unfortunate to have that injury happen, and especially coming off of what was a really, really great start for his first preseason game. But really, what I what I would say is, for him, you know, he's not hearing anything for the first time. He now can hear us call a play, or a concept, or a run play, or, Hey, we can do it for this reason. And he's heard all of those things before."
Those little details can make a huge difference when you get started at quarterback. It also matters when you have someone as brilliant as O'Connell running the offense, as he led Joshua Dobbs to a comeback win after just five days in the building.
Vikings fans should be really excited about McCarthy, as he has the entire package that O'Connell seems to look for.
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