Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell knows what J.J. McCarthy’s biggest issue is, and there isn’t an easy way to fix it for one reason
J.J. McCarthy’s biggest issue doesn’t seem to be one in practice, so why is it on game day?
The Minnesota Vikings are now 4-6 and in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the second time under head coach Kevin O’Connell.
When looking back at the biggest issues for the Vikings, No. 1 without question has been the struggles at quarterback. Carson Wentz was awful in his five starts, and things haven’t been much better with J.J. McCarthy at the helm.
With McCarthy still developing, there is one thing that has stood out as his biggest issue, and luckily for the Vikings, it isn’t what’s between his ears: it’s his footwork.
Kevin O’Connell knows J.J. McCarthy’s footwork is an issue
McCarthy does a good job seeing the field, but his footwork is incredibly frantic. He is all over the place with it, and it causes severe inaccuracies, especially with his wide base.
The really difficult part for O’Connell? He’s seeing McCarthy deliver in practice.
“Whether it’s just the initial posture, where we’ve just learned that when he has great posture, you know, at the top of drops, he throws the ball really well,” said O’Connell. “He did it Friday. Did it Thursday. And I even referenced on Friday, the type of practices we had.”
When we have conversations about what O’Connell is asking McCarthy to do on Sundays, it’s not just about pushing him to be better; he believes that he can execute because of what he sees during the week. The next step is to get him to do it on Sundays.
One of the biggest things for McCarthy is adjusting to NFL speed. He is seeing the field well and making mostly good decisions, but his decision-making isn’t quite coming fast enough.
“It’s a consistency factor, navigating through four quarters of the game. When you miss one, and feel some push here somewhere in an NFL pocket. That’s what it is every single Sunday for every single player that plays the position in this league,” said O’Connell.
“You start talking about pocket movement and what pocket movement is. It’s continuing to try to exhaust your progression or maintain number one. How do I get and contain and continue to have that posture while there is a place in the pocket to work through it? And then, if you’re going to get moved off the spot, like what happens to many quarterbacks, you move off the spot and find your checkout elements or make a play with your legs working off schedule.”
You could see the pocket movement from McCarthy. It was choppy steps, and once he tried to throw the ball, his feet were in no position to help him.
“But to me, it comes down to a lot of core principles of consistently every snap, whether it’s number one, all the way to however many we got today [54], which isn’t enough, but we control what we can from the standpoint of techniques and fundamentals and our decision making.”
Finding a way to fix that is the biggest problem for the Vikings right now. Can they make it happen for him? He wasn’t perfect with the Michigan Wolverines, but the issues weren’t this severe.
“I think the element of moving forward into an NFL offense, and the types of throws, the tighter hashes, the more space in the middle of the field, the game’s different,” said O’Connell. “I thought some of his most impactful plays were on some of those weighty downs [3rd and 4th downs]. And he’s had some very impactful plays on those weighty downs for us as well, just looking for the consistency factor. What is my job? What am I being asked to do? And when we start there and we check those boxes, there’s only been some good, good football that follows, and that’s just the journey and the path of the young player learning that lesson and applying it as we move forward to just get out, have a guy out of his lane there.”
When McCarthy does have his base underneath him, it looks good.
The reality is simple for the Vikings and McCarthy. It’s 27 games into his career, but McCarthy has only played in five. They set the expectation that McCarthy could step into Sam Darnold’s shoes and things would be just fine. It’s not even close to that point.
McCarthy is missing the layups, and the big-time throws aren’t hitting either. He deserves time to get this on the right track, but how much grace will he be given?
Needless to say, the Vikings don’t have forever to wait, and the next few games will be critical in figuring out the next steps.
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