The quarterback competition with the Minnesota Vikings is going to be a tough one to parse out, and the biggest aspect is when it will end. Both Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy will be getting plenty of reps, but those reps won’t necessarily be equal due to the flow of practice.

One of the biggest questions that head coach Kevin O’Connell has to answer is the end date for the competition. He has an ideal date, but will let the data tell him.

“There’s an ideal date based upon training camp to make sure we check a lot of boxes for our team, but also for not only that player but our entire offense. So yeah, there’s absolutely a date in mind, subject to what we think is best,” said O’Connell.

Kevin O’Connell confirms there isn’t a specific date for the end of the QB competition

The competition isn’t as simple as you might think. O’Connell spoke about how the flow of practice will be impactful in the competition, as the reps may not be equal in terms of numbers.

“It’s probably not something that we’ll do by the day. It’s going to be more by certain periods. What maybe a guy’s gotten a little bit more third-down work, so then we’ll make sure we kind of try to even it out. But I will say this, and I told the quarterbacks, we don’t need to make this 50-50. When we get into some longer practices, there’s some move-the-ball periods. There’s some periods where the amount of plays is unknown sometimes as you really start to get into what real football is. So there may be some where, by the day, it’s going to be hard to really quantify. Because as practices get going, it’s it’s not that exact science, but over the sequence of many days or as many days as we hope to have before we make a decision, I know we’ll be thorough,” said O’Connell.

That also factors in how the Vikings will end up making their decisions. The date when they will make that decision is up in the air, as both players have plenty to prove.

“If we feel like we can make the decision before that date, we will. If we feel like we need a little bit more time, we’ll take it. And ultimately, a lot of work’s been done to this point and has been evaluated, both on the field, where we think guys are at from their understanding and comfort with our offense. And now we can apply it and really try to push this thing to the point where I think it’s going to enhance both players, and I think it’s going to give us clarity on where we need to go for this year. I can’t remember it right now,” O’Connell continued.

With all of this information, one thing was made clear: they are going to go through everything before making that decision, and an informed one is the way to go.