Kevin O’Connell says the obvious about J.J. McCarthy’s development, and it raises major questions about the entire process

Kevin O’Connell is adapting his development of J.J. McCarthy on the fly, and it’s both smart and concerning.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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Nov 2, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell greets quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) after throwing a touchdown pass in the first quarter at Ford Field.
Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Vikings’ journey with J.J. McCarthy has been a wild one.

After he missed the entire 2024 season with a torn meniscus, McCarthy finally got to be the starting quarterback to start the year, and it’s been very up and down. After he won NFC Offensive Player of the Week in his first start against the Chicago Bears, McCarthy suffered a high ankle sprain in his second start against the Atlanta Falcons. Pair that with the concussion he suffered against the Green Bay Packers, and you get a lot of inconsistent play, which has been the most frustrating part.

Kevin O’Connell explains how J.J. McCarthy played well on Sunday

McCarthy’s inconsistencies have been the biggest issue. There appears to be too much thinking on the field, as he is slow with his reads and pulling the trigger when receivers are open down the field. Some of that can be chalked up to head coach Kevin O’Connell’s offense being a little more complicated than the average scheme, while the other major aspect is his lack of experience.

What changed on Sunday? O’Connell told the voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen, during the X’s and O’s show on Tuesday about the game plan.

“The whole game plan was about stacking positive plays,” said O’Connell. “A positive play could be a lot of different things, and we were able to do that as an offense all day long. But I think the other thing for J.J., there’s a lot been made of fundamentals and technique, and our job as coaches are to try to help players improve. And we’ve navigated through the season of watching him show improvement in areas of fundamentals and technique.”

The fundamentals is a really important thing. We’ve talked a lot about his mechanics, including on the latest episode of The Real Forno Show. The other aspect of his game isn’t about fundamentals, as they are still somewhat wonky. It’s about playing more free, which was the other main focus from O’Connell.

“But there’s another layer to it. With J.J. in certain times of the season, you would get a response of, ‘I thought this player was going to do that, speaking about a defensive player. Or, ‘Hey, I played with Mike Sainristil still at Michigan. He’s real instinctive.’ Stop,” said O’Connell. “Just quiet your mind, and let’s not overthink anything other than what is my job on the play and making good decisions.”

This is the other element, and something that can be discussed. How much do you want to go pure progression, where you aren’t necessarily reading defenses as much versus trying to decipher what they are doing and attacking spaces? Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner feels like this isn’t the right way to go about it.

Here’s the big thing. The growth and progression of a quarterback isn’t always linear. Each player needs to go at their own pace. The one concerning thing is O’Connell telling McCarthy to stop thinking about what others are going to do and just see it on the field. McCarthy seemed to be overthinking everything, and it was taking its toll on the field. This past week, he was playing more freely and that resulted in his best performance from start to finish. They may go away from the pure progression style in time, but through one game, it seems to be working.

It’s very interesting that the Vikings have done so many different things when it comes to McCarthy’s development. The focus on just playing the game worked once. Can it work that way again? The last four games will be a huge point of focus.

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