Training camp is finally kicking off on Wednesday afternoon, and we started to hear from players. Most importantly, we got to hear from both Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks involved in the competition: Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy.

The battle itself will be constructed in a fair manner, with the best player winning, even if it won’t necessarily be 50/50.

“I will say this, and I told the quarterbacks, we don’t need to make this 50-50,” said head coach Kevin O’Connell on Tuesday afternoon. 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.”

J.J. McCarthy understands what his process needs to be

One of the big things with McCarthy going into this season was his process. The Athletic’s Alec Lewis highlighted that McCarthy’s discipline wasn’t consistent enough in 2025.

Then there’s the consistency piece: how McCarthy shows up to work every day and how his habits progress in his third season. The Vikings have a high standard at the position. They want the starting quarterback to lift the tide for the entire team in 2026. This requires a level of discipline, which was up and down last season for McCarthy.

The message seems to have gotten to McCarthy, as it was one of the first things he talked about on Wednesday.

“My biggest takeaway is just being obsessive with the day-to-day routine, being obsessive with each moment, and trying to find those times to get better,” said McCarthy. “But also getting that time to balance the recovery aspect. What are you eating? What are you doing with recovery? Is it too much sauna, too much ice-cold tubs? I feel really confident going into this year, and making space for game plans, what’s the defense showing me this week and being able to be more instinctive than having that paralysis by analysis.”

When you watched McCarthy last season, he was very up-and-down. That was a big factor in the Vikings missing the playoffs last season. The quarterback position was way too up-and-down, and McCarthy was the most up-and-down of them all. You can’t always control what the results are, but you can control how you handle your business.

It’s a big deal hearing If McCarthy can get that under control and be consistent, it could be huge in maximizing his chances at winning the starting job.