The Minnesota Vikings have a plan for first-round quarterback J.J. McCarthy and if the team’s recently completed minicamp is any indication they won’t be deviating from it.
No matter how impatient some might get.
Not only did McCarthy take zero reps with the first team during team drills — Sam Darnold got the majority of that work — but he also was behind veteran Nick Mullens. McCarthy did much of his work on a separate field with 2023 fifth-round pick Jaren Hall and other backups.
Let’s put to rest any concern that might arise from this: No one is disappointed with McCarthy and this is no indication that he’s not the quarterback the Vikings thought they were drafting with the 10th-overall pick in April.
This is general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell’s plan to set up McCarthy for long-term success. It’s why Darnold was signed to a one-year, $10 million contract to be the Vikings’ starter for as long as necessary in 2024, and it’s why longtime NFL QB Josh McCown was hired as the Vikings’ quarterbacks coach in February as the team prepared to draft a replacement for Kirk Cousins.
Watching McCarthy in one Organized Team Activity and three days of minicamp provides a good idea of why the Vikings are taking this approach with him. There is no denying his arm strength, but that doesn’t overshadow the fact that he doesn’t always know where the ball is going, or his Brett Favre-like desire to try to throw the ball through defenders. (Those passes often get broken up or intercepted in the NFL.)
McCarthy had his best performance on the final day of the minicamp, showing a touch on a few nicely thrown passes and what appeared to be a growing confidence with an offensive system that veteran QBs consider to be challenging. Darnold discussed the intricacies of O’Connell’s system last week.
There are plenty of areas of McCarthy’s game that O’Connell, McCown and offensive coordinator Wes Phillips want to improve before he ever takes a regular-season snap in the NFL. Phillips, for instance, said that McCarthy’s stance in the shotgun has been altered so that his left foot is forward. That’s not something he did at Michigan and it will take time to make any mechanical adjustments seem like second nature.
The Vikings have a final round of OTAs this week and then will get a break before training camp opens in late July. If McCarthy shows rapid progress in training camp, there is a chance that Mullens could be moved to a QB-needy team for a late-round draft pick and McCarthy could open the season as Darnold’s backup. That likely would make Hall the third-string quarterback.
Mullens’ presence also means the Vikings could stick with him as the backup heading into the regular season and have McCarthy be the third-team QB, while trying to sneak Hall onto the practice squad.
It might raise some alarm if that happens, but it’s unlikely there would be a lot of concern at TCO Performance Center. Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell drafted McCarthy with an eye toward solving the Vikings’ QB situation for the long term, not rushing a rookie onto the field.
That means every quarterback decision the Vikings make in the coming year will be focused on what’s best for McCarthy and not what fans feel they should do.
Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com.