The Minnesota Vikings are rolling with J.J. McCarthy as their starting quarterback. However, the Vikings are not letting McCarthy settle into his role. He is going through a rigorous test that his predecessors Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold both endured.
Encouragingly for the Vikings, McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick whom the organization traded up to select, passed the first battery of tests from defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
ESPN’s Kevin Seifert detailed an early interception that McCarthy quickly learned from.
McCarthy was attempting to find Justin Jefferson in a “tight window.” Byron Murphy Jr. tipped the pass to Ivan Pace Jr. Seifert called the moment a “neat snapshot” of how the Vikings are testing McCarthy. For the defense, it was the “usual practice shenanigans.”
“A few periods after Murphy forced the interception, he blitzed and came free off the edge, seemingly surprising McCarthy as he swiveled into the pocket,” Seifert wrote on June 1, detailing one of the Vikings’ practice sessions. “This time, McCarthy reacted quickly and checked down to an open receiver.
“Darnold said last year that his spring and summer work against the Vikings’ defense had left it much easier to see the field against the team’s early opponents.”
“In 2023, Kirk Cousins, the Vikings’ starter at the time, noted the difficulty of practicing the team’s offensive plays against a defense as unpredictable as Flores’,” Seifert wrote.
Both Cousins and Darnold lauded how well the Vikings’ practices prepared them for games.
This early review of McCarthy is a good start. CBS Sports’ Garrett Podell wrote on June 2 that McCarthy’s performance was the Vikings’ “biggest” storyline ahead of mandatory minicamp (June 10 through June 12). Podell also deemed McCarthy the Vikings’ “player to watch.”
J.J. McCarthy Picking Up Where He Left Off With Vikings
The Vikings’ defense ranked 28th in passing yards allowed in 2024. However, they also led the league in interceptions and blitz rate, per Pro Football Reference. They are not sacking McCarthy in practice, but the pressure has the same effect.
That McCarthy showed such quick adaptation bodes well, but it also harkens back to reports that he was impressing the coaching staff before his injury in 2024.
“The Vikings had grown increasingly excited about the likelihood that he would be ready to play this season — and there was an outside chance that he could have beaten out Darnold for the Week 1 starter’s job,” Seifert previously wrote in December 2024. “The injury not only set back those plans, but they also limited his capacity for developing over the course of his rookie season.”
To overcome the latter hurdle, the Vikings utilized virtual reality training.
McCarthy would watch Darnold’s reps, meaning he has seen much of what Flores and Co. are trying to do to him in VR. That could help explain his ability to make the necessary adjustments quickly.
J.J. McCarthy Checks Off Another Pre-Draft Question Mark
Seifert noted after one practice that McCarthy’s arm was better than some speculated before the 2024 draft. His ability to take information gained and use it for future reps could check off another box.
“What I don’t like is you can watch a play and you can tell, OK, they’re going to this guy. And if the defense calls it, they’ve got it covered, he will f—ing wait and wait and wait and wait and start moving around and moving around and he is throwing it to that f—ing dude,” an anonymous AFC executive told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero in comments published in April 2024. “You’re like, G******, look somewhere else!”
The executive did note McCarthy’s athleticism allowed him to get away with some of that at the collegiate level, noting there is some “miss factor” but also “some upside” to the Vikings’ QB.
The exec’s bottom line aligns with what an NFC coordinator said in his assessment of McCarthy.
“I don’t think scouts are going to be as enamored with him. I think they’re going to really like him, but scouts like the tools, right? They like the size, the mobility, the arm talent, the ‘wow.’ A lot of your coordinators and coaches like the decision-making, the process, the understanding of the game, the management of the game, being able to do what I need him to do when I need him to do it. You feel like you’re watching an NFL-ready quarterback,” the coordinator said, per Pelissero. “He’s the cleanest, safest pick.”
The Vikings are taking a risk, but it is a calculated one. The Vikings are also one of the most highly-regarded situations for a young quarterback to develop in the NFL. Minnesota boasts a loaded set of skill players and top-tier defense, and they bolstered their trenches this offseason.
