Shortly after the Minnesota Vikings let quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones leave via free agency in March, reports indicated that head coach Kevin O'Connell could have 2024 first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy compete for the starting job this summer.
By all accounts, McCarthy is expected to start ahead of recently acquired backup Sam Howell and journeyman Brett Rypien. During a Wednesday appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," O'Connell spoke carefully about what may be a quarterback competition in name only.
"J.J. is going to be in a great position to assume and ascend in our organization," O'Connell said, as shared by Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. "But right now, we really don’t have any feelings on competition as much as we’ve got an obligation as coaches to put our players in position to attack that competition phase. Sam will be a part of it. But we’ve got to get Sam ready to play. We’ve got to get Brett Rypien ready to play...Excited about our quarterback room, but now it’s our job to go coach them."
That's all well and good, but O'Connell and Co. have said plenty via their actions about what they feel McCarthy will be by September coming off the full meniscus repair that sidelined him for his entire rookie season. Whispers about the Vikings possibly signing future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers to start over McCarthy have disappeared. There's currently no indication that Minnesota will eat a significant portion of Kirk Cousins' salary to give him his desired escape from the Atlanta Falcons.
"I don’t think Vikings fans or any wildly successful nationally renowned broadcasters like yourself should be worried about the amount of reps J.J. is going to get with the ones," O'Connell told Eisen. "We’re going to have him ready to go."
Multiple reports from this past winter noted that McCarthy lost a noticeable amount of weight during his recovery from surgery. On Wednesday, O'Connell suggested the 22-year-old looks better today than he did last summer before he went down with the injury.
"He’s bigger," O'Connell added. "He’s stronger. I can see it in his arm. I can see it in his movements. I can see just the ownership of playing quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. He gained a lot from last year, albeit not how we drew it up...Now can we just build and build and build and progress?"
Current Vikings players who helped the 2024 team go 14-3 with Darnold in the lineup could quickly grow frustrated if McCarthy doesn't look like the real deal by the time the preseason portion of the schedule wraps up. McCarthy may not be in an actual competition for the starting job, but it seems he hasn't yet officially earned the gig at this stage of the offseason program.
