With Sam Darnold departing for Seattle in the offseason, the Minnesota Vikings are officially turning to J.J. McCarthy as their starting quarterback — a role the team envisioned for him from the start.
McCarthy, selected 10th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, was brought in as the Vikings’ quarterback of the future.
That future was delayed when the rookie tore his meniscus last preseason, requiring surgery that sidelined him for his entire first year.
In his absence, Darnold led the team to a stellar 14-3 regular season before falling to the Rams in the wild card round of the playoffs.
Now, with a full year of recovery and preparation behind him, McCarthy is stepping into the spotlight — and the organization is backing him fully.
“He has a gravitational pull as a leader. He really does,” Vikings owner Zygi Wilf told KFAN. “The talent is there. Coach [Kevin] O’Connell is glowing in his praises of how he’s handled everything, and from an off-the-field perspective, we couldn’t be happier.
“So all things are pointing the right direction, and we’re going to be supporting J.J. to have him be the success we want him to be.”
As Wilf alluded to, head coach Kevin O’Connell couldn’t be happier with the impressive progress that McCarthy’s made throughout the offseason.
“You guys have heard me say it throughout the offseason, but there’s been a lot of lonely hours where it’s him and the training staff and the strength staff, and just the work he’s put in to get his body where he’s at, his arm feeling the way it is, and then of course, coming off the injury, his lower body feeling as good as it does to move the way he’s doing,” O’Connell said.
“He looks great. He’s feeling really good. Now we’ve gotta stack a lot of really good days of spring together.”
O’Connell is urging quarterbacks coach Josh McCown to leave “no stone unturned” when it comes coaching McCarthy up and preparing him for the grind of the upcoming season.
“We can’t assume that he knows any particular thing just based upon the meeting room. We’ve got to come out and organically feel exactly where he’s at,” O’Connell said.
“I’ve told quarterbacks for a long time, meeting room, when you’re studying things on your own, and then when you’re in it, in the huddle, coming off of a play where, ‘Shoot, I might have missed a protection call,’ but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s another down coming, and another one and another one.
“I’ve been really surprised by some of the things that he does know. You’re like, ‘Man, we covered that in a 10-minute burst in Week 11 last year; how do you remember that?’ And then there’s some other things where you’re like, ‘Oh, I assumed he knew that,’
“So it’s our job, baseline teaching and stacking days and layered learning, so that we’re constantly making him feel like he’s growing – but never comfortable. Never satisfied on any particular outcome, because we’re building toward something much greater than just a single play here or there.”
With McCarthy under center, it certainly looks like the Vikings’ future is pretty damn bright … Do you think McCarthy will help Minnesota take control of the NFC North going forward???
