GET UP | “JJ McCarthy is Minnesota’s QB of the future” – Dan Orlovsky on Vikings beat Bears 27-24

GET UP | “JJ McCarthy is Minnesota’s QB of the future” – Dan Orlovsky on Vikings beat Bears 27-24

[Applause] I wrote all that in an Uber. Jeff, Saturday is back for the first time ever. Our Tuesday team, we welcome J-Mack to the squad. Delighted to have you. And the weekend ended with a fascinating game last night. Take me to Soldier Field and the match up in 24. It was not looking like it was going to be JJ McCarthy’s night. And then he became the first player ever to account for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter of his NFL debut. He also joined Steve Young as the only quarterback since 1950 to direct a double-digit fourth quarter comeback in their NFL debut. So a historic night. Here’s JJ and the coach at the mic. What do you think he will at halftime? You are going to bring us back to win this game. Um and the look in his eye was fantastic. And um the best thing is just the belief I felt from the team. Okay, we got a lot of time to talk about this. Put your feet up. We got two quarterbacks to analyze cuz that’s the story of last night. And Graciano, what was your first thought this morning? I thought that the even though he was hurt and didn’t play last year, the year that JJ McCarthy spent in Minnesota last year was more beneficial to his development than the year Caleb Williams spent in Chicago last year was to his. and and just because, you know, two different head coaches, multiple offensive coordinators, just kind of, you know, didn’t really get, you know, his feet under him in the league even though he was playing. Whereas JJ McCarthy, the coaching infrastructure there in Minnesota is so strong. The belief from the head coach Kevin Oonnell and him is so strong and apparently, as Kevin mentioned, the team feels the same way. So, this is a quarterback who had never played in the NFL before last night, but seemed like he was absolutely ready not only to play, but to continue Minnesota’s success from last year. Remember, there’s a lot of pressure on this young man. They won 14 games last year. So, if he didn’t look like he was up to it, it would have gone sour pretty quickly. Troy started the night by saying he thinks there’s more pressure on McCarthy this year than any other quarterback in the league. And so, how do you think his teammates walked out of that stadium last night? Oh, you walk in that locker room coming off that victory and you say to each other, “Hey, Nick, man, we got to do this. We got our guy. We got our guy.” Saw when he came out, they saw when he throws the interception and then the kid just lets it rip. I mean, it’s like, you know, I ain’t I ain’t sweating this. We’re going to keep this. And he talked about it in the huddle. You You see like what the players said afterwards. They looked in his eyes. He said, “I’m going to bring this team back. We’re going to win this.” Those moments solidify a team extremely quickly. And especially for a young guy who’s got that that air bound. The dude’s been successful everywhere. And now he’s showing you the first time he gets a shot to go come back and make it happen. That’s a special feeling. You were telling us a story this morning about that that you had heard over the summer about a joint practice that I think was interesting. So I was covering the Patriots in in the preseason. So the second week they had a joint practice down in Minnesota. Patriots go out there day one. JJ McCarthy doesn’t perform well. They do some things that he wasn’t ready for. There’s no game planning at that point. So, what the Vikings coaches did, they said, “You know what? We’re going to treat this like a game. We’re going to come in after day one. We’re going to make some corrections. We’re going to game plan a little bit off of what we saw on day one.” JJ McCarthy goes out there in day two, 13 for 13 in practice, has his best one of training camp. And that showed the coaches this is the closest thing to what it’s going to feel like game day. Can I just say how important like we talk about Okconor like how how special he is, but Macau is is quarterback coach as well right there. the that ability, right, to go, hey, you know what? We are going to actually game. We want to put this kid in a position to get him better and actually develop him as a player. Hey JJ, this is what we’re going to do. If we had this in a game, here’s the adjustments we would make. Let’s go see what you could do. And the kid comes out and responds. That’s true development at that position. And it is the most important thing in football because at the at the end of the day, he’s the only guy crossing those lines. He’s got to feel comfortable with the guys on the sideline going to put him in the right play. and trust it. That built the trust there against the Patriots. That’s awesome. I love it. It was an interesting night in so many ways for Caleb Williams on the other side, the former number one. It was a Charles Dickens game, right? It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. You saw some of the really good stuff early. Second half, let me quickly show you a stat here. A6 Cindy, if you would please. So, Caleb completes his first 10 passes, and they were talking about completions. Completions. You heard that on the broadcast last night. He was then offtarget on 29% of his throws that night. So, the highest rate of any quarterback in the league in week one. In that second half, nearly half his throws, 44% were off the mark. So, Dan Graciano, how do the Bears feel waking up this morning? I think they feel like they’ve seen some some things, but there’s more work to do with Caleb Williams, which I think how they would have expected to feel uh after the first game. Brian Flores, the Vikings defensive coordinator, is a terrible matchup for any quarterback, especially a young one, especially in week one of the season where you haven’t really had a chance to see what they’re going to throw at you. So, I think you can kind of you can I don’t want to say excuse, but you can kind of explain some of the struggles I think that way. But, this is a work in progress. Ben Johnson just got there in January. Just, you know, has had one training camp, one off season with Caleb Williams. I think it will get better from here. And I think you saw the signs. He talked to Laura Rutled on the field before the game and he said and she said, “What is what’s your coach’s message been?” And he he said, “It’s been about, you know, just play point guard and then when it’s time to be Superman, be Superman.” And he did a good job of that in the first half, but I think I think Flores and the Vikings defense got him out of his game. You guys tell me the way I viewed it, there were moments out of his hand. Anyone can see it, but there were some of this I know I think we have one of the plays here that that uh there were other moments and Troyman I thought was pointing them out where there were plays there to be made. He didn’t see them. All that kind of stuff. So, if the Vikings are feeling like we got a guy, how are the Bears feeling? It’s hard because they the Vikings the Bears were at that game, too. So, they saw what happened, but I don’t think they should be that discouraged. They don’t have a guy like J what they saw from JJ McCarthy um just yet. But, I think that you could build spin move on the sideline and I saw his athleticism. So, that was a step in the right direction. And then eventually the Vikings started to blitz and the picture got muddy and he started to revert back to some dislike like this one. So, so we just talked about JJ McCarthy and and Jack, you brought up the the development from the the Patriots. Think about this. He’s played 18 games, right? He has had as many okayize him, teach him. And what we all do as players is revert back to our weaknesses when we panic. And there was some of that, right? Because all of a sudden, Brian Flores when they got behind, they throw the pick six. They’re like, “We might as well bring it. We got to create.” And so now it’s to get rid of the the bad habit. Yeah. And the game didn’t unfold the way it did for Minnesota. Caleb didn’t play and they didn’t start on offense as rough as Minnesota did. But at the same time, you look at Caleb and the things that you liked in the first half was there were moments where he stepped all the way up in the pocket. Yes, there was the ones where he’s going on the sidelines making all those throws, but at the same time, they go down in this game and it looks like all the momentum has shifted. Caleb Williams drives him right down the field and scores a touchdown and keeps him in that game. So you still feel really good about the progress that he has made from last year to this year. It is is JJ McCarthy’s 16th month with Kevin Oonnell. It is Caleb Williams six month with Ben Johnson. I think that says it all. And and maybe they’re both headed in the right direction. I think we believe in Ben Johnson. We certainly believe in Kevin Oonnell. If there was a coaching draft, does any of it actually matter between the Bears and Vikings? Or is the NFC North already assured to read like the book of Micah? Did the Packers put everyone on notice on Sunday? Plus, help wanted in Kansas City. Dominique will tell you the big trade the Chiefs need to make right now to save a season for Mr. Mahomes. All that and more. Our Tuesday group reunited and it feels so good.

GET UP | “JJ McCarthy is Minnesota’s QB of the future” – Dan Orlovsky on Vikings beat Bears 27-24