Is Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy the REAL DEAL? | NFL Today+

Is Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy the REAL DEAL? | NFL Today+

[Applause] It is time for the real deal presented by Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL. Please feel free to uh send us some because I am already hungry. JJ McCarthy, is he the real deal? It was a phenomenal fourth quarter, but that was it. We just had the fourth quarter. Let’s go to our quarterback, Matt Ryan. Is he the real deal? What’s the most important quarter? Okay, true. Put yourself in position to be able to finish. Uh listen, it’s too early. It It is way too early. The sample size is too small. Uh, but I liked how he responded to throwing that pick six, which by the way, it looked like it may have been on Justin Jefferson to me. I watched it. JJ McCarthy’s footwork is on time. Justin Jefferson cut off his second inside step. On those deep out routes, it’s usually the third inside step. So, it can make it a lot look a lot worse uh when the timing and the steps are off. I’m not sure who was wrong, but just from my untrained eye, uh, it looked like that. But I liked what I saw from him after that. I I liked how he responded. I liked how he was at the line of scrimmage getting them in and out of protections, getting them in and out of plays. That’s not easy to do as a young player. The other thing I liked is he went to his playmaker in the fourth quarter. He found Justin Jefferson deep out route. He hits right on the sideline. He stepped into that throw, wore one on the chin, and put that ball right where he needed to. We saw the second touchdown pass over the middle uh to Justin Jefferson. the location on the throw down and dirty at that front line to protect his guy, to protect the football. I thought that was excellent. But the most important thing is I think this is the first quarterback that Kevin Oonnell has ever had that has the running ability of JJ McCarthy. And I think what that’s going to allow them to do as an offense is going to be really interesting to see kind of Kevin’s creativity with the quarterback run game come out. Here’s what stood out to me about this young man. He had all the eyes of the football universe on him. Prime time football. That’s what they say in the night before the meeting, right? All eyes of the football. And if I’m a young quarterback, I’m like, “Oh, oh, damn. All the eyes.” Okay. Is that what they say? Like, I mean, really, that’s the quote. That’s the quote in the Saturday night meeting. Everybody’s watching. Everybody’s going to be watching tomorrow night. So, be at your best when your best is needed. And JJ McCarthy, his best wasn’t needed early. And I give credit to Kevin O’Connell for pressing the right buttons on his Madden console. And you could hear him on the sideline at a certain point. He said, “Okay, now we’re gonna give you a chance to take some shots. You’ve been doing great. You just keep being you. The thing that stood out to me was he didn’t blink in such a hostile environment and he came away with what the win, Matt. That’s all that matters. They got they got got the W. You mentioned Kevin Oonnell, too, and kind of unleashing him. 24 drop back passes. 24 passes that they dropped back on. He only had what 20 attempts. So there were four plays whether he was 13 of 20. 13 of 20. But 24 times they called plays to drop back and pass. Only 10 of them were straight drop back. The rest quick game, screens, play action, movement. I thought Kevin did an excellent job of not putting too much on him too early and then allowing it to take those handcuffs off and go for it in the first. Think about we’re all young players, right? And at one at some point in the game, we had a bad moment. Yeah. And how your team and how your coaches respond says a lot about your culture. 100%. He threw a pick six and Kevin Okonnell right away put his arm around his quarterback. Yeah. and whispered some good some good things to his ear and he said, “I believe in you.” Yes. And I think from that point on, you saw the poise. You saw the maturity. JJ McCarthy, all he’s ever done from high school, college is win. He’s a winner. Eating and he’s a winner. And you can see it, you know, and you notice, you understand even with even even with even with uh Justin Jefferson, you got a dynamic receiver. He could have went into the tank and start pointing fingers, man. What are you doing? Throw me the damn ball. But they didn’t. They all wrapped their arms around this young quarterback. And it was amazing to see the culture that Kevin has built there. One last thing on JJ and and these were the sacks and the times he got hit. And I think this is something you can appreciate as an offensive lineman. The one thing I liked about all of those sacks and the times that that he was pressured in the pocket, he was climbing forward. He was climbing forward into the eye of the storm and going forward. And you know it that’s reliable from a quarterback when you’re not just going to escape early and just run outside to try and create space. You’re willing to go up forward in the pocket. I think that’s huge. Now, on the other side of it, Caleb Williams, that was one of my biggest frustrations with him as a rookie is never going forward in the pocket. And he had a completely different performance, at least from my perspective in that first game. He really did. Really quickly, because I like arguments, and I want to know what people at home think. JJ McCarthy, if he has an outstanding season, should he have been able to be rookie of the year, which in the NFL, they they don’t have that. Correct. He’s a secondyear player, but he’s a rookie to me. He’s a rookie to me. How about newcomer of the year? There you go. Great. Newcomer of the year. He his he had a baby on Thursday. That could be newcomer of you. This has been winning.

The NFL Today+ crew break down J.J. McCarthy’s Week 1 performance vs the Bears and discuss if he is the real deal.

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