Is JJ McCarthy STILL the Minnesota Vikings’ QB of the future?

Is JJ McCarthy STILL the Minnesota Vikings’ QB of the future?

Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. I just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. All right, we’re back in it. We’re back in it. Vikings have been practicing. Uh they had like a bonus kind of team practice already this week, it sounds like. And we’ll get an official injury report out tomorrow to see kind of who’s tracking to come back for this Eagles game. The Eagles are broken the last co I would argue the Eagles have been broken all year and somehow still started 4 and 0. So this is a super interesting preparation week here. But this is our state of the Vikings Tuesday episode of Purple Daily where we do a deep dive into our favorite things, least favorite things, the overview, uh the biggest headline story of the week which is once again quarterback related. Presented in part by MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning Sports Father. That is correct. And guess what? 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So, I’ll I’ll fly through the overview because obviously the Vikings didn’t play a game this week, but they there were some other teams did and so there’s been some shuffling in like their playoff odds and different things. So, uh playoff odds according to ESPN’s football power index the FBI. Mhm. 23% chance for the 3-2 Vikings to make the playoffs, 7% chance to win the division and a.7% chance to win the Super Bowl. Okay. So, not uh not great, Bob. Even though they’re three and two and they’ve weathered a massive injury storm, we’ll get to some schedule stuff. Like, some of this is projecting who they play and they have a really hard schedule on paper. They play most of the top 10 teams in the uh the FBI. Offensive ranks, scoring offense, which includes the two defensive touchdowns, 12th in points per game. Vikings offense is 19th in yards per play. and uh 27th in expected points added analytically. So not great. And then defensive rank scoring defense points per game fifth yards per play defense eighth defensive expected points added analytically they are second. So, by any measurement defensively or the big measurements, one of the better defenses in the NFL as far as where Carson Wentz ranks after his three starts, 14th in passer rating, 33rd in QBR, 11th in expected points added uh combined with completion percentage over expected. So the analytical department 11th and then PFF scouting grade 31st out of like 37 I think qualified quarterbacks. So his average rank Carson Wentz in those four categories. He’s the 22nd best quarterback in the NFL. JJ McCarthy through two starts was the 33rd ranked quarterback pretty much dead last in the NFL. So, let’s just get right into the biggest headline of the week here going into week seven and it’s once again the quarterback situation out of the buy. Kevin Seaffort in his article on ESPN.com, your former colleague, our friend. So, he just has a little blurb here about Kevin Oonnell acknowledging that the public decision on the starting quarterback can be different than what are we going to do internally and for the game. So, he said we’re he basically said, “We’re not going to tell you. You’re going to find out sometime later on this week. And they also get to practice behind closed doors so they can strategically sort of they can put Carson Wentz and JJ out for individuals and then do whatever they want behind closed doors. But KOC said, quote, “I think we’ve got to prepare to try and win a game on Sunday. We really want to get our team ready to go.” And in the process of doing that, JJ McCarthy has his plan of attack that we want to try and make sure we maximize every single day and prepare all of our guys to be ready to go and make the best decision for our team and then also individually for each one of the guys as we get closer to it. Wentz also dealing with a shoulder injury. Uh, and then uh I think this is from the Jud Zulgad substack here in terms of because McCarthy’s been around. He was while other guys might have taken some time off like McCarthy was in the facility working with Kevin O’Connell last week and KC said we had some good sessions out there kind of getting back to a lot of the principles of lower body mechanics and things that had been really good parts of his early journey here. It didn’t even hit me until we were out there. He had practiced one time since we left Chicago after week one. A lot of the things that you’re allow uh that you’re allowing him to get his health back, get his feet back underneath him, and then building that foundation of fundamentals and techniques. So, as you parse apart Kevin Oonnell’s comments about the quarterback situation, what stands out to you? Oh, a lot stands out. Um ju just the fact that they he basically acknowledged that they went back to basics of the mechanics in the by-week I thought was really intriguing because clearly that the mechanics were out of whack against the Falcons and before we get into who we expect to start I think there’s a conversation here because you know it’s weird and we talked about this and I belittle people I belittle them because we had uh a you know not a lot we had scouting reports that said JJ McCarthy’s arm strength is an issue and then I well heck we both went out to training camp practices this and we’re like it’s not an issue at all. His arm’s really strong. But I realize because if in the Falcons game, if you go back and watch, especially on stuff to the boundary, on stuff to the sideline, he does have it’s the the ball is not nearly as crisp as it was in training camp. Yeah. And I realized, and this is what the experts didn’t realize, I realized the the problem here. He has no arm strength problems. He has his mechanics get out of whack, I think, in game sometimes. And therefore, if he’s trying to make a pass, like I think he’s fine if it’s over the middle, but I think if it’s to the sideline, especially the far, his problem is this, his mechanic, he’s not using his mechanics correctly. So, it’s all arm. So, it’s like a pitcher that tries to throw with just his arm. Like, you have to use your whole body. And I think that’s what Okonnell is talking about. Therefore, I think the issues on, hey, McCarthy’s arm, something’s wrong here. It’s not as strong. And we’re all like, yeah, it is. It’s fine. And I I asked him about it during the uh during the summer workouts. It’s more an issue of when his mechanics get out of sorts, that’s where the arm strength becomes like it becomes like what’s wrong with his arm because his legs aren’t supporting his arm and you can’t just long arm the football. So I think that’s what I think that’s what Okonnell is saying. We’re working on on that. I think it was very poor against the Falcons. And so I thought that was a really interesting place to have to go back to though when you are well you’re into his second year here. Obviously, he didn’t practice a year ago, but when you have gone through offseason workouts, when you’ve gone through a training camp, when you’ve gone through two games and then you sort of have to go back to the drawing board a little bit, I think to make sure that the simple mechanics in game are maintained from what from what we have seen from early in the journey when it was just all about practice time. I think if he had played 20 games and we were still talking about lower body mechanics and footwork and errant throws out past the hash marks and whatnot, I I would sound the alarm. If if if we were a year and a half in, it’s like, okay, he’s he’s been out there 18 starts, 20 starts, he’s had the Drake May workload, he’s had the Jaden Daniels workload, and we’re talking about me, we’re talking about practice, we’re talking about mechanics. I would say that’s a huge red flag and a huge problem. But when you when you put it in the context as Kevin Oonnell did of well well he only put it in the context of this year which is he’s only had one practice since the Chicago game. He’s only had one full week of game prep, regular season practice in his career and it was the Chicago game, right? That’s it. He didn’t have any last year. So the the the things we’re talking about mechanically I find interesting. one because he just it it just shines a light on the fact that he’s barely practiced. Like the offseason stuff, the training camps, the joint practices against the Patriots, all super valuable. Those are kind of in a separate bin though because the preparing for the team you play in the upcoming week type of practice like that that’s how you win games. So, the fact that we’re sitting here talking about his footwork when other quarterbacks from that draft class are still thinking about some of that stuff because they’re not perfectly honed products either, but they’re thinking about game planning and playing chess against the Bills. Patriots go in and beat the Bills a couple weeks ago, right? Or the or Michael Pennix last night beating the Bills on Monday Night Football. Caleb Williams going on the road against the Commanders. like it’s like they’re so far down the road of their careers even after a year and a half and we’re still at the starting gate talking about footwork with McCarthy. Um but I give him a little grace because he he hasn’t practiced. He literally like we’re this is the way you would talk about a young quarterback who’s 22 and has barely practiced. So it’s um it’s kind of it’s an interesting thing to balance here while they’re also trying to figure out who plays against the Eagles this week. I think if Carson Wentz was fully healthy, I think it’d be a no-brainer. But he’s dealing with a shoulder, and we’re going to find out on the Wednesday report tomorrow. Is he limited? Is he Is he not practicing at all? So, we may, Jud, we may be dealing with a situation where McCarthy is the healthier of the two going into this game, but they don’t trust some of the other stuff that has eroded clearly since training camp with his footwork. Yeah. On Wednesday, it’s non-throwing though. I think he’s got I think he’s hurt. I think he’s legit hurt. I think he can play. So, like if if it was his throwing shoulder, he would probably be out, but he’s not. So, but back to McCarthy and the mechanics, what interests me here though is what what Okonnell is saying is in practice, like in training camp, the footwork was okay. So, like literally what we’re seeing is how do you maintain how do you maintain your composure in mechanics when the fur is flying in a real game? Like this is the this is the interesting thing. If his mechanics were just sort of always off, then you just go about fixing him full time. But you’re literally trying to train his brain in a game now to say you cannot like you can’t deviate from what what is successful at TCO Performance Center on a Wednesday needs to be what you do on a Sunday. And I think that Falcons game I think he got out out of sorts. I think the Bears game a little bit as well those first three quarters. So, I guess my question is, and I don’t know that Okonnell would get into this, but what I’m curious about is how do you get his brain to a point where he can maintain those mechanics, and I will say this, total guess here, okay? I’m not a quarterback expert, but I will say this, given the knock on McCarthy at Michigan, I don’t know that Harbaugh fixed him in game. Like, I think Harbaugh hand handed off. I think Harbaugh got enough from him. It was a co it’s college which is tough but not the National Football League. I think Harbaugh got enough from McCarthy at Michigan that he’s like I can get by with this. Right. So So I think Okonnell’s the first one that says well no I mean I I need you to be at your 100 percentile all the time. It can’t be well you’re not well your mechanics are screwed up so we will just run the ball. Like that doesn’t work here. So this so this is the interesting dynamic of how do you get this fixed not on Wednesday and Thursday. We know it’s fixed then. How do you get it fixed on Sunday? Yeah. And it’s like it’s like anything. It’s uh I mean, think back to when you were learning how to drive a car for the first time and you’re in a controlled I remember my dad took me to uh like an empty high school parking lot in uh in like the western BB somewhere and like, “Okay, Philip, we’re going to so we’re just going to be going real slow and here’s where all the buttons are and here’s where the pedals are and this one is a brake and that’s a gas and then oh look out. There’s a light pole up there in the parking lot, but you still got about 50 yards until you hit it. And then, okay, so you know where all the things are. Now, it’s time to go on the freeway for the first time. And I remember even just like merging onto uh it was I think we were in Maple Grove and we merged on to 94 going from like uh County Road 30 to to Weaver Lake Road. So, it was maybe a mile and a half of freeway at 55 or 60 m an hour. And I felt out of control the first time I emerged on a freeway as a 15-year-old learning how to drive. And of course, like you look back now, it’s like you you just get comfortable with it after, you know, a few reps and then you’re fine. It’s it’s probably like that when you’re a young quarterback. And you know what helps some of that is more practice time and reps and preparation and game time and game time. And he has had, dude, he’s had none of that. He’s literally only played in terms of um simulation above practice level. And practice level is important and he’s missed most of the practices over the course of 18 months. The things that would be above the level of practice are like the joint practices against opposing teams and he has had that the last two years. Preseason games he’s played in two and then regular season games he’s played in two, one of which he clearly got hurt halfway through it. So, it’s um you’re trying to get him these reps and simulate some of this stuff while your team is fighting for its life at 3 and two with a tough schedule ahead. They’ve found themselves in a really complicated situation. And I think KOC is going to kind of merge the ankle healing and the unurdiness of the base with the mechanics and he’s going to kind of merge those things together. My personal opinion is just parsing all of this apart, the the ankle is like pretty close to healed, I think, and now it’s it’s less about the ankle impacting him and it’s more about just the mechanics, period. Do they feel comfortable with him playing and starting against the Eagles? And so what I’ve decided to do with the old substack is speculate each day that KO talks that this week on my starter. like I’m trying to parse through because he’s I I think he’s I don’t think he’s going to get up to the podium tomorrow and tell us. I mean, he might, but anyway, so I came away with the conclusion from what he said on yesterday that I think when starts right now and they’re going to go into, you know, keep in mind too, you can’t just like you’re not going to split reps on Wednesday and Thursday. Like you go in, they’ll game plan today. The coaches will. There might even be a quarterback there. Who knows? But I don’t want to talk about Tuesdays. Um, but they will have a plan starting tomorrow that they’re going to install and you want your starting quarterback to get that work. So, it’s not like JJ Carson JJ Carson. So, I what I heard was a guy that is going to start Wceence on Sunday because I do think there’s enough concern about the mechanics being out of whack in games that I don’t know that Kevin feels comfortable putting him back in yet. But I will say this personally, I think you and I said this to Declan on Monday. I think you got to rip the band-aid off at some point too. Like he needs the playing time. So I guess you’ve got a way is Carson Wentz that much of an improvement for you to win games and and how far do you think that you can even go versus when you are comfortable that McCarthy and you’re just going to have to give him a chance too like you’re this is not going to be perfected. And by the way, KO also is going to have to probably adjust his game plan a bit for either QB. He did it with Wentz. He’s going to have to do it with McCarthy as well. But that’s the interesting what what’s the term threading the needle to me is when do you put McCarthy back in? Cuz it can’t just be you know what it’s going to be two months or it’s going to be the rest of the season. And if you look at the schedule there’s not like no great time. It’s not like how Okay, here’s the thing, Phil. Detroit at Detroit. We’re gonna play Sunday against Philadelphia. We’re gonna play Thursday against the Chargers. And then short week like Yeah. And then and and then Phil, we’re going to have extra time. So, you know, when we’re going to unleash JJ at Forward Field, so there’s there’s no great time to do this, but I am just trying to handicap what I think Okonnell is going to do. I I think Wentz as of right now is starting on Sunday. I’m going to ask you to speculate a little bit here, but you’ve you’ve you’ve covered the NFL for uh for over two decades. You’ve been a beatw writer. You’ve sleuththed around. If if anyone has a PhD in deciphering what the coaches are saying about injuries at podiums, it’s Judg. And uh and I think I’m with you. I think right now, if I had to choose, I think they’re probably going to start Carson Wentz. But maybe that changes over the next couple days with more information. Absolutely. And if they start Carson Wentz, I don’t think it’s because of JJ McCarthy’s health. I think, like I just said a few minutes ago, I think there’s a good chance that with Carson’s, it’s a non it’s a nonthrowing shoulder injury, but he is banged up. Clearly, there’s been some buzz about it. I think there’s a good chance Carson is more banged up than JJ. So, if they start Carson Wentz this week andor against the Chargers in a week and a half or Yeah. be uh 9 days from now and JJ is healthy and now you’re now you’re sitting him healthy. What does that mean for you? Well, okay. So, I’ve got the workound. I’ve got the workaround cuz that’s a great that that’s a great question. How do you spin it if you’re the Vikings or and I will go back to 200 and what what year did Brooks Ballinger get here? Was it 2006 or se 07? He might have gotten here in ‘ 06, but he played in ‘ 07. Yeah. Anyway, there there was a game, it might have been 06. There was a game at Lambeau Field where going into that game for like the previous two games or so, Tavarus Jackson had been hurt. So, I think Brooks started, someone else started. And I remember the game which the Vikings got blown out in, Brooks started, but Tavvaris was the backup QB, which is a benching. It’s my it’s my humble opinion if Kevin Oonnell were to ask the sports dad that if JJ McCarthy does not play on like does not start on Sunday, he is he is not the backup QB. So, bro would be the bag because you just hit on what I think is the biggest like media and the gravitational pull of oh my god what’s wrong here is if you say yeah you know what Carson’s going to start and um JJ’s still nursing the ankle a bit so he’s our backup you’re benching him you’re benching if he’s if he’s active as a QB2 he’s healthy enough to play in an NFL game especially behind a quarterback that’s one shoulder ding away from being out of the game. So, so it would it would then be a benching. Bingo. A a soft benching or a straight up benching. But I mean, we would be like we would be it. No, that would be a straightup benching. That that would be a he’s been hurt. He couldn’t play. You people are fools for suggesting that he wasn’t hurt to oh no, he could play, but he’s not going to. So, my advice would be he is not the backup Brosmer is. And I know that might mean that that Max has to play, but the reality is I I I think you’re setting yourself up for a lot of unnecessary um um criticism, unnecessary angst. That’s probably the best word. Unnecessary angst for both you and McCarthy if you clearly are benching him. The Brosmer truthers are licking their chops this week, by the way, because you got them. You got two banged up quarterbacks in front of him with one of them that’s like trying to figure out basic footwork, you know, going, we’re going back to the basics. God bless him. I like those truthers. P positive. Phil wants to bring something to light here regarding the It feels like there’s more and more panic surrounding McCarthy and the Vikings decision to move on from Darnold and Daniel Jones as you continue to watch those guys rack up some wins. Sure. And uh and and positive Phil wants to shine some some light on something here after we shout out Pepsi. So listen, these Justin Jefferson souvenir cups right here, it doesn’t matter who’s playing quarterback. He’s catching passes and he’s going over 100 and he’s one of the best receivers in the league. And you can get these Justin Jefferson souvenir cups here courtesy of Pepsi now inside Buffalo Wild Wings locations around the Twin Cities. So stop into a B-Dubz, go get one of these Justin Jefferson cups. 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So, okay. positive Phil has had rabbit ears listening to people panic about the Vikings quarterback situation cuz once again this weekend you had Sam Darnold Seahawks another win for for the Hawks, Daniel Jones. I think both those guys right now would get MVP votes. I think Baker Mayfield right now would probably win the MVP if the voting was taking place today which is funny because those are three those three quarterbacks. Baker, Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, all top six overall picks that were deemed busts by the public, the media, and their original drafting team. And now all three of those guys are probably going to get MVP votes. But Sam Darnold has been a top five quarterback across the board this year. Daniel Jones has been a top six or seven quarterback across the board this year. And people look at that and they say, “Oh no.” And we had this discussion last week on the state of the Vikings. if you have any Sam Darnold regret. And they come to the conclusion, oh no, the Vikings chose wrong. They made a fatal quarterback mistake by choosing incorrectly, letting Sam Darnold go and Daniel Jones go. So, let me get this straight. If you if you rewind a year ago, the narrative was after Kurt Cousins was on the way out, boy, Kevin O’Connell, this dude, look what look what he’s doing with quarterbacks or not even a year ago, go back like a few months ago, he squeezed eight fourth quarter comebacks out of Kurt Cousins. And Kirk Cousins, who with every other team, every other head coach system, everything have been a 500 quarterback across the board. They did pop up and win like 10 or 11 games one year with Zimmer. They won a playoff game, but he’s been largely the teams that have Cousins are largely 500 teams except when Kevin Oonnell was his head coach and they pop off for like 13 wins and eight fourth quarter comebacks. Elevates Kirk Cousins. He saves Sam Darnold’s career and gets him a hundred million dollar contract in MVP votes. by Daniel Jones own admission as we played that clip from the Andrew Witworth and uh Ryan Fitzpatrick podcast. Daniel Jones said publicly last week, I wasn’t there that long, but the the work that they do in those Kevin Oonnell quarterback rooms and the details and the aggressiveness down the field hunting for chunk plays, I learned a ton in just two months of being in Kevin Oonnell’s uh you know, orbit, I guess. So Kevin Oonnell, common denominator behind Kurt Cousins, eight fourth quarter comebacks, Daniel Jones revive his career, Sam Darnold revive his career, and yet we’re supposed to flip that entire narrative when it comes to JJ McCarthy and and think, oh, they’re doomed because they chose the next quarterback in that line of success stories instead of these other ones that were revived in large part because of Kevin Oonnell. Wouldn’t the logical conclusion Jud be that Kevin Oonnell worked wonders with Kirk? He worked wonders with Sam. Apparently behind the scenes he worked wonders with Daniel Jones despite not ever having him set foot on a field for the Vikings in a meaningful fashion. So then therefore he is going to work wonders with JJ McCarthy. That you should buy JJ McCarthy stock now if you believe in all the other projects that Kevin Oonnell has put out the last three years. Well, I think the first thing is, and it’s funny because this was out there and it’s almost like now from what you’re saying, it’s lost in the translation of the thing. The Vikings very much wanted to keep and tried to keep and offered Daniel Jones a very fair contract. He left like like he said, and he was right. I can go to the Colts and compete wi with a former, by the way, what top five draft pick in Richardson who has had a star cross career. All types of problems now. Um, and so he left. But but I mean the Vikings look I think trying to keep Darnold was a charade. Like I think that was a complete I don’t think they weren’t going to pay but they could but they could have they could have paid him right but they did try to keep Jones. Jones left and so at the end of the day they went to the guy that they drafted top 10 and yeah he is a guy look he’s the guy that they think that they can win with and furthermore that they think that they can win with on a rookie contract that they he’s the first quarterback the franchise goes back to 1961 first quarterback taken in the top 10. So, I mean, if you’re going to have great angst about this entire thing, I guess that’s fine. But the whole but the big picture is to develop a quarterback who’s going to be here long term. Sam Darnold has looked really good and that’s awesome and I hope his career is turned around. But the but the Vikings are putting their stock as as you said in Kevin Oonnell to develop another QB who’s played two games. So, it’s it it’s two games. I cannot get worked up yet about this at all. The only thing that I think is that the kid is going to have to play at some point. But this is this is all short-term stuff. This is all short-term stuff. For the long term, do I think that Kevin Oonnell has a chance to develop JJ McCarthy into a good quarterback? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because of what you said. But you could uh just to like walk on the other side of this fence for a second and then I’ll come back to the side that I’m actually on. You could I I will listen to a discussion and we had it last week on the show about the val the value of Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold for at least the short term on these. I mean, you Frankensteined Sam Darnold and and made him a real viable and at this point like top fiveish quarterback in the NFL the last year and a half. Mhm. and he was available if the Vikings wanted for about half the price of the top quarterbacks on the market because of his checkered past. Daniel Jones was who was in your program for a couple months. He was actually available for, as it turns out, about a quarter of the average annual value of the top quarterbacks on the market, which Yeah. And but they could have gone even a little hot with they they Here’s the thing. They could have had either one of those guys if they had decided internally. I know we just drafted McCarthy like a year ago, right? You’re not start seem to be like wildly reckless to just kind of punt on that or trade him. Uh but we love Sam Darnold. We just Hey, sometimes things happen and plans change or man, we really even like in two months behind the scenes really think there’s something there with Daniel Jones. They if they would have promised either one of those guys the starting quarterback job, they would have stayed with the Vikings. I think like I don’t think there’s any debate over that. They left because they weren’t going to get the starting quarterback job. It was it was competition at best for them, right? Yeah. Well, Daniel Jones, they could have 100% head back if they had promised him the job. But how many of us, including this show, but I’m talking Vikings fans, if it had come out in March, okay, here’s the thing. We’re keeping Daniel Jones. It’s a very reasonable salary, but ladies and gentlemen, he is our starting quarterback for 2025, barring injury, no questions asked. JJ McCarthy is a backup. Now, we would have pounced. We would have pounced on that. We would have pounced on that. I think if they would have said, “We’re going to trade JJ McCarthy for a first round pick and re and like recoup the value that we’re punting on.” I think then then I mean then we we could have had debates all over the place, but then they would have had a far less than top average annual value, salary, good quarterback, and they would have gotten a first round pick in value back. And that that like that’s how you would have done it if you wanted to go down that path, right? But that would have been at the time and look, Jones is off to to a great start. I will say this. So the thing people are not talking about and Jones has looked great and it’s fantastic. Good for him. But the one thing that people are not focusing on is and have you seen that offensive line and that run game? I mean Jonathan Taylor, if I’m not mistaken, leads the league in rushing. that offensive line that offensive line going into last uh Sunday’s games was ranked second in the entire league in the weekly PFF offensive line gradings. So like the Daniel Jones thing, I mean, at least with Darnold, we had seen him, but with Daniel Jones, I I don’t think they made the wrong move there. I think the unknown there and I think the fact that that your run game is not as good as the Colts. Like if you strip away Jonathan Taylor and now you’re starting to take away pieces a bit. So I just I think the Daniel Jones revisionist thing that that people are coming up with totally forgets the big picture of what a the Vikings are doing and b I think the Colts offer a lot of things and good for them. I think the Colts offer a lot of things that I don’t know Okonnell’s offensive philosophy would have offered Jones and therefore I don’t think it’s a slam dunk that he’s just this automatic success story here. Uh I partially agree with what you’re saying. I the Vikings are running the ball a lot more. They they started running the ball a lot more last year with Darnold. They were kind of mid pack from being a we never run team to being okay, we’ll kind of run midpack. and they’re running the ball at even higher rate now that they’ve got, you know, Carson Wentz and JJ McCarthy. So, they are. Now, are they running the ball as effectively as the Colts? Obviously not because the Colts are just one of the best running teams and one of the best teams in the league. But all all of this to bring it kind of back to center here, which is people have lost sight of why Daniel Jones and more importantly Sam Darnold have exploded in their careers. It’s because Kevin Oonnell rewired them in their brief time here. And I’m that’s not speculation. Sam Darnold was a disaster. And you could maybe credit a little bit of Kyle Kyle. He was with Kyle Shanahan for a minute. So he went through a couple different courses here of rewiring. But Kevin’s the one that got it out of Sam Darnold on the field and people were shocked. people ri people people thought the Vikings were going to be a Vegas thought the Vikings were going to be like a six- win team a year ago and all of a sudden here comes Frankensteined Sam Darnold and then Daniel Jones to say on the record on that podcast it was like a month and a half or two months but man like holy cow you wouldn’t believe the detail that they operate with in that quarterback room and people are making they’re criticizing the Vikings because they’re they’re flipping the conversation onto the quarterback getting the credit now that, oh, how could you let a gem like Sam Darnold walk out the door? Well, why is he a gem? He’s a gem because of this coach and this infrastructure and and he’s he’s a he’s more of a product of it and now the Seahawks get to benefit and he’ll go and maybe he plays for the Seahawks for 10 more years. So all I’m saying is if you believe in the process that revitalized Sam Darnold’s career that clearly made an impact on Daniel Jones that also turned Kurt Cousins into this late game killer that he wasn’t before 2022. If you believe in Kevin Oonnell and his ability to get that out of quarterbacks, why would you then bail on the JJ McCarthy experiment? It’s disappointing that he has he’s barely practiced or played in a year and a half. And that’s a whole conversation that we will keep having, but as long as he is in the building and working one-on-one with Kevin Oonnell and progressing, I think it would be foolish to sell your JJ McCarthy stock at this point in time. How many rational fans do you think are doing that? Like, I see the tweets, you know, oh, this guy sucks. It’s like it’s two games. This guy’s terrible. This guy doesn’t have it. Blah, blah, blah. How many rational fans do you think are bailing though on Okonnell on like that? Like it make that makes no sense. We just have to see more. I I mean it’s why I challenge Okonnell to you got to play the kid at some point here. Like if you think he’s a mechanical mess, we could talk about that, but you’re going to have to play him and go through the schedule. There’s no great time to do it, but he has to get the experience. And I will say this, he is a young guy a and like Darnold had been a mess, but he had been around for a long time. He had seen a lot and I think that that helped. Daniel Jones, sort of the same thing. So with McCarthy, are there going to be growing pains with McCarthy and have there been that we probably didn’t see with Darnold because he had seen enough, he knew enough to step in and be successful? Yes, J.J. McCarthy is going to have more growing pains, but unfortunately folks, this is how you do it. this is how you do it. You’re not a developed you’re you’re not put into a microwave and come out a quarterback. Like it’s not how it works. And so I just don’t I don’t know that rational fans uh are especially if you’ve seen the trials and tribulations of this franchise. I don’t know that I don’t know that Twitter and the people on social posting about JJ McCarthy sucking really reflect what Vikings fans have seen to your point with Okonnell and also the fact that everybody knows you got to go through some things to get to a good place. Yeah, it’s hard to measure exactly, but I I do feel like the excitement surrounding McCarthy 18 months ago. Sure. the excitement surrounding McCarthy during training camp and the day day two of the joint practice where he’s 12 of 12 or 13 of 13 for that stretch in full team against the Patriots. If that if those were his peak approval ratings, if you were to measure his approval rating now and the Vikings approval rating with the decision to give the keys to McCarthy, that number is way down from where it was two months ago. Anecdotally, I think unless you want to argue me on that. No, no, no. I’m say I I’m saying I don’t know that the the people who are out on McCarthy and say he sucks are reflective. I agree. Vikings fans are concerned, which is absolutely fine. You should be. You can be. I’m not encouraging not to be concerned. But my point is, if you think about it rationally, if you expected JJ McCarthy to step in and immediately find success. I mean, Caleb Williams is the was the consensus number one overall pick, right? Like the number one pick. Like, this kid cannot miss. And guess what? There were some growing pains. There still are. So, like, you’re not going to How many of these guys do you plop in and there’s like immediate hit? Jaden Daniels, I I’ll say this, was good. CJ Strad actually was great and then regressed a bit, but like if you do your research on first round QBs, I mean, Pton Manning’s the poster child. He was terrible as a rookie. He was absolutely god awful. Bill Pulley and the GM of the Colts has said countless times we shouldn’t have played him. So like if you are going to make your decision, if you are going to turn in your Vikings fan card based on this, then I got bad news for you. You went through a lot of down years to bail really quickly on one kid. Yeah. Yeah. I think the the to me the the actual red flag and potential criticism is in the durability or lack thereof of McCarthy to this point. That’s the like to me if there was a mistake made it would it would be less about Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold cuz you you made the you made the decision we aren’t we’re not we’re not paying quarterbacks when you moved out when you got off the Kurt Cousins wagon finally and you decided not to give Sam Darnold 33 $35 million a year which is a pretty big discount from where he was playing in the one-year here. Yeah. you decided we are not going to pay top dollar for quarterbacks unless we really really feel like he’s a dude that can carry the franchise and can make up for some of the holes on the roster. Um so I I to me it was about the six guys that were available in the first round of the draft and and I think three of them were unavailable to you based on reports. Caleb, Jaden Daniels, Drake May. If if the reports are true that those teams were turning down like three first round picks, I mean, you gonna kick in a fourth like it’s at some point it’s just okay. If we can’t move up for three first round picks. So the if there was a if there was a whiff here, it would be a BIX Michael Pennix you probably could have moved up for JJ McCarthy discussion more than like a Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones discussion. And I I think they got taken I think that they and the league got taken by surprise by Penn going to the Falcons. I think there is a case to be made that they might have taken him. I think Okonnell liked Penn a lot. Um so I think they got surprised there. I think it’s been pretty well vetted that they offered the Patriots a haul and the Patriots just hung up which by the way watching Drake May was a very smart uh decision to hang up. But okay, let’s let’s play this out. Let’s play this out worst case. JJ McCarthy is an abject failure. He He can’t stay healthy. He can’t fix his mechanics. He is a mess. And And it’s done. Like, it’s just Christian Ponder. Absolute worst case. Guess what? To what you went through, Kevin Oonnell has proven this. He can go out and get another guy who’s been struggling, a veteran. M. Jones, come on in here for $20 million. Like, like, like, folks, this is not like this is this is why to me, this is a great experiment. Can Kevin Oonnell get a quarterback that they drafted and turn him into and we do not know the answer. Turn him into a viable borderline proable I don’t know what you want quarterback. Okay. All right. He can’t doesn’t work out. Okay. He took, as you pointed out, you’re right. Kirk Cousins, he elevated him. He was good, but he elevated him. Sam Darnold had been a mess. San Francisco for a year, sort of watched, got here, thrived, still thriving. Daniel Jones got a like he went through the drive-thru. It’s like the McDonald’s drive-thru. He went through the drive-thru. He got his cup of coffee and my god, he’s now he’s now a a a barista. So So the fact is, are you telling me if JJ McCarthy does not work that Kevin Oonnell is screwed? What what am I going to do now? How am I going to find a quarterback? Like there’s a scrap heap. The league is proving this. There is a scrap heap that turns over because you have incompetent teams like the Tennessee Titans who just give up on things. So my point is worst case it does not work, Kevin Oonnell very well will just repeat the previous process of going out and finding a QB that can win you some games. That’s a fun list to think about where not that it’s fun to think about the worst case scenario, but you know you should always it’s the old uh Bobby Knight book, The Power of Negative Thinking, which is less about just being a negative a-hole. It’s more about preparing for the bad things that can happen when you’re driving. My dad used to tell me this guy right here. Yeah. just bracing for let’s make sure when when I was driving that my dad would always tell me as a as a youngster um hey just assume that everyone else is out there to like swerve in front of you like an idiot just if you can just envision the bad things happening so if you’re the Vikings and this doesn’t work out and a year or two down the road you’re like crap that was a terrible terrible circumstance but you know who’s going to be available Jones probably Bryce Young possibly I was going to say just go through the list Anthony Richardson I I still don’t know if he’s accurate enough to to hold up, but um Dylan Gabriel probably going to be available because they’re going to move on to their next quarterback in Cleveland. And right now, you may laugh at some of those names just like you laughed at Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones. Yes. Um, but I’d guess I would rather continue to take those little like micro shots contractually than desperately lock into a $60 million a year non- elite quarterback that hamstrings your ability to build a roster. No. No. So, there’s there’s always an exit here. There’s always an exit. Ideally, McCarthy clicks in healthy, never has any issues again for the next 8 to 10 years, and he’s your guy. But there are exit strategies here when you have Kevin Oonnell and Justin Jefferson and Christian Darasaw. Yeah. The the infrastructure and and look, there are I I can hear people right now. They’re yelling. They’re like, “He’s never won a playoff game. Okonnell hasn’t done this. Okonnell hasn’t done that.” And let’s agree there could be areas of improvement. No question about it. But he’s proven he can take a quarterback off the scrap heap and maximize him. He’s proven that. So, so like there’s no like, “No, he can’t do that. He got lucky. Darnold was ready to pop. Okay, then let’s talk about Cousins. Oh, Cousins was great. Now he actually elevated him. Okay, how about Daniel Jones? He was No, he took Daniel Jones and Daniel Jones to your point talked about it. So like this is a problem. JJ McCarthy is a problem along the lines of Christian Ponder. If you have no infrastructure, like this is this was your chance. The GM took him, gave him to a coaching staff and said, “Develop him.” And the coaching staff is like, “Uh, okay. Not sure we can do that.” And then it’s like, okay, where do you go next? But the reality and and the problem was the answer eventually like with Zimmer be became the next step was Kirk Cousins who was overpaid at the time and therefore ate up too much of your cap, right? Like that was the answer. This is this is a much more palatable thing of let’s go to the scrap heap because there’s a lot of good there’s a lot of good scraps here and let’s take a quarterback and that and and again just to be very clear folks I’m giving you the absolute worst case which I don’t think is going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. I would uh to put a stamp on this again I’m buying your JJ McCarthy stock if you want to sell it. Sell it to me. Sell it to Positive Phil. I will buy it and then we’ll we’ll figure this out in a year or two. But, uh, this wow, it’s the second week in a row that the the juicy quarterback discussion has eaten into our favorite and least favorite things. We’ll kind of we’ll kind of fly through that here in a second. You want to talk about great infrastructure? Federated Insurance has been providing great insurance infrastructure for small and medium-sized businesses for a long, long time. The backbone of America. 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It’s not just poured, it’s earned with Pendleton whiskey. Just like Minnesota, nothing’s given. Not the yards, not the winds, not the weather, not the respect. You earn it. And that’s the same spirit behind Pendleton whiskey crafted with grit and bottled for those who fight hard for their reward. You know, uh this weekend, maybe even on a Thursday night, you know, sometimes I’ll I’ll I’ll dabble on a Thursday night. Just a little ice cube or two in a glass and some Pendleton whiskey. By the way, uh Pendleton Whiskey 2025 Pendleton Distillers proximosspirits.com. Drink responsibly. Sports Dad. That looks like a uh a heck of a thing to take to a tailgate if I may say so myself. Responsibly. You’d be very Oh, very responsibly. But you’d be popular. You would be a cool kid. You would uh you would also be a cool kid if um if you went to Menard’s and scouted out some FVP auto parts. So there are obviously for the Minnesota audience, you are extremely familiar with uh Menards, but also even in Jeremiah Serill’s country, Nebraska, there’s Menards in 15 different states, mostly upper Midwest. And uh it’s hey, it’s kind of raining today. Pretty soon it’s going to be snowing. And so you want to make sure that you can see out your windshield and go to Menard’s and find some Splash ethanol free RV and marine antifreeze. Uh, use Splash ethanol-free RV and marine antifreeze for extreme burst proof protection for winterizing swimming pools. And I saw Splash and was thinking about the windshield wiper fluid. They also offer that too at Menard’s. Uh, but Splash ethanol free RV and marine antifreeze to be winterizing swimming pools, boats, recreational vehicles, campers, vacation homes. Uh, this antifreeze is formulated to protect down to -75° F. Hopefully that doesn’t happen, but if it does, your your win or your summer uh boats and pools and toys will be winterized. So, head to Menards and stock up on Splash Antifreeze uh FVP auto parts. So, okay, give me uh your favorite current Vikings thing or one of your favorite current Vikings thing. Uh it’s this after a Sunday of Red Zone. Glorious Sunday, ladies and gentlemen. Glorious Sunday. My favorite thing is this. The NFC is wide open. The NFC is wide open. So, you can you can um you can be angsty about 3 and2. That’s fine if you want. But the longest winning streak in the conference right now is the Bears who lost their first two and are 3-2 after they beat the Commanders on Monday night. Uh Tampa Bay 5- one, the Packers 31-1. and are actually in first place now that Detroit lost. But for the most part, we’re looking at a lot of what? Three and threes. We’re looking at a three and twos. We are looking at a a conference that has no real definition yet. Yeah. Is is riddled with teams that are hurt. The Vikings have been, but I mean, San Francisco Fred Warner is now out for the season. Did you see that injury? Yeah. It was awful. His foot was bent the wrong way. I don’t like that. But but the fact is when you look at this conference, you can be as angsty as you want. But you tell me that there’s any definitive team like the Vikings are out of it. They’re three. No, they’re not. So that’s my favorite thing. This is wide blooping open in the conference. It’s wide ass open as Luke Holmes would say. Wide ass open. Yeah. Uh there’s a there’s a lyric in one of his songs where he uh he talks about when he starts drinking, you know, we get wide ass open, whatever. Um not like the biggest Luke Luke Holmes is fine. I do remember that later. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I pray I probably if someone floated me a ticket, I might go. But uh yeah, I mean right now it looks like and again September, October can be deceiving because health and different factors come into play, but right now it kind of looks like Tampa’s the cream of the crop in the NFC. Maybe along with I’m not going to ding the Lions too much uh for losing to a desperate Chiefs team. The Lions are still the real deal. Packers were kind of waiting to see. They to this point feel like a similar version of the last two years Packers teams which is very good, very competitive. Yep. Is your quarterback quite good enough. Uh they they just tend to short circuit once in a while. Beyond that, I have been selling Eagle stock for the entire like summer. I think for Saquon Barkley to have that workload last year and people are like, “What’s wrong with their running game?” Oh, I don’t know. How about the guy that touched the ball a bajillion times and historically that never works out the following season for people to be shocked. He touched the ball like 450 times including playoffs last year and people are like, “What’s wrong with their running game?” Uh, well, their running back’s probably cooked. That’s what’s wrong with their running game. And their offensive line’s a little different. Yeah. And and I I think what what helps too is Kell Moore, who’s now the Saints coach, was the OC in Philadelphia last year and I think he’s really really good and they’ve got a new OC who I believe was promoted internally and like he’s try and it just sounds like it sounds like a mess. But here’s the problem. Philadelphia was two and two a year ago and we’re like they’re a mess. Serriani’s job’s in trouble and then I think they lost like one game the rest of the season including the Super Bowl. But yes, it looks to me like this conference is jumbled and so if you can seize opportunity, I think you’re in pretty good shape. I think my favorite current Vikings thing is the obvious, which is there’s a bunch of dudes coming back from injury this week back at practice. Blake Cashman’s clock is ticking. Uh we’ll see if he actually suits up and plays this weekend, but it sounds like it’s leaning that direction. Donovan Jackson is going to come back from the wrist surgery. So, you’re going to have Darasaw and Jackson in line as the left side of your offensive line. We We’ll see about like Brian O’Neal I think we’ll find out more. But, didn’t Doogie send us a photo? Isn’t O’Neal back kind of doing some stuff on the field with a with a brace on? Okay. So, there’s some You’re not going to get everyone back, but you’re going to get some dudes back that you’ve been missing here and um it should it should give you a huge boost. The Eagles are going to be very desperate, but I also feel like this is different than like the Chiefs being desperate where, okay, it was you you saw some signs. It looks like they’re still together. The Eagles look fractured and and very flawed. They’ve been one of the worst rushing teams in the league after being historically great. So, you getting some guys back against that team that’s kind of fighting for their lives right now is a is a big thing. So, uh uh how about least favorite current Vikings things? I don’t have one right now. I don’t have one. I I was try I mean, it’s the bye-week. Things have have gone well. I We just spent a extended period of time talking about the QBs and I guess the fact that McCarthy is not the guy right now uh is not my favorite thing, but we hashed that out through throughout the show. So, I don’t really have like a least I I feel like we we got a lot of that out at the by-week uh going into it. So, right now, I’m more of a wait andsee mode than anything. I’ll give you I’ll give you one that um you and I were kicking around on the text thread last night. This tweet from Seaffort who said as as they come out of their buy, the Vikings have the NFL’s most difficult remaining schedule according to ESPN’s football power index. They will play five of the league’s top 10 teams over the next eight weeks. That assumes that Lamar Jackson comes back for week 10, which like that’s because you might look at the Ravens and be like, “Oh, they’re one and five and they’re cooked.” And they probably are cooked from a playoff perspective. They’re not they’re clearly not winning that division at this point. But once Lamar Jackson comes back, they’re going to be a much much better version of themselves. And Derrick Henry, the Vikings have gotten gashed and they got gashed by uh a backup running back against the Steelers. So yeah, their their schedule is brutal. And I think if they can just if they can somehow go two and two in the next four tough games and be five and four going into Chicago and kind of the the back slide of your schedule. If you if you can be five and four, you’re going to be in the mix going into like week 11. And I I think and this is not new, but what we’ve seen too is health, right? Like Detroit lost to the Chiefs on Sunday. I think they had five defensive backs out. So, it’s a complete cliche and it’s a coaching cliche, but you talk about a week- toeek league. Like, it’s literally who do you have? And and the reality is, you know, if Lamar plays, that’s going to definitely help the Ravens offensively. Their defense, I think, is a mess. And I don’t know that that can can be fixed. If Detroit, and Detroit does play a style that means you’re banged up a lot, but I mean, if you face Detroit again without four or five defensive backs, what does that do? So, like, it’s weird because you look at these teams and you pass judgment on what you think, but their personality or the way that they look on game day, at least specific game days, can be totally different or can be can be altered certainly from what they are o overall. So, it’s been it’s been really interesting so far. I do think if the Vikings, aside from Ryan Kelly, who’s on IR, and I don’t know if he’s coming back. I do think the Vikings are in a pretty good situation though, it sounds like, to to start to get the offensive line back. And I guess the question then becomes, is Blake Brandle or Michael Jurgens who’s going to be back at practice or is back at practice, who’s your center? I personally like Blake. So, I do too. I would I would go with I mean it’s not like Jurgens was playing out of his mind. He’s he’s young and trying to figure out the league too. So if you if you trust the veteran to make the right it’s as Jeremiah ser said it’s less about the physical which he kind of you know he wasn’t a disaster in that regard. It’s more about are you making the right calls? Are you seeing the defense the right way and communicating with your quarterback. I think if McCarthy’s out there too, I would feel more comfortable with a guy who knows what he’s looking at as a veteran offensive lineman more than like the other young player that’s never done this before. Mhm. Uh, he the sports dad. I am Phil Mackey. And tomorrow we’re going to have Write That Down predictions. We may even do a little bonus episode, too. There’s so many other just talkers coming off the by-week. So, or we may just make it a longer write that down episode with kind of a a longer back end. Quarterback cesspool challenge. Thor’s day in a couple of sleeps here. 365 days a year of Vikings takes. We just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. We’ll see you guys next time on Purple Daily.

Mackey and Judd dive into their weekly State of the Vikings episode! The big talkers this week: Who will start at QB for the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Philadelphia Eagles? And is JJ McCarthy STILL the Minnesota Vikings’ QB of the future? Mackey thinks some fans have twisted their logic. Plus, favorite and least favorite current Vikings things!

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