NFL Insider Tom Pelissero: Why Vikings are Slow Rolling JJ McCarthy’s Return | The Rich Eisen Show

The people who think that JJ McCarthy has an ankle injury in air quotes because uh he was so ineffective in his second start that they just had to bench him. You already making that face. Talk walk me through what’s going on there and the decision that that that um they made on him last night prior to Thursday Night Football and what when we’re going to see McCarthy next. Tom, I I’ve I’ve tried to explain this as consistently and clearly as I can. Um, amidst all the the conspiracy theories and the talks of a of a soft benching, JJ McCarthy has not had a lot of opportunities over two years in the NFL to practice football, much less play football. He had his entire rookie season wiped out because of the meniscus injury. Got reps of course through the course of this off season. Week one goes out, didn’t play well in the first half, but made a bunch of plays in the second half against Chicago on national TV. They’re 1 and0 in the division. Following week, his uh fiance gives birth to a child, misses a day of practice. It was already a short week. Game didn’t look good, but he also got hurt, suffered a high ankle sprain in that game. So, we have literally seen one full game of healthy JJ McCarthy. And by the way, he hasn’t even practiced on consecutive days in a full capacity since before week one. And so what the Vikings have tried to do is take a very deliberate approach to getting JJ McCarthy not just 100% healthy, but 100% in a groove and ready to go out there and play well. They were hopeful that that was going to be right after the buy and he’d be able to do it against the Eagles and then the Chargers when they were playing two games in 5 days. When I was told during the buy, hey, he looked good on the field last week, but the ankle’s not 100%. That was a pretty good tell that between JJ, the medical staff, the Vikings coaching staff, they just didn’t feel like he was already all the way there. You listen to Kevin Okonnell postgame last night. He made abundantly clear what I’ve been saying, which is that all signs are pointing toward JJ McCarthy being back in the lineup this week against the Lions. You’re hoping that, you know, with a mini buy, you get a bonus practice on Monday, more time for the offensive line that’s been beat up for those guys to get fully healthy here. You’re hoping that the entire environment is set up for JJ McCarthy to go out there and have success. That is certainly what the Vikings are banking on after already playing more games with Carson Wentz than they ever intended or hoped or wanted to going into the season. So, do we see him against Detroit next week? That is my anticipation that we’ll see JJ McCarthy unless there is some type of setback unless he tells the coaches, hey, I just don’t think that I can go. you know, he’s had six full weeks now to recover from an injury that by and large that type of high ankle sprain is four to six weeks. That time’s up. Again, he gets an extra practice next week. So, you can see him four times out there. If you see a full participation designation on JJ McCarthy uh come next Wednesday, that’ll be a pretty clear indication all systems go. He’s going to be out there for a tough game against the Lions. The other thing that I want to say, Rich, and it’s less about, though certainly some people bring it up, but I heard a lot about it on the broadcast last night, and I see a lot of it on social media, and it is the question, and it’s a fair one, when you see those sidebyside graphics of Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones, and you hear over and over again, how could the Vikings have let these guys walk? Boy, they must really be regretting letting those guys walk. I think Kirk Herbstre last night said, it’s buyer’s remorse. Let’s just take a quick review and hopefully I’ve got a couple of minutes here. Let me take a quick review of the Vikings quarterback approach through this off seasonason. The guiding light of everything they were doing was they believe in JJ McCarthy. They drafted him at number 10 last year. They believe he’s going to be the starting quarterback sooner than later. So, whatever they did in terms of adding another quarterback, it needed to meet a couple criteria. one, it couldn’t be so expensive that it hindered other roster building. Namely, they felt like they needed to rebuild and get bigger, more physical on the interior offensive and defensive lines. And number two, it couldn’t be such a commitment that it effectively stalled the progress of JJ McCarthy. So, they did make an offer to Sam Darnold. It was a shorter term type of an offer. There was a point at which because of the way the quarterback dominoes were falling, it was not clear that Sam Darnold was going to get a big offer in free agency. And ultimately, even the deal he ended up signing with Seattle wasn’t like an offthecharts top ofarket type deal like you might see under other circumstances for a guy who just went 14 and three, is still young, and is playing the best football of his life. Then the Seahawks saw an opportunity. They trade Gino Smith. They get a third round pick and then they also acquired Sam Darnold for less money than Gino wanted from them. That’s how he ends up there. Plan B then was let’s ressign Daniel Jones and they had a comparable offer on the table very similar to what the Colts ended up giving Daniel Jones. But what they found out was Daniel Jones was actually leaning toward going to Indianapolis and effectively was thought that his opportunity was better there. So, they pulled their offer from Daniel Jones, and at that point, it was abundantly clear Daniel Jones would have been a short-term type of solution in Minnesota. It’s now going to be JJ McCarthy’s team. Obviously, the third thing that comes up is Aaron Rogers expressing interest in coming to Minnesota. That was certainly something that they at least talked about, as you tend to do with a four-time NFL MVP quarterback, but again, they felt like that was going to be something that was going to stand in the way of the development of JJ McCarthy. All of which brings me to some of the posts I was seeing last night basically being like, “Just throw JJ out there. It’s going to be bad. If it’s bad, just get rid of him and and bringing something new for 2026.” Aren’t we literally having the conversation right now about other teams giving up on quarterbacks and what Baker’s doing now, what Darnold’s doing now, and Daniel Jones, they’re trying to do something, Rich, that’s out that’s unorthodox and outside the box and frankly uncomfortable for a lot of people. Why isn’t JJ playing? because Kevin Oonnell doesn’t think that’s the right thing right now. This week, he’s finally close to full health on that ankle. He’s going to get an actual week of work. Let’s see what JJ McCarthy does for the rest of the season and then revisit all those conversations. But they didn’t just let these guys walk. They didn’t say, “We don’t need you.” They tried on some level to bring those guys back. Ultimately, good for D Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones. They picked the right spots for them. They’re winning games. Um, you know, and putting themselves in position to make a lot more money for years to come. Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that.

NFL Insider Tom Pelissero and Rich Eisen discuss JJ McCarthy’s possible return to the Vikings’ starting QB job.

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34 comments

  1. When you get guys like Stroud and Daniels that play well right away it becomes expected. It’s going to take time for some of these guys to acclimate to the NFL. A lot of very good QB’s had to play a few years before they became what they became.

  3. JJ trying to develop on a bum ankle is a good way to permanently ruin any sort of fundamentals they've been trying to iron out. When you're hurt you overcompensate, when you're young that's how overcompensation becomes muscle memory. They want him healthy because that's the easiest way to teach and evaluate. Fundamentals are everything for a young player, especially a QB.

  4. To me it seems like they used Wentz as a sacrifice as they knew either one of those young QB's would get anihilated due to the worst offensive line in the NFL. Wentz was expendable But now if he's hurt (or benched) it's fresh meat for whoever they put behind center. Good luck keeping any quarterback healthy with the way that OL operates. What a train wreck.

  6. Koc is just babying "rookie" quarterbacks and throwing Wentz to the wolves. It's the hypocrisy I don't like KOC talks about player health and protecting them but he left Wents in the game against the chargers when he know he is hurt and not playing well. You could have easily put brosmer in the third or fourth quarter and when he did put him in, he didn't even call timeouts to try to get brosmer some more reps to see if he can play.

  18. They had the chance to get Rodgers, and instead rolled it out with JJ, and it was a disaster. It really was a stupid stupid move, and the Viking fans were stupid enough to celebrate the move. Rodgers would have cost them little, and he is lighting it up.

  19. Putting a Super Bowl quality roster in the hands of JJ is about as stupid as it gets! they didn't get Rodgers bc it would delay JJ's development! LMAO News for you, JJ is not delaying this teams development, he is killing their development. Who will want to sign with the Vikings after seeing this? how do you think all those good players on this team feel, realizing that the coach is willing to loose a lot of games in order to DEVELOP a QB, who might not ever be any good! Yeck! just Yeck!

  20. They will lose no matter who goes out there. Vikings are the NFL's leading franchise in playoff losses. A remarkable stat considering they started out in 1961 and several teams have been around a lot longer.

  22. Tom doesn't seem to understand what we're saying. I understand the thinking used by Kwesi about McCarthy, a crystal clear understanding. I still think it was the extremely dumb reasoning and it was wrong. McCarthy wasn't impressive in college, his team was but not him, he is also a terrible fit for the type of offense KOC runs. While Darnold was very impressive last season and proved he was a great fit for KOC's offense. Kwesi should have adapted to the new situation with Darnold and signed him long term and traded away McCarthy, just like the 49ers did with Trey Lance (and they were way, WAY more invested in Lance than the Vikings were in McCarthy). Kwesi couldn't make the hard but smart choice, so he made the wrong one.

  23. AKA Kevin O'Connell screwed up. Ego: Everybody telling him that he is the QB whisperer. O'Connell probably thought that he could win with Mark Sanchez.

    O'Connell literally had three better options. The McCarthy project could have waited. McCarthy clearly isn't ready.

    The Vikings are going to miss this window.

  27. They still could've re-signed Darnold once Darnold realized his deal wasn't going to be very big. He basically signed a deal with only 1 year guaranteed. Why didn't the Vikings keep tabs on him and re-sign him once Darnold realized he wasn't going to get a big contract? Vikings could've kept Darnold for this year alone without being stuck with him next year but they didn't even try. Once Darnold became a free agent they put blinders on and ignored him. Stupid move.

  28. I seemed to recall that Maholmes won a Superbowl with a high a high ankle sprain. In addition, JJ, has only played 2 NFL games since being drafted. 8 quarters, which 7 of them revealed JJ was not close to starting in the NFL. He may be the quarterback of the future, but that future is certainly not now. He will be destroyed and injured again in Detroit.

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