S.I.’s Albert Breer on the Vikings’ Expectations for 2nd-Year QB JJ McCarthy | The Rich Eisen Show

JJ McCarthy, this is his gig and he’s hooked up to Kevin Oonnell, reigning coach of the year, who’s a quarterback whisperer. What’s this going to look like? Because it’s essentially like that team won 14 games last year with Sam Darnold. They are a Super Bowl contender if JJ McCarthy can show up and be the guy in his first full year coming off of injury, in his first full year as starter. What What are you gleaning there, Albert? So, they’re loaded. Um, I also I like I I think JJ I think JJ has really good perspective on this and and and I think a big part of it is going to be like what they’re asking him to do, right? Um, you know how good that situation is. We don’t need to go through all the players they have, the scheme they have now, the history that Kevin Oonnell has, right through three years, right? And you know, it was interesting having this conversation with with Kevin and some other people there about what JJ lost last year, right? like last year was really tough on him. He’s a super competitive kid as you know. Um he lost the weight. Um you know I think he got a little down and had to fight through some stuff. Um and in losing all the reps that he lost like the onfield reps, right? Like they say like one of the big things with him is that he has to learn to layer the ball better. Like at Michigan a little bit little too many too much on fast balls like you know just over and over and over and over again which showed his arm strength but you know obviously every throw can’t be that way. And so if he had been running the scout team last year, he would have gotten a lot of good reps throwing into tight windows learning how to do that. So he lost all of that, right? So there was a lot lost when, you know, he got hurt last year and and and lost that development time even if he wasn’t going to start. And so I think the maybe one of the most interesting things that I was able to glean from there is, you know, they tried to bring back Daniel Jones’s insurance policy. They kicked the tires on bringing Sam Darnold back. those guys felt like they had better opportunities to be the guy somewhere else. So, they left. I think that Kevin Oonnell, Quio Defammensa, the offensive coaches now think that was a blessing in disguise because all of that time that JJ lost in the spring or all the times JJ lost last year, he was able to make up for it in the spring, he took every first team rep in the spring. He’s taking every first team rep in training camp. So, it’s allowed him to do these things over and over and over again and make up for all that last time and develop his voice and become more of a leader and let the other players hear him. And so, that’s all good, but they don’t need him to be Superman because of the team they have. And so, we’ll see what happens with Jordan Madison suspension. You got Justin Jefferson there, Speedy Naylor, a really good young receiver playing for a contract. TJ Hawinson, the line should be a lot better with Ryan Kelly and Will Fry and Donovan Jackson coming in. Got Aaron Jones behind you. It’s a really, really, really good situation. So, I think what Kevin’s thing is going to be is take the layups. When you give you when when we when we give you easy throws, take them. Um, we’re going to do stuff in the run game that’s going to help you in the pass game. That marriage of run and pass, let that help you. We’re going to give you stuff in the screen game. We’re going to give you stuff in the quick game. It’s going to be, I think, putting him in the best position to succeed. And I think anybody who’s watched the Vikings the last few years, what they were able to do with Kirk Cousins, then what they were able to do with Sam Darnold knows like Kevin’s good at putting together a plan to get the most out of somebody. And I think he will do that with JJ, too. Catch the Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from 12 to 3:00 p.m.

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer and Rich Eisen discuss the expectations for Vikings QB JJ McCarthy.

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14 comments

  2. Vikings aren’t babying JJ McCarthy for sure, Vikings throw a lot at him and he responded well

    JJ McCarthy “My feelings don't matter. I'm not getting any grace. There's no sympathy, this is the big leagues."

  3. What, hes down on himself because he lost the weight?
    no thats something athletes with knee injury do to alleviate as much pressure on their knees, then build weight up with knee strength.

  4. JJ did get a lot of virtual reps from Sam’s helmet all of last year which does help him adapt his fastball.

    Of course there will be ups and downs this year, and him learning the trajectory of his passes inside tight windows will take a couple years to polish.

    It is what it is, but I’m all for the ups and downs of the Vikings’ young franchise QB inside of the toughest division in the NFL.

    JJ just needs to responsibly run the system and talent he’s been blessed with. Whatever happens during that process will only make him better.

  7. Fellow Viking fans expect a heavy dose of the running game in the first quarter of the season with JJ on some easy QB friendly route concepts. We won’t really see where he’s at until late in games if it’s close and KOC has to open up the playbook to try and get the win that is when we’ll see JJ get stretched and get a good barometer on where he is at in his development and how comfortable he is.

  8. We have THE BEST QB room in the NFL. COY with KOC, Josh McCown who was basically a QB coach his whole career with some starts. He also coached high school the entire time he played to include Drake Maye. Grant Udinski our last Asst QB coach, is now an OC in Jax.

    They got 4 wins out of three different QBs in a stretch. They made Darnold, a lost cause by every other team, a literal top 5 stat QB. Daniel Jones left a starting position to come to sit on the bench in MN for $100,000. JJ McCarthy is the best prototype QB for this QB room, they picked him for a reason.

    A meniscus tear is not a serious injury, he completely healed a college injury sitting behind and watching the best coaching staff in the NFL.

    The number one reason QBs fail coming out of college is the mental game. We’ve seen superstar talent come in and completely bomb. Darnold was one of them. JJ just got a free year to get his head in the right space.

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