McAfee says this is ‘just THE BEGINNING’ for J.J. McCarthy 🗣️ | The Pat McAfee Show

McAfee says this is ‘just THE BEGINNING’ for J.J. McCarthy 🗣️ | The Pat McAfee Show

our first NFL week and I’ll tell you what, it was thriller in every single prime time game and last night was no exception. The JJ McCarthy era alongside Kevin O’Connell kicked off in an electrifying fashion where it kind of looked like ass for the first three quarters and then for the fourth quarter JJ McCarthy came alive. The Minnesota Vikings get a massive dub over the Chicago Bears in the NFC North. A lot of question marks around what’s going to happen in Chicago, but we pick it up 17-6. JJ McCarthy had thrown a pick six to this point. It was 176, two field goals for Will Riker, one of them being a 59 yard. Uh, in the first three quarters, I got this stat from Hembo. JJ McCarthy averaged six yards per the air per attempt. In the first three quarters, he was 33% of attempts to the sticks. In the first three quarters, he only had uh he had 73% of his yardage came from uh yards after catch. In the fourth quarter, 11.9 airs per attempt. 63% of them went to the sticks. And only 32% of the yardage came from Yak. He was airing it out. 17-6. We just hit Justin Jefferson over the middle. What an incredible catch. Justin Jefferson does play for the Minnesota Vikings, which is basically what a lot of people were asking. Is JJ McCarthy going to ruin the Justin Jefferson experience? Is this offense ever going to be able to be capable to be what they were last year with Sam Darnold and everything that Kevin Oonnell is a part of? Well, fourth quarter came around and JJ McCarthy said everything they were saying about me at IMG and everything they were saying about me in Michigan is about to come fully to fruition. People say he’s an absolute dog, a leader of men, a dude that whenever he gets into a room, he commands it. 1712, how you doing? Keep it moving. Aaron Jones, BA, a man who coached for 47 years. You love this play because the design was impeccable. Ain’t that right, BA? Unbelievable. Yeah, you go Kevin Okonnell, I think, is one of the best coaches in the league. And they got you all NFL is all about matchups and they got a great matchup. Aaron Jones on a linebacker that got perfect coverage. JJ delivered right on the money. Love that. JJ McCarthy seemed to be uh in his bag I believe is what people would say and he seems like he came alive. Two two-point conversion hits Adam Theland. Adam Thelen JJ McCarthy working out in the offseason together. Adam Thelen from Minnesota. Got to know JJ McCarthy after getting drafted there. Worked out in the summer. He gets traded from the Carolina Panthers to there. His family celebrates he’s going back home. And I think uh JJ says I’m getting a guy I’m also very familiar with. He gets two-point conversion. Let’s keep it rolling here now. 20 to 17. What are you going to do with it? JJ says, “Let’s run a little option. I’ll keep it. Put my head down.” And in his hometown, he stands up, celebrates, has the moxy, and all the boys are jacked up before a massive fourth quarter. Kevin Oonnell’s team looked like they were a little bit of a dud for three quarters of this game. Look at the downfield blocking. Look at JJ McCarthy lowering his head. Darius Jay Butler, nine-year veteran. Great play design. You mentioned TJ Hogson with the block. It was a great play call. And then JJ, you know, just got it in the paint. But that’s a big time play and a big time moment. It certainly is. Everything good for JJ came in the fourth quarter. Now they’re up obviously 2717. The Chicago Bears can still answer. We have enough time on the clock. Caleb Williams to Cole KT with a one-handed snag. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. Has a chance to throw a touchdown to DJ Bar. Puts it in the front row. A lot of people talking about this throw being a reason why they lost. Well, I don’t know if that’s necessarily 100% true. Now, if they score this early, obviously you add an extra timeout. They lost a timeout because of a punch out. a little bit earlier with a challenge call and now they uh don’t score here which would have left more time ahead of the two-point convers throws a dot here. All right. And now he’s potentially going to lead a comeback. Is there enough time? Maybe. Could have been. Is there enough time? There could be. So they have one timeout and they have the two-minute warning right now though. No time can go off the clock. Kyro Santos, we need a touchback. We need no time off the clock. Instead, what happens? Cairo hits a pretty good ball about five yards deep, I think. Uh, six yards, seven yards deep, maybe. You need that to go out the back of the end zone. Very big kick uh to pull that off, especially in the fourth quarter. They decide to return it. That eats the clock away. Gets it under the two-minute warning. So, now there’s only one timeout used as opposed to two stoppages of the clock. And if you look at his eyes, he’s looking at the sideline right there. And that is strictly because Kevin Oonnell, the head coach, is the one deciding, bring it. We need to burn some time here. All this needs to eat is 3 seconds. Even if we end up in our own 15, the stoppage of the clock can only happen one time. I love how in sync they are. I love that this is week one and they’re doing this. And this is a situational football kind of master class out of Kevin Okonnell, who I got a stat for about his close game. Since 2022 under Kevin Oonnell, the Vikings led the NFL with 13 field goal wins, which is three points or fewers, and 27 one possession wins, which is eight points or fewer. It’s decisions like that, though, at the end of the game, I think, that really I don’t want to say it can amplify that, but all certainly multiply that type of They’re making the right decisions in live in real time that you like try to work on and hope you can be good at being. Yeah, these are things, you know, as a head coach, you prepare your team before it happens. And uh he obviously does a great job of putting his team in practice in situational football. Hey, if this happens, this is what we’re going to do cuz his guys were ready. They there was no question, hey, this is what we’re going to do. And that to me is a sign of a hell of a coach. Yeah. I love everything about Kevin Oonnell. The way he leads. I like that he’s a former player, but also he’s a little bit of a hard ass. He’s a little bit of a hard ass in there. We’ve heard the miked up situation from outside the locker room after the boys didn’t perform well and he’s getting after him and like uh he’s right. He’s yelling at them. He’s in there. But his offense always going to be successful. For the first three quarters last night, we wondered. We’re like, “Wait a minute. They took a big jump with JJ McCarthy here.” Obviously, they draft him early. Could have got Aaron Rogers, though. We saw what Aaron Rogers just did with the Pittsburgh Steelers, we assume, and the Kevin Okonnell offense, especially with how well Aaron knows all the defenses. Hey, that would be a very efficient thing. They go with the guy that they drafted. They stay with JJ. First three quarters, I think everybody’s wondering, wondering, wondering. And then the fourth quarter, JJ McCarthy showed up. I think we’re entering the JJ McCarthy era. Can he carry that fourth quarter throughout the rest of the season? Do you think they took the lid off there for him or what are your thoughts? Um, I mean, it was a tough decision first and for foremost going to him, you know, after the year that Sam Darnold had, but you invested a top 10 pick in the guy. You know, he’s a winner. You know, he can play ball. We kind of saw we we got a full JJ McCarthy experience. I know I was definitely on a roller coaster. Y’all saw me in the group chat. I’m out on this guy. I’m back in. I’m out. I’m back in. But it’s just so many things like film is one thing, the talent is one thing, but the the the word you always heard about JJ McCarthy was the intangibles, the leadership, and you saw even when things weren’t going great halftime, he’s still, you know, dapping every player, every personnel, having a conversation with Justin Jefferson. You could tell, you saw the sideline interaction, some things maybe I think Caleb should work on. I think he’s great talent-wise. He has all the tool, but I think you you got to be a teammate, you got to be a leader, and you got to do it a certain way at that quarterback position. You saw it with JJ even when things weren’t going great and then in that fourth quarter he turned it on. He got a rhythm. He made some plays with his legs, made some plays with his arm. So, you saw the whole experience with JJ McCarthy. Um Aaron Jones had had a clip uh a little sound bite on Speak Easy Pod after the game. He jumped on with the boys and talked about something that he said in the huddle which was huge me which will make me be in on this guy for good. So, I like what they did. pulled the lid and I think with the talent around it with KC calling plays, I think uh the future’s bright in Minnesota. Yeah. JJ McCarthy uh whenever you talk to the Michigan coaches about, hey, why what’s so impressive about JJ McCarthy? They’re like, well, obviously the arm talent’s insane. Uh we don’t really have to use as much because we got a good run game. By the way, we run the ball a lot. He doesn’t pitch at all. He’s a potential top 10 quarterback, a top guy. We run it 30 straight times. JJ McCarthy does not care as long as we win games. And also, whenever he was a freshman, he went into a huddle in middle of the game. And I guess the way he commanded the huddle like senior offensive lineman who wanted to hate this little pretty boy come in there were like damn we like the way this guy operates. I guess his intangibles of leadership and being a dude had been very evident since high school. And I think what Aaron Jones said to the speak easy podcast is they were losing in the fourth quarter and he looked into the huddle and he said uh well third I think it was third so stuff wasn’t going great still. Yeah, maybe whatever third or fourth quarter they were losing though, whatever. It was not a good time. And he looked around and he said, “Is there anywhere else you’d rather be to the huddle and then he gives a play call and then he gets right in there and Aaron Jones was like, damn.” And Aaron said that he had been speaking about his leadership and how he’s a different me mental capacity than anybody he’s ever been around. It’s like that’s what everybody has said about this guy. Yeah. Everybody that had been talking about him, high school, college, Herb Street, literally everybody that know him is like that’s that’s the most predictable JJ McCarthy that there is. That’s how they talk about him. Yeah. And in the draft process, that’s the thing you hardly ever get to see unless you really do your homework cuz what do you throw 35 passes in the whole fourth quarter as a senior year? I mean, that’s hard to evaluate. Can this can this guy really take us back in the fourth quarter? But when you’re talking about the grit, all right, that’s what separates them. The guys that really have it, they got the grit and they can lead. It’s not necessarily arm talent, speed, they got grit. Yeah. Coach talked about it last week, you know, with how the college game is. A lot of guys, you know, Siglin not really having to go into the We all remember the the famous uh sound bite with I think Chris Sims and John Gutten and him just trying to get a play call out. That’s a part of it. Nick Sabin, I think a couple years ago when he was still coaching, I think at that point that was the first team that they had played against that had actually huddled and got out to the to the huddle, did some shifts, did some motion. So, he’s been used to that and that’s something that is a learning process. So, for him to be on the biggest stage cuz I know you guys heard even through the TV like it was loud out there in Chicago. You throw that pick six, you know, can get real ugly. You can start seeing ghost especially against uh that type of defense. And so for him to bounce back like he did uh not only on the field between the white lines, but to keep it all together on the sideline and everything, the whole process, it it was great to see. Think about the boys, okay? Hearing him coming into the huddle and saying, “Is there anywhere else you’d rather be right now?” And then leading what he did like and then coming back and winning like all the boys in the locker room like, “Hey, this is the realest. It’s the real deal. You figure out everybody’s got talent. Everybody’s got arm talent. Everybody can run, but that’s the stuff that you, like you said, you you don’t really you can’t measure that.” So, um, for him to show up and show out on on prime time, Monday Night Football, you’re the only show in town. Not only like this is the game where all your peers are watching, hometown like it I mean for him to bounce back and show that showed me and I’m sure everyone else a lot. So, I’m excited to watch this team go forward. Now, the Chicago Bears, will they be good at the end of the year? You know, Zitto’s not here. They was riding a wave last night. I saw him on X up and down. Uh, yeah, he’s in the middle of it too right now. Yeah, I mean they he needed that. Yeah. Celebration. Yeah. The way that ended was not good for Zoto. Not at all. Zto he uh sleep a lick last night. Yeah. A lot of good things happening in ZTO’s life, but he’s in the middle of it right now. That that is certainly the case. People are saying like, is this we is the NFC North nowhere near as strong as we thought it was going to be because of the Vikings trailing and struggling with the Chicago Bears. It’s like I feel like that game last night was just us and I think the Vikings finding out who JJ McCarthy is gonna be. And it’s like I think Kevin Oonnell in his postgame locker room speech uh said, “We all knew he was going to figure it out. We all knew he was going to figure it out.” And he here it is right here. This happens. This feeling that we have right now does not happen without one other guy. All right, did not go the way any of us wanted. This guy, all right, I could tell from the jump he was poised. He was poised. But this guy didn’t quit. Me and you always thought he would figure it out. two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown all in the second half. [Applause] [Applause] That’s why you guys put a C on his chest. That’s why he’s going to break right now. Hey, this the beginning, but I think we proved something to ourselves tonight. We know what we got in the tape and let’s let it out every week. On to the next one, boys. On beat on three. 1 2 3. I like that. A little delay on the two to the three there. Keep it your own rhythm. I appreciate that. But I like that they all We knew he would figure it out. That’s why we put the C on his chest. It’s like everybody that’s around this guy feels the aura. And I think this is just the beginning. I think the Vikings are going to be a problem this year. I I think that is very much just like it was last year for the Minnesota Vikings. Yeah, absolutely. And you could argue the Bears still got got a lot of hope, too. But the biggest thing with JJ, and you guys have said it, is the end of the game. Like we’re talking about the opposite of Caleb essentially. Caleb started the game unbelievable. It was great. They walk down the field, he scrambles for a 9, 12 yard touchdown, whatever the hell it was. This throw to a dunes on the sideline. And it’s like, holy this is Oklahoma, USC, Caleb, and that’s where you are for, you know, a quarter and then everything else continues to happen. And then JJ’s the exact opposite. The whole game you’re like, oh no, JJ McCarthy, maybe he doesn’t have it. Sam Darnold just won 14 games. They moved on for this kid. They have six points and we’re halfway through the third quarter. He just threw a pick six. And then he just flips it on on its head. And all of a sudden today, it’s like, okay, the Vikings have their future. And then the guy who started off great last night’s more so like, is Caleb ever going to figure this out? Because there were times where you’re watching it, it’s like, “Oh, Caleb, but Ben Johnson, this is great.” And then the way it ended, it was more so like, “Oh, no. This still sucks.” Still not really sure. Everyone’s talking about how they could have won the game down by 10, but he misses that throw. Who knows? A lot of things had to happen. A lot of things would have had to happen. A drive. Uh, uh, a lot of positive things though, I think, for Chicago. For Chicago, a lot of positive things to build on the defense. All right. up until, you know, the late the late fourth quarter stuff where they start running the ball, which is typical Kevin Ocon. He’s he’s going to find a way. He’s going to find the right matchups. But I thought Ben Johnson did a great job getting this team ready. And uh I think the the Chicago Bears are going to surprise some people this year as they continue to grow. That first game for a head coach and a new offense and new defensive coordinator, everything is hard. And uh you know, they had the crowd going, they had everything rolling for him. Uh so there’s a lot of good things to build off of. Ben Johnson, a super intense guy, right? That’s kind of been like the flip the of the culture in Chicago. A lot of accountability. You heard all the players talk about it. And for Caleb, it felt like there was some good structure happening within the offense. There was a couple Caleb things like that run to the right side where he sidearms it to a Dunay and it’s a nasty play. It’s like I think that was what excited Ben Johnson to work with Caleb is like, “Hey, I’ve never had a guy that’s been able to be a magical threat outside of the pocket.” But they’re always going to need him to be in rhythm in that offense, right? Isn’t that kind of the biggest part of it all? Totally. And and then you know Brian Flores who is one of the masterminds of defense started throwing blitzes at him that they hadn’t seen in a while and that’s hard on a young co and a young kid in in a new offense and and a new coach in a new offense trying to answer all the questions during the game that you see from from Flo who’s going to he’s going to bring the house and and they did a great job of it in the fourth quarter. So the NFC uh was decided between the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions last week of the season. So his Minnesota Vikings seem very good. Mhm. Brian Flores is back with that defense. Brian Flores is a very good defensive coordinator. So to just absolutely demolish the Chicago Bears, Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams at this point will be a little bit early, I think, especially with the success that they had. But boy, if this does not work out between Caleb and Ben Johnson, Chicago Bears fans are going to be a bit bummed out about it. This was supposed to be the thing. I mean, you heard it last night. Caleb was the calling. This guy is from the football gods coming to Chicago. Heisman, there’s reports coming out. Yeah. Heisman, highest paid guy in NIL. once in a generation type. There’s reports now coming out from people that are no longer with the Chicago Bears who are certainly finding outlets to get their stories out and their sides out about the Chicago Bears. Basically only worrying about Caleb, not even thinking about any of the other quarterbacks. That’s how committed they were to Caleb. That’s how much the world was committed to Caleb being the number one overall pick is like, “Hey, this is the guy.” Then you get Ben Johnson, the quarterback or the head coach that has been wanted by every team. So you got the quarterback that’s once in a generation and the head coach you could say once in a generation. You have them both in the same building. We right we should win. It feels like we should win. So whenever last night happens and they just get their hearts broke late by the Minnesota Vikings in an NFC North rivalry game on prime time. It’s like I could assume that there’s people that did not like that that’s how this whole thing started. But I think BA has been very constant here. Ben Johnson’s a damn good coach. He will figure out how to win over there. And then it’s all like, can Caleb get on board with everything and can they all buy in for a full four quarters? I mean, that is what it’s going to be now until they prove that they can. But I have high hopes. Coach that is wanted by everybody and player that was allegedly causing a team not even to look at anybody. This is definitely the guy allegedly. This is being reported. What was the guy’s name? Chris White. Uh yeah, Chris White. He was in a personality. Yeah, he was personal uh scout I believe. He said that they didn’t even really look at tape if anybody else Caleb and the whole draft process. So now obviously Bears fans are like was Drake May better Jaden I mean there’s a lot of JJ McCarth I mean yeah people are talking about the Drake thing like he he didn’t want to watch Drake May film as a big thing like who cares about that if that’s the case and that was the thought around Jaden Daniels is the real problem. Yeah and we’ll see with JJ here too. So, so he was he was to to be fair going into the draft process he was like you mentioned pegged as that guy like all right like we we can’t pass on this guy like we can’t pass on this guy at one you look back 10 years ago Chicago not not Bryce Young because he had more of the the measurables like Bryce Young I felt like he was going to have to be outlier just like Kyler Murray as as great as he is you’re going to have to be outlier if you because we’ve never seen somebody do it at that size you know even Breeze was bigger than that but as far as Caleb Williams. He was the can’t miss prospect. He was the this the next Patrick Mahomes. So if you pass on him, you go for Jaden Daniels or Drake May or JJ McCarthy. You would definitely you don’t want to be that GM who passed on the next great one. So I I get that. And then Ben Johnson, you mentioned it. He could have went anywhere. He chose to go to Chicago after however many years of being at that that bell of the ball in the hiring cycle. He went there. So I’m a BA though. I think it’s still a lot there to be kind of unleashed with this offense and this quarterback. You talk about Caleb being pegged as the guy and Ben Johnson allegedly going there because Caleb’s there. So like the hype around Caleb is very real. I remember one particular authority of college football actually said, “Yeah, I mean I do you want to be the franchise that passes on Caleb Williams?” Cuz I know I don’t. Told me the last thing you do. I said, “Is Caleb Williams definitely the number one overall pick in this entire thing?” And that was Pete’s answer. And everybody else was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. No questions asked.” I’m like, “All right, sweet.” Like I will he be able to do all the stuff that he does in college in the NFL? cuz I’m like I just in my head everybody’s so fast in the NFL and he isn’t. He has been able to he looked great last year. By the way, he has been able to. So what everybody’s been saying is there is just is Ben Johnson and him the right fit. that’s going to be I mean if I think one of the biggest knocks on Caleb too going back to college is like hey this guy’s kind of a front runner when he’s throwing a bunch of touchdowns and they’re beating the out of teams like he’s great you know with his teammates and everything and then we kind of saw it last year too like when he struggles a little bit you know he the body language isn’t great he kind of starts to pout a little bit and that’s kind of been the thing like hey in Ben Johnson’s offense it’s going to take time for them to gel like so are things going like is he going to be okay with that for six to seven weeks cuz on the flip side of that you saw JJ last night. It’s like he had probably the worst three quarters of his football career and then it was just like all right that doesn’t matter. Like let’s go. Is there anywhere else you’d rather be? Exactly. Worst three quarters of all time because the the the Bears like now they got the Lions next week, you know? So like if this starts to steamroll a little bit, will it be the same the same deal? Well, and that’s the thing like we’re talking you you just mentioned it. Ben Johnson’s a generational coach. Three years people were trying to poach him. Caleb’s generational QB, but Ben Johnson’s, you know, generational offense, if you will, doesn’t need or really have call for like a Caleb, you know, like the Lions, you know, if if that was the case, don’t you think the Lions would have gone and gotten a mobile quarterback? Like they were so good because the ball placement from golf, they talked about on the broadcast like the most important thing in a Ben Johnson offense is ball placement and timing and all those things. They had a third and one and Caleb threw a bubble screen and it was fourth and five cuz the bubble screen was behind Roman Dunes and low. So like Caleb obviously can have a ton of success and stuff but like if your most important thing in your offense is ball placement is Caleb that guy or can Caleb develop into that? Yeah, I I think too we’re talking about the quarterbacks the but they didn’t win the game when Bears were rolling. The Andway Swift was rolling. He was rolling. The running game was rolling. All of a sudden uh Jordan Mason starts taking off. Boom, boom, boom, boom. All of a sudden, now JJ’s a player. Well, you got to play action’s easy, baby. None of these guys as rookies and young quarterbacks are going to drop back 40 times and beat anybody. If you can’t run the football and set them up with easy throws, all right, and both coaches did it for a while, then Minnesota’s defense said enough of that The running game ain’t over. All right. And here comes the blitz. Um, Chicago didn’t, you know, and then JJ got loose. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On The Pat McAfee Show, Pat McAfee and the crew join to discuss the Minnesota Vikings coming back to beat the Chicago Bears in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season.

0:00 Vikings vs. Bears
7:00 Are we in on J.J. McCarthy?
12:30 Kevin O’Connell’s halftime speech
14:10 Ben Johnson’s Bears
15:05 Brian Flores’ defense
18:00 Caleb Williams’ development

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#ESPN #NFL