J.J. McCarthy’s ascension to the Vikings franchise quarterback

J.J. McCarthy’s ascension to the Vikings franchise quarterback

Did the Vikings finally find their franchise quarterback? J.J. McCarthy looked the part in a massive win over the Lions. He showed off his poise and arm talent, two traits that have caused the Vikings to trust him as their future quarterback. Let’s chat with Alec Lewis, the Athletics Vikings beat writer, with some questions about the young quarterback. Okay, Alex. So, obviously the Vikings have had a decision to make a quarterback in the recent years here. They had Sam Darnold. They obviously let him go. Had JJ McCarthy a pretty high pick a couple years ago and have stuck with him. What are the reasons why? What’s the main reason why? Why does Minnesota like JJ so much? I think the Vikings came away really impressed by a a few things with JJ McCarthy. Um just his willingness and hunger to to grow and develop. His arm strength obviously stands out. His athleticism and then the continuity uh just from a system standpoint with what he ran at Michigan with Jim Harbaugh. All of those things intrigued him at the time. And then obviously he tears his meniscus. His rookie season, Sam Darnold had a phenomenal year that ended pretty poorly with the week 18 game against Detroit in the playoff game in Glendale against the Rams. And at that point, to your question, initially the Vikings faced kind of a decision, a fork in the road, and they believed ultimately that pairing him with what they could do with the rest of the roster from a cap standpoint, um would allow him to develop optimally. He’s still 22 years old. It’s pretty unbelievable when you say that he played so much less in college than Michael Penn, uh than Bone Knicks, than even Drake May. and a lot of those guys drafted that year. So, the Vikings felt like placing him in a position where he was believed in, pairing him with a a system and a design that would not force him into having to make a million throws every Sunday, and then just allowing them to progress would benefit them in the long run as this team seeks and has sought a quarterback really going back to Fran Tarington who can be the guy that fans can can get around. So that’s how they landed um here. And I think Sunday against the Lions, you really saw it for really for the first time um just what it could look like in the environment that they envision. Okay. One of the things I loved about JJ McCarthy at Michigan, maybe more than anything else, was how aggressive he was mindset wise, passing wise. Everything he did was always aggressive. We talked with Alec about this. He got very few chances to throw the ball vertically. Every time he did, he made the most of it. All right, this is early in the game. The Vikings are in the red zone with a chance to score and really take hold of this thing early on against Detroit. They’re going to come up here and call a run play. So, we’re going to see all the offensive lineman come off the ball and block like this is a run. Nobody’s going to drop and pass block. We’re going to watch the running back come off the ball like he’s going to catch it. However, this is not technically a run only. This is either an RPO, a run pass option, or a run with a tag on it. And the tag is going to be a little bit of a uh flare out to the back of the end zone to the pylon there and then a bubble screen across the way. So an a run pass option, an RPO basically means we have a run play called and the quarterback has a decision to make after the ball is snapped or even before the ball is snapped based on how the coverage is lined up and how defenders are playing his receivers. In this case, we see McCarthy make what looks like a pre- snap read to me as it’s single high coverage man coverage across the board. Everybody is up in press. We see that there’s only one defender covering the best player on the field and Justin Jefferson, which means rather than run the ball here, we’re just going to take a chance and give our best player a chance to make a play, which is exactly what he does. Not going to tip my hand, but he’s not even going to look at the running back. He just makes a beautiful throw to the back of the end zone. Boom. To Justin Jefferson. That is outstanding quarterback play. There are there are veteran quarterbacks in the NFL that’ll struggle with this. JJ McCarthy in one of his first big spots as a Viking delivering right away. But again, the athleticism is there and it’s pretty clear the arm strength just speaking strength specific like that is very much there and has has been there for them. So much of his development has been around layering of throws. Um, and we can get we can get more into this, but like that has been such a pivotal point of conversation going back to when he first arrived here in the spring of 2024. Yeah. So, talk to me about that cuz that’s one thing he didn’t do a whole lot of at Michigan. He did a little little bit of it, but they did not ask him to do much of it. Is that the one area maybe where they’ve looked at and said, “We really got to get better here, you know, gamewise?” Yeah, I I think so. Well, I mean, it’s it’s just a refinement of the mechanics both in his lower body. I mean, they’ve talked a lot about Kevin Oonnell and this staff has talked a lot about just wanting to, for lack of a better term, like cut out the fat in terms of his drops, in terms of his footwork so that he can be as consistent as possible and as accurate as possible to find guys in rhythm in an offense that’s going to get guys open in rhythm. So, it’s that and then yeah, I mean the the layering is that’s the word or the phrase that Kevin Oonnell uses, but he often um analogizes it to uh to golf where golf, which is not Jared Golf, but golf the sport where right chipping. It’s like it’s like can you get the ball up and over a bunker? Can you get the ball up and over a flat defender uh on the wide side of the field? Can you if there’s a dropper from the line of scrimmage, a linebacker floating backwards, can you get the ball up and over that player but in front of a safety that’s driving down on a dig route? Like those throws require a level of touch and feel. And it’s hard to really evaluate where he is with that because of the lack of sample size. Like it takes a like just like with the golfer like it takes going to the range. It takes playing a lot of rounds to generate that feel. And this is a guy who had, you know, he didn’t play for a long time, uh, from the time he left Michigan to the time he returned, you know, and then obviously he comes back, he has the high ankle sprain in week two and then he missed five games. So that stuff remains um, one of the things that every Sunday as I show up to US Bank Stadium or wherever the Vikings are playing, like that’s one of the the boxes that I’m looking to check off of, you know, where is he at in that regard. Um, and it’s just going to be continuous growth and improvement and evaluation that I’m looking forward to getting to follow on a weekly basis. Really, we’ve seen JJ McCarthy operate in situational football. Now, let’s take a look at his arm talent. If anyone’s ever wondered what a first round throw or a top of the draft throw looks like, it’s this right here from JJ McCarthy. Boom. All the way across the field, perfect into a tight window. We talked with Alec about his feet, keeping them clean, cutting out the fat in his throwing motion and everything else. And while that’s still true, he’s a natural thrower. JJ McCarthy would have been a really good pitcher if he wanted to be, look how smooth his feet are coming out of his drop after the snap. Watch how firmly he plants. Looks off the safety. Watch his head. Look where the horn is pointing. He’s looking that way. Obviously, the we know where the ball goes the other way. So, he’s looking that way. He’s trying to hold this guy. As we can see, he’s looking over at Jefferson right now. JJ is going to hold as long as he can to influence this guy to just stay over here. Stay out of the play. Do not dive over on my receiver on the other side of the field. That’s exactly what happens. Rather than hesitating after that, he opens right up and explodes with his hips right into a perfect throw to the sideline to Jefferson for a first down. That is a money throw. One of the best ones you’ll see all day. How excited now is is like the whole team, the franchise, the like how what’s the vibe after like because this he had that first win early in the season, right? The comeback which was nice. Then he gets hurt and everybody’s still kind of maybe doubting or wondering and they’ve struggled like how how excited are people now after, you know, he kind of delivered. Yeah. I mean, it was huge in every respect. I mean, the the Vikings hadn’t beaten the Lions in five straight games. They go into Detroit at forward field, rockus environment, JJ’s back, season’s on the brink, and this guy goes out there and makes the plays that need to be made to win the game. And then like, you know, as nitty-gritty of an evaluation as as is as warranted and relevant and fun to talk about, like just the idea that he in some ways was a catalyst to this team winning this huge game on the road in the division. Um, people are pumped. All right, this is essentially third in ball game. If the Vikings convert a first down on this one here, they win the game. If they don’t, they’re going to have to punt it back to Detroit. And Detroit’s going to have another chance to come back down three. So, if you’re JJ McCarthy right now, you have to complete this pass. This has to be exactly what you want it to be. Okay, so we’re going to run it in real time. We’re going to see what he does. Again, this is just natural flow and rhythm. And coming out of his drop, plant throw, no hitch. Boom. Right on the money and perfect. On the money and perfect. That’s natural talent. Right on the money. That’s why they trust him to do it in that situation. Now, let’s look and see why it happens and why it works. Again, I think this is more really good pre- snap identification of coverage from McCarthy. We can see this essentially he even moved his receiver here. This looks like man, you’ve got two safeties up here this time instead of one. But if you watch enough film, as the Vikings do, and as Kevin Oonnell and McCarthy obviously do, you can tell that they will sometimes show two high and drop into one high, which in turn turns into man coverage. If this is an indeed man coverage, the best thing to do to beat that. The two outside receivers on the slot fade are going to run inside and then we’re going to see the slot receiver basically just turn into a fade route and it’s going to be one-on-one where McCarthy just has to drop back and make a throw and be a first round quarterback. And this is an example of being at your best when your best is needed. This is the perfect one. The game is on the line. You have to make a play. Make a play. Boom. Go win us the game and get us out of here so we can go home happy. and that’s exactly what he does. This game was a great example of everything he does for you. You didn’t need him to make 35 throws. You just needed him to make four or five really good ones and he did exactly that. After missing all of last season and several more weeks earlier this season with injury, Vikings fans were right to be concerned about whether or not JJ McCarthy was ready to be their quarterback. He has work ahead of him, but after what we saw in Detroit, I think I’ve seen enough to say that he has enough to be their future quarterback. This was a terrific start from JJ McCarthy. I’m excited to see what he can do from

Did the Vikings finally find their franchise quarterback? Nick Baumgardner asks Alec Lewis, our Vikings reporter to take him through the Vikings decision making process around J.J. McCarthy and Sam Darnold. Plus, Nick breaks down McCarthy’s great game in a win over the Detroit Lions.

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