Kevin O’Connell on J.J. McCarthy’s Status, Max Brosmer, Injury Updates, Preparing for Seahawks

Kevin O’Connell on J.J. McCarthy’s Status, Max Brosmer, Injury Updates, Preparing for Seahawks

Good afternoon, guys. Uh just want to uh won’t see you, won’t be able to talk to you again till Friday. So, just wanted to say happy Thanksgiving um to everybody. Hope you enjoy uh your holiday uh tomorrow. Um we will have a pretty normal Thursday. We’re just going to speed up the process, start a little earlier, and try to get the players out of here to enjoy the afternoon with their with their families. Um but we are looking ahead to Seattle. uh firmly in the preparation right now. Uh really good football team, tough place to go win as we found out last year. You know, able to uh find a way to win that game in the end. Uh so environment, noise, really, really well coached team in all three phases. Uh so we’ve got to, you know, find a way to have our maybe our best week of preparation all season as a team and uh go play well. Uh, our team’s played well at certain times, you know, on the road this year, handled some environments. So, we’ve got to absolutely bring some of that experience with us to to go get this thing done. I’ll open it up to you guys, Kevin. Is there a zero hour for JJ McCarthy? Does it have to be today? Does it have to be Friday? He’ll uh, you know, he’s cleared enough of the uh, you know, the protocol to at least participate in a limited capacity today. That’s kind of part of the next phases of it. um he’s in the protocol and and kind of as it as as that goes and as the medical uh kind of process plays out. Um, I think u, you know, as far as the zero hour, I don’t necessarily know if if we’re we’re looking at, you know, at it like that, but you do want to take into account what has his preparation been like, what is, uh, what has the practice week been like, uh, with what he’s able to do while also knowing that, um, you know, ultimately this is, uh, this is not talking about a uh, you know, a hand or an ankle or anything like that. We’re talking about his head. And uh it’s obviously something that as a former player and just kind of thinking about it from that context, we want to for sure make sure we defer to the medical team, but then um also, you know, what we what we feel is best. And we’re still not in a place to declare anything yet. Um just kind of listening to where it’s at right now and where it could get to. But uh we’re obviously going to going to be smart u both for, you know, what’s best for our team and what’s best most importantly for JJ. Will he get any team reps, JJ? Um today we’re uh he’s not cleared to officially do that yet. He can take take part in individual. You’ll see him throwing. You’ll see him uh kind of working through the indivi individual phase and then u you know as the week goes on you know we’ll be able to update you guys on what he’s able to do. How does that when you’re working through that and can’t do the individual phase yet? How does that impact the way you prepare this game? Just knowing that if you can’t take first team rest and you can’t really have the prep time probably like Yeah, I think the team’s preparation is a is, you know, whether it’s the plays, the you know, what we think it’s going to take to win the game. Um, you know, Max will take all the uh all the first team reps and and John will take the uh the scout team reps and and that’s kind of the plan for today and and take it a day by day approach from there. Um, but as far as like uh the plan and and being in meetings and hearing the plan and all those things and then being able to do individual is obviously critical for uh you know the continued um belief that we’re you know stacking a lot of hours and time on fundamentals and technique. So getting to do those things while also knowing we’re kind of as far as schematics go, we’re kind of in a place in the season where um if you’re doing uh new things, there’s really not a lot of those things. there’s more tweaks and one-off changes to uh plays that maybe he’s gotten some time on task on. So, as far as the team goes, I think our preparation is important and it’s absolutely a huge part of hopefully what leads us to play well uh this Sunday, but I don’t think it changes at all. Were you with Terasaw and Donovan Jackson? Yeah, both those guys will they won’t will not participate today. Um, you know, Donovan obviously dealing uh, you know, with his uh, you know, with his ankle and and it’s sore, but you know, there’s there’s we’ve had uh we’ve we’ve had conversations about seeing what the rest of his week looks like as possibly being available uh, for this week. But at the same time, um, he’ll have to, you know, kind of improve from where he’s at right now to have a chance to play, which is very possible. Um, and then, uh, you know, Christian’s working through just some soreness, but hopefully, uh, you know, have a chance to get him some work here as the week goes on and, uh, determine his status for the game. With with JJ, another setback, um, how are his spirits this week in Yeah, obviously the protocol can be tough sometimes for for a player because it’s kind of out of their hands. it’s out of our hands and and you kind of just defer to the medical team and and when you want to be out there and you want to compete, it’s not always the news that you want. But that’s exactly why it’s it’s in place. So, uh you know, a lot of things uh you know, like like the protocol, you know, is what makes you feel good about being in the head coach position where um you don’t have to worry about it being about a player’s decision or my decision when in regards to something like this. Kim, when you talk about uh Max and and processing, um how do you pick up on that? Like how did you guys identify early on that he was just good in that area? Yeah, one of I mean getting to go to his pro, you know, he threw it two straight Minnesota pro days with the rules being what they are now. Um, so getting in getting two years of exposure, you know, in the pre-draft process, getting to watch him throw the football, you know, in person, and then, uh, both those times you’re you’re getting over there, you’re spending time with those guys, you’re having conversations with them, and then obviously being, you know, really close with PJ and and being able to kind of pick his brain a little bit throughout long before Max ever even enters the uh, the draft process, you know, when he first arrived from New Hampshire. and um you know kind of his fit and what they were trying to do and we’ve spent time with their coaching staff. They come over in the spring and uh you know see him do some of those things. So that’s the starting point, but I think you really don’t know um until you see a guy actively start going through reps and you and you really don’t know until you start seeing some things where um it’s great to always be able to, you know, dot every eye and cross every tea from a installation standpoint. We try to be really detailed, but then there’s a layer to it where you start seeing the timing click and you start seeing maybe under less ideal circumstances like in this preseason where he’s got, you know, he’s, you know, starting out a game against Tennessee starting defense and, you know, some some pretty impactful players making it hard on him and he’s functioning and and able to, you know, move the team and and do some things that really solidified a lot of the things we were feeling on Max. But um he uh you know he’s he’s done nothing but just attack it every day and continue to understand that maybe the you know the reps with Carson or JJ at different times in the season um are going to be it’s going to be pretty hard to come by. So he maximizes the practice squad reps. He max you know the or the look team reps I should say and he maximizes the meeting time and gets extra meetings with Jordan and Josh. And um I think part of him and JJ being really close has allowed the two of them to kind of prepare together in in many ways. So I you know he’s done everything uh to be ready when his number’s been called and uh he’ll be ready if that’s what takes place on Sunday and I’ll have a lot of confidence in him if that’s what happens. All right. Thanks everyone. Thank you.

Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell addressed the media ahead of the Week 13 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2025 NFL regular season.

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