After missing last Sunday’s game in Seattle, J.J. McCarthy is on track to clear the NFL’s concussion protocols this week and return to action for the Vikings’ upcoming home game against the Commanders. That’ll be the start of a critical final five games of this season for McCarthy, who will look to shake off his brutal six-game start and show enough progress to build some much-needed momentum heading into the offseason.
Throughout this season, and especially as McCarthy has struggled so extensively over the past month, one constant talking point has been his fundamentals and mechanics. Things like stride length, leg kicks, and arm angles have been discussed ad nauseam. On Wednesday, head coach Kevin O’Connell made it clear that he doesn’t want McCarthy thinking about mechanics this weekend. Instead, his directive to his young quarterback is to just go play, and to do so with a focus on making good decisions with the football.
“I think we’ve talked a lot about plenty of moments, that you guys probably have logged away for eternity, of fundamentals and technique and all those things,” O’Connell said to reporters. “And I appreciate the questions and the interest in the understanding of the quarterback development process. But as I talked to him this week, it’s purely about decision-making at this point.
“There’ll be time to fundamentally focus on things and continue building this layer of a foundation that will be important for him into the future. But now, it feels like he’s got enough experience, he knows a lot of these principles that we’ve talked about. I want him to have a clear head and a clear mind to just go play, but play with an understanding of the decisions that I make with the ball in my hand.”
What it sounds like O’Connell is saying there is that the focus on mechanics can wait until the offseason, when that will be a big piece of the puzzle for McCarthy. That’s something that’s going to require significant time and practice reps to shape. But right now, as he prepares to face the Commanders, it can’t be occupying too much space in his mind. He needs to try to slow the game down and simply go play quarterback the way he knows how to play the position.
“I don’t want him overthinking or worrying about — if the fundamentals need to be changed, if they need to be adjusted, if we need more time on task on that, that’s one thing,” O’Connell said. “But let’s just make the throws. Let’s just throw and catch. Let’s just play with great rhythm and understanding of the plan.”
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That approach makes all kinds of sense. To ask a young QB to change his fundamentals on the fly, while dealing with everything else that comes with adjusting to the NFL, is too difficult. A couple weeks ago, McCarthy talked about how he was “rewiring neurological pathways” in learning how to play quarterback a different way than how he was taught before landing in Minnesota. It feels fair to assume that trying to think about a thousand different things at once has contributed to the results we’ve seen from him on Sundays.
Some of McCarthy’s best moments this year have come with the Vikings in two-minute mode. In Week 11 against the Bears, his one great drive of the day occurred in the final three minutes with the Vikings trailing by six and using tempo. That may have been an example of McCarthy simply playing football without having too much information to process in the moment.
This weekend provides a great opportunity for McCarthy to put together a bounce-back performance. Since Week 6, the Commanders have lost seven consecutive games. They have easily the worst defense in the NFL by opponent EPA per play over that span. Two of their starting cornerbacks, Marshon Lattimore and Trey Amos, are on injured reserve. If the Vikings could hand-select any defense in the league to face on Sunday, it might be this one.
It feels like forever ago, but it’s only been a month since McCarthy showed some high-level flashes in an upset road win over the Lions. The Vikings hope that by not worrying so much about technique, that version of their young quarterback will show up again this week.
Protecting himself from harm
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When O’Connell talks about decision-making for McCarthy, it’s not just about where he goes with the ball as a passer. It’s also about knowing when to take off as a runner — and, critically, being able to protect himself when he does use his legs.
The first, most important step for McCarthy over the final five weeks of this season is to stay healthy and stay on the field. They can’t have him scrambling and picking up a high-ankle sprain like he did against the Falcons, or taking hits to the head like he did at Lambeau Field.
“I know this is something that’s being talked about around the league a little bit for multiple young players,” O’Connell said, likely alluding to Giants rookie Jaxson Dart. “I think it’s part of the learning process, especially with guys that are so competitive, that have played a certain style and made a play to win a national championship by doing so, or whatever it is. Maybe early on in their career, made a play to win a game by doing so.
“A full season’s worth of information and data can now tell you that that needs to be a part of your refined thought process, protecting yourself and getting what you can and it’s a positive play, and then you put a period on that sentence by your ability to move on and play the next snap. We have a good amount of data that says that he can impact the game athletically, but it can’t come at a cost of not having him in there for either the next snap or, as we’ve learned, the next week, even if we somehow persevere through that day.
“The sustainability of it, week to week, is obviously a factor in quarterback play. And availability, as Bud Grant talked about, is the greatest ability. That’s gotta be a factor, especially when reps are so important for him right now.”
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