Credit: Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings were in pads on Monday for the first time this summer at TCO Performance Center. Being football games in the NFL aren’t played in shorts and helmets, it’s an important week.
Outside of actual preseason games and upcoming joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens, padded practices tend to tell NFL coaches, media members and fans more about their football team than any other week during training camp.
But let’s be honest, all eyes remain on the MN Vikings quarterback battle. Entering the day, it felt like newly signed Kyler Murray held a massive advantage over incumbent starter JJ McCarthy.
If Kyler Murray vs. J.J. McCarthy on Day 4 of training camp was a boxing match, the refs would have stopped it in Round 5. Murray looked really sharp and McCarthy struggled for most of the day.
— Judd Zulgad (@jzulgad) August 1, 2026
In fact, given how practice went on Saturday, it felt like McCarthy needed a good day just to stay in the race. Well, he did not have a bounce back day.
Kyler Murray fails to run away with Vikings QB battle
Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for Vikings fans, Murray wasn’t any better, according to reports. Not only did he too struggle during the two-minute portion of practice, but he nearly got Jordan Addison killed too.
First full pads practice is over in Eagan, and we’ll just call it a win for the defense. Neither QB was particularly sharp. Kyler Murray again with more first team reps. J.J. McCarthy got first team in 2 min to close it out and was 0-3 with an INT. Murray 0-2.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) August 3, 2026
Kyler Murray almost got Jordan Addison killed pic.twitter.com/Dig6JWOlXu
— Patrick Siepman (@PatSieps) August 3, 2026
Related: Brian Flores Brings Some Clarity to Vikings CB Injury
Overall, the main takeaway from camp today was that neither Kyler Murray nor JJ McCarthy is ready to play against a good NFL defense, including the Minnesota Vikings own defensive group, led by Brian Flores.
It’s not surprising that the defense is ahead of the offense. However, there is some common sense context that’s worth being included in this conversation. Is it really that surprising to see Murray struggle the first time in pads at TCO Performance Center?
JJ McCarthy should look better than Kyler Murray, at this point in training camp
He is trying to soak in one of the more complicated offenses in the league, while seeing Brian Flores’ exotic defensive looks barring down on him at the same time. As he gets more reps, he’ll get more comfortable and we can logically expect him to get better.
On the other hand, you can’t help but do wonder how much better JJ is going to get from here. He should be ready for just about everything Flores is going to throw at him. Not to mention, now in year three, he should know Kevin O’Connell‘s offense like the back of his hand.
Clearly, he does not.
2-min drill for J.J. McCarthy went about as poorly as possible.
PBU
PBU
False start
INT by Byron Murphy Jr.
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) August 3, 2026
Related: KOC Keeping Minnesota Vikings QBs in the Dark Too
Still, until Kyler Murray leaves JJ McCarthy in the dust or KOC names his starting quarterback, all eyes will be on this quarterback competition. That includes Tuesday, when we get day two of padded practices out in Eagan.
Mentioned in this article: J.J. McCarthy Kyler Murray Training Camp
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