Reports out of Minnesota on J.J. McCarthy\u2019s grasp of the Minnesota Vikings offense have been brutal so far this offseason.<\/p>\n
McCarthy has looked nothing like the College Football Playoff-winning leader of the Michigan Wolverines offense<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Some days, he doesn\u2019t look like a capable starter at the pro level at all.<\/p>\n ESPN\u2019s Kevin Seifert<\/a> relayed McCarthy\u2019s struggles to gain positive yardage some days while facing Brian Flores\u2019 unorthodox blitz packages, sometimes holding onto the ball without attempting to make a play.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Vikings took extensive action last year to minimize the impact of what otherwise would have been a lost year after McCarthy suffered a season-ending torn meniscus in his right knee, four months after the Vikings made him the No. 10 pick in the 2024 draft. They gave him access to audio and video feeds from practice, quizzed him on game plans, assigned him research projects and arranged for weekly meetings with coach Kevin O’Connell,\u201d Seifert wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there is no substitute for time on the field, and McCarthy’s uneven start to training camp has required more patience than some might have expected. He opened camp with a series of concern-free practices during the NFL-mandated acclimation period, leading efficient drills and making accurate throws in full team settings, even after Jefferson was sidelined by a strained left hamstring.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the pads came on, however, McCarthy and the entire Vikings offense have struggled to move the ball. During one eight-play sequence of starters versus starters, the offense gained positive yards only once.\u201d<\/p>\n While some harp on McCarthy\u2019s character being a positive trait, those leadership qualities lose luster when the team is being led like lambs to the slaughter every week. As things stand, the Vikings may need to rely on a middling defense to overcome McCarthy\u2019s unpreparedness.<\/p>\n Only a year and a few months removed from being selected No. 10 overall in the 2024 NFL draft<\/a> and following a season-ending meniscus injury<\/a>, McCarthy isn\u2019t where he needs to be.<\/p>\n That, in a nutshell, is normal. How far behind he is currently is what may keep Vikings head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell up at night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reports out of Minnesota on J.J. McCarthy\u2019s grasp of the Minnesota Vikings offense have been brutal so far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,1519,9249,29948,71,233,259,6,1551],"class_list":{"0":"post-256462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-j-j-mccarthy","10":"tag-kevin-oconnell-2","11":"tag-kevin-seifert","12":"tag-michigan-wolverines","13":"tag-minnesota","14":"tag-minnesota-vikings","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-offense"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114960358627429185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}