{"id":281417,"date":"2025-08-12T05:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T05:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/281417\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T05:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T05:46:11","slug":"vikings-j-j-mccarthy-draws-high-praise-from-aaron-jones-in-the-same-category-as-aaron-rodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/281417\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings\u2019 J.J. McCarthy Draws high praise from Aaron Jones: ‘In the same category as Aaron Rodgers’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vikings\u2019 J.J. McCarthy Draws high praise from Aaron Jones: ‘In the same category as Aaron Rodgers’<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a><\/p>\n

In the first week of the preseason, Minnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy<\/a> made his first start in over a year and showed he\u2019s ready to take on a bigger role. He stayed calm and made the most of his chances leading the offense.<\/p>\n

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Even without stars Justin Jefferson and Aaron Jones on the field, McCarthy completed 4-of-7 passes for 30 yards, including a 18-yard reception by Jordan Addison against the Houston Texans.<\/p>\n

Although Jones wasn\u2019t playing alongside him, he\u2019s still very confident in what McCarthy brings to the team.<\/p>\n

Matt Verderame from Sports Illustrated recently spent time with the team and wrote a story on McCarthy. During that time, Verderame also spoke with Jones, who has worked closely with both future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers and McCarthy.<\/p>\n

When asked to compare <\/a>the two quarterbacks mentally, Jones had a memorable response.<\/p>\n

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\u201c[McCarthy] is a very, very hungry and driven player, but also a leader,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHe\u2019s different. In terms of smarts, I put him in the same category as Aaron Rodgers \u2014 how smart he is and his deep understanding of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\ud83d\udcf2 Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp<\/a><\/p>\n

McCarthy, a former Michigan Wolverines star, hasn\u2019t yet had much time to prove himself since being drafted No. 10 overall by the Vikings two draft classes ago. Still, just being mentioned alongside Aaron Rodgers<\/a> speaks volumes.<\/p>\n

Minnesota was a key player in the Aaron Rodgers sweepstakes all offseason and was rumored to be his top choice. But coach Kevin O\u2019Connell\u2019s confidence in McCarthy never faltered. The Vikings have made their intentions clear.<\/p>\n

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This is JJ McCarthy\u2019s team now.<\/p>\n

All eyes will be on McCarthy as he tries to live up to the high expectations and justify the Vikings\u2019 faith. The foundation is in place \u2014 now it\u2019s his time to write the next chapter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vikings\u2019 J.J. McCarthy Draws high praise from Aaron Jones: ‘In the same category as Aaron Rodgers’ originally appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[6912,1586,7,253,4262,8265,2780,11367,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-281417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-aaron-jones","9":"tag-aaron-rodgers","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-houston-texans","12":"tag-jj-mccarthy","13":"tag-jordan-addison","14":"tag-justin-jefferson","15":"tag-mccarthy","16":"tag-minnesota","17":"tag-minnesota-vikings","18":"tag-minnesotavikings","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281417","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=281417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}