Kevin O’Connell Is Breaking His Quarterback, Not Building Him
We’re now past the halfway mark of the 2025 season. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy was expected to step into an extraordinary situation for a young passer, with a genius QB whisperer by his side, weapons galore, and a beefy offensive line supporting him. Well, he’s played four games, and very little of any of that has been on display.
Kevin O’Connell Is Breaking His Quarterback, Not Building Him
Nobody could’ve prevented the ankle injury that cost McCarthy five games of his sophomore season, and the same can be said about last year’s knee injury that robbed the Michigan passer of his debut season.
Last year, Kevin O’Connell did the right thing, signing a veteran quarterback to start over McCarthy and protect the young QB until he showed he was ready. Then, the injury occurred. In the offseason, the Vikings added protectors and formed a running back duo to help the passer. They also didn’t acquire any serious competition, making sure it was McCarthy’s job.
Throughout the offseason, every coach and teammate who talked to the media pointed to the defense, the receivers, the new line, or the new running back room and how McCarthy wouldn’t have to be perfect. Just be there along for the ride, and the squad would pull off ten wins in his first season as a starter.
In college, McCarthy had help from a top defense and an elite running game. He might not have had outstanding weapons, but he was not asked to throw the ball 40 times a game. Throwing 20 times and converting on a couple of big third-downs got the job done.
So why is he asked to do that now?
The volume wasn’t there in his first three games, with 20, 21, and 25 pass attempts. Let’s not forget the 14 combined sacks and some scrambles on passing downs, though. On Sunday, he had 42 pass attempts, got sacked three times, and he rushed a few times, too.
Conversely, the Vikings had 13 rushing plays between Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones. Yes, you read that right, they had 13 rushing attempts.
Just last week, the Vikings rushed the ball 19 times with their two backs, plus one run by Jordan Addison. McCarthy threw it 25 times. That’s a nice ratio. And you will never believe what the scoreboard said at the end of the game. The Vikings won.
It’s one thing to ignore the ground game if you’re bad at it. The 2023 Vikings were a bad running team led by Alexander Mattison and Ty Chandler. But the 2025 Vikings aren’t. They rank 14th in rushing success rate. On Sunday alone, the two rushers averaged over 5.5 yards per carry.
One drive — the one that started with the second Myles Price fumble, but the Vikings recovered it — the Vikings began with a 13-yard run by Mason. Then, they used the next set of downs, all four plays to be exact, to throw the ball. The result? They turned it over on downs. You might remember Adam Thielen’s blindside block and the subsequent tantrum he was throwing.
In a microcosm, that’s Minnesota’s problem. They just do not stick with the running game to save their lives.
They have a quarterback who has some sweet moments, but many inconsistencies in between. That’s totally fine for a 22-year-old in his fourth start. But that’s also when the play-caller needs to recognize the situation and help his passer. That’s not Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen he’s dealing with; the last thing a young passer needs is for his team to rely on him on every down.
Take the ball out of his hands at a normal rate. Nobody is asking for 45 carries on 50 plays, but at least target a normal 60-40 split and rush on four of ten plays, especially when it’s working and the game isn’t entirely out of reach.
In the offseason, the Vikings re-signed Jones to a two-year deal worth $20 million and traded draft capital to San Francisco for Mason. He also received a new $10.25 million contract for two years.
They made the investments to support McCarthy. The result is that they have the third-fewest runs through Week 10, with the fifth-lowest running percentage. Sure, more than half of those games came with Carson Wentz, and Aaron Jones had a stint on IR, but it’s not like Wentz couldn’t have benefited from more commitment to the running game.
The high volume seems to hurt McCarthy’s efficiency. There’s a clear drop-off in mechanics as the game goes on, and maybe adjusting the workload while focusing on the fundamentals makes sense.
But that’s not the only thing that’s hurting McCarthy. For some reason, he’s leading the league in air yards per attempt with 9.7. Why in the world would the first-time starter throw the ball deeper than any other quarterback in the league?
Among QBs with at least 11 passes, McCarthy ranks first, followed by Sam Darnold’s 9.5, Matthew Stafford’s 9.3, and benched QB Russell Wilson with 9.3. Just for comparison, Wentz had an average of 7.9, ranking him 28th of 47 QBs.
Why don’t the Vikings run some version of a dip-and-dunk offense to keep the ball moving and get McCarthy into a rhythm, with the occasional shot play mixed in?
So either McCarthy is going rogue and throwing deep on his own, or O’Connell is calling shot plays too frequently. One way or another, coaching needs to fix it sooner rather than later.
Remember O’Connell’s famous sentence about QB development from 14 months ago, “I just think as a whole, there’s not enough emphasis put on the organization’s role in the development of the position, meaning I believe that organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations.”
O’Connell needs to return to the drawing board. Currently, he’s failing his young quarterback by making him throw too often and too deep.
The duo’s next chance to shine will be on Sunday, when the red-hot Chicago Bears want to take revenge for their Week 1 defeat and we’ll see if they can make some adjustments.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.