Kevin O’Connell Drops Some Wisdom About His New QB
The Minnesota Vikings allowed Pro Bowler Sam Darnold to enter free agency, and they didn’t go all-in on either Daniel Jones or a guy like Aaron Rodgers for one reason: They like J.J. McCarthy. Just over 11 months ago, the franchise traded up to select Michigan’s QB1 with the tenth overall pick.
Kevin O’Connell Drops Some Wisdom About His New QB
His rookie season didn’t go according to plan because a torn meniscus ended it in August. Instead of fighting with Darnold for reps, he fought his own body and tried to recover to get back on the field in time for this offseason workouts.
While there has been a ton of buzz about him not officially being named QB1 by anyone in the building, all signs point towards him taking the first snap in September.
One of those signs is the continued praise the passer is getting from Kevin O’Connell. The head coach has earned the label “quarterback whisperer” over the years, and he told ESPN’s Kevin Clark when asked about what the 22-year-old does well:
I mean, his ability to throw the ball in windows over the middle of the field, to be accurate in the weighty downs. He was really effective on third downs. I think he had a pretty historical clip on third and seven, plus his red zone passing.
Everybody can say that percentages of attempts, well, he didn’t throw a lot of bubble screens. He didn’t throw a lot of RPOs. He didn’t do a lot of those things. He was in a pro style offense, where they were running the football, they were marrying the run in the pass on early downs. They needed high-quality execution on some of those weighty downs. And that’s really what we’d like to be with our offense.”
It was a common criticism coming out of Michigan for the passer that he didn’t throw as much as other guys in the draft. Jim Harbaugh’s team ran a pro-style offense that prominently featured the running game, but as O’Connell alluded to, McCarthy was excellent when they needed him to throw, especially on third downs and the classic college gadget plays that inflate a passer’s numbers barely played a role in Michigan’s playbook.
O’Connell is also happy about the redshirt year, although he surely would’ve liked it better by design instead of the injury forcing his hand.
And then the other thing I would say is just he’s had, that same player, has had a year now of being around a guy like Sam Darnold going through his journey, a one-year journey with the success Sam had. He got to watch it. He got to see what meetings were like. What’s it like when I install third-down plays, and we talk about the reads, and we talk about the detail of how we’re going to play against this opponent who plays like this this week. And I think he’s been around all that.
Yeah, he’s not a rookie. He’s been able to have, you know, that pseudo redshirt year, albeit without the reps we have wanted, but I’m really confident, really excited to see him hit the ground running. He’s had a great offseason and can’t wait to get going with him.
O’Connell also emphasized that it is a massive benefit to hear stuff for the second time rather than having to learn everything from scratch.
All of that sounds like he doesn’t expect the usual rookie struggles and enters the season with a hitting-the-ground-running approach.
Another advantage he has over usual first-time starters is the fantastic surroundings. He will throw passes to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson, can hand the ball off to Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason, and take his time in a pocket bookended by Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill with a revamped interior of the line. Brian Flores and his defense also give him some margin for error.
Of course, O’Connell will work his magic to help McCarthy. Numerous reports and also McCarthy’s words suggest that his knee is fully healthy, and he should be expected to be full-go in OTAs.
There’s no doubt about it: the young quarterback will be the main attraction in training camp and the preseason.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt