Kevin O’Connell Drops Subtle Clue About the Big QB Question
A year ago, the Minnesota Vikings acquired quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the draft. He was the fifth quarterback off the board, but that doesn’t change how excited Kevin O’Connell was to get his hands on the highest-drafted passer in franchise history.
Kevin O’Connell Drops Subtle Clue About the Big QB Question
His NFL journey was delayed by a year, at least on the field, but McCarthy is now healthy, about nine months removed from the cruel knee injury that robbed him of his rookie season.
In the offseason, the Vikings passed on another year with Sam Darnold in charge of the offense, and they said no thanks to other veterans like Aaron Rodgers, Joe Flacco, or Jameis Winston. The message is clear: It’s McCarthy’s show.
However, nobody from the organization, not O’Connell or anyone else, has come out and put the QB1 label on him. On Wednesday, O’Connell came as close as possible during one of his frequent appearances on the Rich Eisen Show.
At first, he danced around the question of whether it would be a competition for the top job: “J.J. is going to be in a great position to assume and ascend in our organization. But right now, we really don’t have any feelings on competition as much as we’ve got an obligation as coaches to put our players in position to attack that competition phase. Sam [Howell] will be a part of it. But we’ve got to get Sam ready to play. We’ve got to get Brett Rypien ready to play. Excited about our quarterback room, but now it’s our job to go coach them.”
McCarthy’s main competition would be fourth-year signal-caller Sam Howell, who was a trade acquisition in April’s draft. Brett Rypien, last year’s QB3, is the other experienced guy in the room, and then there’s Max Brosmer, an undrafted rookie.
If any QB other than McCarthy took the first snap in Week 1, it would be quite stunning.
Eisen tried again, and this time, O’Connell gave a significant hint about the offseason reps: “When he is taking snaps, he’s taking plenty of snaps from [starter] Ryan Kelly, who happens to be a 10-year starting center in this league. Take that for what it’s worth. I don’t think Vikings fans or any wildly successful nationally renowned broadcasters like yourself should be worried about the amount of reps J.J. is going to get with the ones. We’re going to have him ready to go.”
Ryan Kelly will obviously run with the first-team offense. He’s the unchallenged starter at center, and therefore, if McCarthy is taking snaps from him, he will take snaps with the top offense.
In last year’s training camp, it was primarily Darnold who got those. The Vikings had planned to increase McCarthy’s first-team reps in the following joint practices with the Browns, but McCarthy’s injury put a pause on all of that.
Getting reps with Justin Jefferson and his crew is the first step to earning the QB1 tag.
McCarthy has recently drawn some praise for his arm. Teammate T.J. Hockenson said, “His arm talent is there. He’s got a sick arm. I remember catching passes from [Stafford], and it was one of those balls where it just zips on ya. It looks like it’s not coming, but it’s coming. And J.J.’s got the juice behind it where it kind of has that effect. … He’s got insane arm talent, and really the personality that he has goes really well, and I think he’s gonna have a long career.
That matches reports from last year. McCarthy might take part in rookie minicamp this week. Next week, the entire team will be on the field for offseason workouts, and we’ll monitor who’s snapping him the ball.
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