J.J. McCarthy Claps Back at Arm Strength Concerns
Everyone is careful predicting Minnesota’s 2025 campaign because of the change at quarterback. Sam Darnold had a Pro Bowl year with 35 passing touchdowns, and the Vikings made the switch to sophomore J.J. McCarthy. The new passer is a complete mystery because he has yet to take the field in a real NFL game.
J.J. McCarthy Claps Back at Arm Strength Concerns
Besides half a game against the Las Vegas Raiders in last year’s preseason and a few short clips from practice sessions, nobody has seen McCarthy throw the rock since his time at Michigan.
When he was at Michigan, he played in a run-first offense that had him do clean-up work on third downs if necessary, but they were mostly good enough to run all over defenses. While there are some highlight throws on his college tape, he simply didn’t have to air it out like some of his peers in the 2024 draft.
Among the stranger complaints from his doubters is a supposed lack of arm strength. The front-runner of that movement is Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd.
Cowherd said, “To be a great franchise quarterback, there has to be a ‘wow’ trait. Let’s just go through them. Mahomes: arm talent. Allen: sheer force of size. Lamar: athletic ability. Stafford: has one of the great arms in the last 30 years in the league. Burrow: composure and accuracy. Herbert: big, strong, power arm. C.J. Stroud: accuracy. Hurts: strength, pound for pound. Kyler Murray: elusiveness. You start stacking up these quarterbacks, there’s a trait.
“Go back and look at the people I trust,” Cowherd pointed to McCarthy’s pre-draft evaluations. “I never buy, when you say this about a quarterback, ‘that guy is a winner.’ Everybody under Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier’s a winner. I don’t wanna hear that. If you go back and look, his arm is modest, his escapability is modest, his release wasn’t super quick. There is no great trait. That’s why I was always a Darnold fan. Darnold is tough, with a big arm. He can be reckless, but there are times you watch Darnold, his ability to make big throws while moving is special. I don’t get McCarthy’s wow trait. I don’t see the wow.”
Cowherd is a known Sam Darnold fan, which is why he jumped on the Vikings bandwagon during the 2024 campaign.
When his co-pilot, Jason McIntyre, objected about McCarthy’s arm, he responded, “No, go read the scout, he doesn’t have a big arm. He does not have a big arm. His arm is considered modest. It is a middle-of-the-pack arm, middle-of-the-pack escapability. In fact, they question his release. His release, at times, can be a little plodding.”
SKOR North‘s Judd Zulgad asked McCarthy at mandatory minicamp, “There were scouting reports from credible sources that you didn’t have arm strength or it was okay. Do you know where that started? Or how surprised were you? Because in watching you for five practices, there might be some things I see, but it ain’t arm strength.”
McCarthy’s response was excellent. “That’s a great question, Judd. I would say, a lot of it just comes with the stigma of playing at Michigan and not throwing the ball a lot. At the same time, it could be my frame. They don’t see a 6’5″, 240 guy, so how can he throw it 61 miles an hour at the combine and all that? But at the end of the day, it’s gonna show up. And the people that know, know. I think it’s just the situations I’ve been in and maybe not passing the eye test for some people.”
Instead of looking at the film from 18 months ago, and there’s more than enough evidence about a strong arm, we just take a look at his teammates who have praised him for his arm. And there’s no shortage of those comments.
The latest was Justin Jefferson, who has caught passes from Joe Burrow, Kirk Cousins, and Sam Darnold over the years. All three have at the very least respectable NFL arms. He said, “He has a very strong arm. The velocity of the ball and the spin on the ball, he has a tight spin. It definitely comes to you very quick, quicker than what you expect.”
Last month, it was T.J. Hockenson who proclaimed on the Green Light Podcast, “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,” Hockenson said in May. “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.”
Last offseason, after only a few OTA sessions, linebacker Blake Cashman said: “Winning followed him at Michigan, but I didn’t realize how much heat he can put on the ball. He’s got a great long ball and even those tight windows at the next level, he can zip the ball past linebackers or safeties’ heads and squeeze it in those tight windows.”
All of those comments line up with what local media have claimed since last offseason. The guy can sling it.
There certainly are some things McCarthy needs to work on, such as understanding the playbook and learning that an NFL window is different from a college window. He also needs to add more clubs to his bag, as his standard laser throw, which he often displayed in college, doesn’t get it done at the next level. Accuracy on deep balls and outside the numbers are other concerns he had coming out.
But arm strength? No, that’s not one of those.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.