J.J. McCarthy Draws a Nasty Word
J.J. McCarthy’s first two NFL seasons have been anything but smooth. As that time has been filled with injuries and inconsistent play, the Minnesota Vikings are expected to pursue other passers this offseason.
One national analyst has already made up his mind about the young quarterback. Analyst Emmanuel Acho is ready to close the book on McCarthy. He used the nasty “bust” word.
Former NFL player Acho said this week on his show Speakeasy, “J.J. McCarthy was a bust when he left college. Let’s be real. J.J. McCarthy wasn’t great in college, and he hasn’t been great in the NFL. He had a great preseason game, and I jumped on the bandwagon of that preseason game.”
The early signs were quite positive, with rave reviews coming out of Eagan, MN. Then, McCarthy had a decent preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders with two wonderful touchdowns. More important than his play that day was the fact that he suffered a season-ending knee injury.
It’s hard to defend McCarthy after his subpar sophomore season, with ten mostly inconsistent starts and three new injuries costing him playing time. Still, he, like all players, deserves some objectivity from analysts. Saying he “was a bust when he left college” is going too far. After all, McCarthy does possess some intriguing tools, including the mobility and the arm strength that would make him an intriguing prospect in any draft class after playing for any school.
“But let’s be for real,” Acho continued. “J.J. McCarthy, Anthony Richardson. I said neither of them were great in college. Why are we surprised neither of them have been great in the league? If you’re a college quarterback and your team does not run through you, that’s all that needs to be said. In college, if you are elite, if you can’t run through the quarterback in college, what are we talking about?”
Richardson, the (so far) failed Colts quarterback and former 4th overall pick, can be put in a similar bucket. He also has all these sweet tools, but was a raw passer coming out and didn’t have nearly enough reps in college to be a refined signal-caller. In the NFL, Richardson has suffered several injury setbacks and when playing, has struggled to see the field and with accuracy issues.
McCarthy had 713 pass attempts in college and entered the Draft with 49 touchdown passes. Richardson tossed the rock only 393 times in college for 24 touchdowns.
Let’s check the number of pass attempts the other 1st-rounders from recent years had in college.
- Caleb Williams: 1,099
- Jayden Daniels: 1,438
- Drake Maye: 952
- Michael Penix: 1,686
- Bo Nix: 1,936
- Cam Ward: 1,436
- Jaxson Dart: 1,307
Furthermore, both Richardson and McCarthy were just 21 years old when they came out. Many of those players were two or even three years older. Ultimately, neither gained the necessary experience nor had matured enough to succeed in the NFL.
And if that inexperience is followed by a lack of reps and paused developmental time at the pro level because of injuries, that’s a recipe for disaster. It’s unlikely to be a coincidence that exactly those two QBs have failed.
Now, it is important to note that the players weren’t forced to enter the Draft when they did and that life isn’t always fair. They can’t control whether they suffer an injury (though they both play a little recklessly at times, which is another sign of immaturity), but the NFL world isn’t offering players unlimited chances and players are on borrowed time. The era of developing a quarterback for half a decade is over.
At the end of the day, it is too early to label McCarthy “bust,” and he certainly wasn’t a bust coming out of Michigan, but results need to follow sooner rather than later. He produced uneven play in his first year as a starter, with a couple of promising performances and at least a handful of concerning ones.
For McCarthy, the upcoming weeks will be important for his future. Depending on the quarterback the Vikings bring in to compete with him, McCarthy’s chances of remaining QB1 will either remain steady or disappear. The third-year player has six months to convince the decision-makers that they should stick with him and then prove that he is, in fact, not a bust.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.