Last year, the Minnesota Vikings took J.J. McCarthy with the No. 10 overall pick, but his season ended before it could even begin as he became the first first-round quarterback to miss his entire rookie season due to injury. After just one preseason appearance, a torn meniscus in his right knee ended his year, paving the way for journeyman Sam Darnold to take over at quarterback and shock the football world by going 14-3.
Flash forward to 2025 and Darnold is now with the Seattle Seahawks, meaning McCarthy is presumably in line to take the starting job despite nothing being official on the depth chart yet.
To this point in the offseason, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell says the 22-year-old McCarthy is “owning it,” while remaining ambiguous about any pending quarterback competition.
“J.J. is going to be in a great position to assume and ascend in our organization,” O’Connell said on The Rich Eisen Show. “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.”
O’Connell, who said McCarthy is having a “great start” to his offseason program, told Eisen that Vikings fans shouldn’t be worried about the number of snaps McCarthy takes with the starters.
“When he is taking snaps, he’s taking plenty of snaps from Ryan Kelly, who happens to be a 10-year starting center in this league,” O’Connell said. “J.J. is going to get with the ones. We’re going to have him ready to go.”
Before going down with the injury, O’Connell noted that McCarthy was having a great offseason heading into 2024 and “getting better every single day.” The coach applauded his QB for how he dealt with the season-ending injury and sees a significant improvement.
“[McCarthy] really had to deal with what that was like to have the game taken away. ‘I’ve got to focus solely on my rehab. I want to be out there with my guys. There’s nothing I want more.’ He had to really laser his focus and center on getting healthy, and he did that,” O’Connell explained. “He was able to attack the offseason once the season kind of ended, and kind of be in this building every day. He’s bigger. He’s stronger. I can see it in his arm. I can see it in his movements. I can see just the ownership of playing quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. He gained a lot from last year, albeit not how we drew it up. Now can we just build and build and build and progress?”
McCarthy also seems confident in his recovery, saying his knee is at “110%,” and proclaiming that he is ready to start.
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