Kevin O’Connell can’t say with any level of certainty what would’ve happened had the meniscus in J.J. McCarthy’s right knee held up. But he does know what he was looking at just before McCarthy sustained the injury, as his then-rookie quarterback ascended on the practice field, before translating his steps there into the Minnesota Vikings’ preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders.
McCarthy had done enough, at that point, to at least provoke discussion in the Minnesota building.
McCarthy was, first and foremost, demonstrating the talent that O’Connell and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah gambled on when they traded up a spot to take him with the 10th pick in the 2024 NFL draft. He improved steadily, took coaching points from the spring and continuously applied them, hit goals the coaches set for him for the break between OTAs and camp, and gobbled up whatever else they put on his plate.
“It started showing up more and more,” O’Connell told me Thursday. “And that’s always a real positive from my perspective, when you can really start stacking coaching points on to things that he’s showing improvement on or ownership of. His overall understanding of our offense, the comfort level, even in the reps, whether it was versus the No. 1 defense or in competitive situations in practice, you were starting to see him play faster but under control while still maintaining the principles that we’re coaching.”
Then, it all came crashing down.
McCarthy hadn’t been through an injury like this one before, and it wasn’t easy on him. He lost a lot of weight, and he had to have a second clean-up procedure after the first meniscus repair. He missed five months of on-field development time. The Vikings tried to make up for it where they could—he even started traveling with the team again in late October (the loss to the Los Angeles Rams on a Thursday night was his first NFL road trip)—but there’s only so much Minnesota could do.
That brings us to where he and the Vikings are now.
This isn’t a team in a reset that can afford to sacrifice games in the name of quarterback rearing. Minnesota won 14 games last year, with a strong core of veterans that have every right to feel like they’re close. That’s why, in the end, the Vikings made bids to keep Sam Darnold first, and then Daniel Jones, to insure the position as best they could. It’s also why they had to consider the idea of Aaron Rodgers.
It’s also why the decision now to lock in with McCarthy is significant. The Vikings’ whole approach this offseason was to not leave their fate to chance. Now it’s up to the 22-year-old to show that by going with him (and, for now, him alone), Minnesota really didn’t.
