When the Minnesota Vikings were in the process of finding their quarterback of the future, there were multiple options in front of them. It created a lot of interesting debate among fans and analysts alike.
Reports were that the Vikings had a preference for North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye, but they couldn’t get a deal done with the New England Patriots and they selected J.J. McCarthy at 10th overall.
Throughout the offseason, many analysts and teammates raved about McCarthy and his development, how he approached the work and how he is as a person. That has accelerated through the first two full weeks of training camp practice as fans have gotten a glimpse on what the future holds.
Is Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy ready to start?
This is exactly what everyone wants to know. The pulse of the fanbase is ecstatic about McCarthy being the guy but is he ready to take the reigns?
To put it simply, no he’s not and that’s okay. I spoke about this in-depth on Purple Daily on Draft and broke down why he’s not ready to be the guy.
“I’m just going to put it blunt. He’s not ready, and people need to calm down. When you watch McCarthy in practice, you see the wild plays, and you see the vision of what the future could look like, and it’s very exciting. And I don’t want to tell anybody they shouldn’t be excited. You should be he’s making some really good plays, but some of the talk on social media and amongst the fan base is being taken a little bit out of context. And a lot of these throws that McCarthy is making are after like five six seconds when he would have already been buried in the pocket, or when he was already sacked, because they can’t actually touch the quarterback, right? So when you look at those elements, and you look at him, you know being incredibly slow working through his progressions, and in some of these seven on sevens, he’s flipping his hips and only looking one way. It’s almost like watching Hendon Hooker at Tennessee. And we talked a lot about Hendon Hooker throughout the pre-draft process, where he was just not a quarterback he could trust being seen to be. And I think McCarthy can do that, but it’s very slow right now because he’s adjusting to the NFL, and that’s okay. We’re not asking for McCarthy to be perfect right now. We’re asking McCarthy to grow and develop, and I think we’re seeing signs of it. But then he’s also working on his mechanics, and he’s being inconsistent in making some of these throws.”
The biggest factor here is the excitement level. Within this conversation, the excitement shouldn’t be lost in translation. McCarthy is doing a lot to make fans excited and it’s great to be excited! He’s consistently making throws like this and they are high-level throws.
These are next-level type throws that you want a modern-day quarterback in the National Football League to make on a consistent basis. However, playing quarterback isn’t just about making the great throws. It’s about doing the basic things consistently.
For McCarthy, there are two things that he needs to prove he can do with consistency before he gets the starting job:
- Work through progressions quicker
- Be more consistent with the mechanics changes the Vikings have implemented
That is where McCarthy isn’t quite there yet. The transition from the college game to the pro game is a tough one and it takes time to adjust to the speed and spacing at the NFL level. Every rookie has an adjustment period and it isn’t something to be concerned with, but rather one to keep an eye on.
Progressions are a difficult thing for all quarterbacks. You can often see rookie quarterbacks thinking a little too much when they are working through their progressions and that’s completely normal. With some quarterbacks, they figure it out quickly while others need more time. Even the really good rookie quarterbacks like C.J. Stroud have bouts of this. Patience is required with progressions.
The other element that’s very important is fixing mechanics. Changing mechanics is a tough ask of any quarterback and it takes thousands of reps to make them muscle memory.
“One of the things that I remember when Tim Tebow was coming out of college, they talked a lot about how he was changing his throwing motion. And one of the things they kept saying, 10,000 reps to make muscle memory. McCarthy is probably not even close to 10,000 reps, and you can kind of see some of those old habits come back into form. And when that happens, he’s making poor throws, and he needs to just work through that. And when pressure comes, he needs to focus on the new mechanics rather than what he was doing prior. And that comes with time.”
McCarthy had some inconsistent footwork and hip rotation at Michigan that would cause him to miss on throws. They are working on how McCarthy rotates his hips to be less like a baseball pitcher, which will help mitigate those issues. Right now, McCarthy is relatively consistent but when pressure strikes, the old habits come home to roost and cause misses.
There is one more element at play: Sam Darnold is playing really well.
“And let’s be honest, Darnold isn’t bad. People want to just be like, oh, Darnold that Friday and Saturday, he was fantastic. He was layering the volume beautifully to players like Justin Jefferson, corner routes, Dick routes, going deep. He was making good decisions. He was making quick decisions, which is really important and really good to see, considering he’s learning a new offense with an entirely new organization. These things all matter. And I think Darnold is the runaway favorite to start, week one. If he plays well, you may not see McCarthy at all, because I think Darnold has a chance to be really good in his offense.”
The Vikings have been very intentional with how they are bringing McCarthy along because it’s the best thing for him. It’s also important to mention this element of the conversation.
Everyone wants McCarthy to be successful and by all accounts, it looks like he is trending that way, especially when you hear about how he acts inside the building. However, the elements of consistency don’t mesh with the high-end plays that are floating all over social media.
Be excited about the flash plays because that is what he will bring to the Vikings. The key is getting the consistency down. Once that happens, McCarthy will get the starting job, but he’s not quite there yet.
