EAGAN, Minn. — Many NFL followers have been shocked on the night time of Jan. 5, when the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback of the longer term obtained appreciable air time throughout NBC’s broadcast of the staff’s 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions. J.J. McCarthy, who missed his rookie season due to a torn meniscus in his proper knee, appeared thinner than ordinary as he watched the sport from the sideline in a T-shirt and shorts.
Listed at 219 kilos at first of coaching camp, McCarthy dropped greater than 20 kilos this fall, following a sample acquainted for a lot of soccer gamers who put energy exercises on maintain throughout the rehabilitation course of. McCarthy has loads of time to regain the load earlier than OTA practices this spring. However his look was a visible image of the impartial phrases Vikings common supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell used final week in discussing his fast future.
McCarthy is one in every of two quarterbacks the Vikings have beneath contract for 2025 (veteran Brett Rypien), however he solely not too long ago started on-field coaching and has loads of work remaining to return his physique to soccer situation.
Nationwide dialogue has framed the Vikings’ looming quarterback choice as whether or not they need to re-sign veteran Sam Darnold, who is about to turn out to be an unrestricted free agent. However their first precedence is to evaluate McCarthy’s capability for a fast ascension.
“He’s … proper the place we hoped he could be at this level,” O’Connell stated, “to have the kind of offseason to have the ability to reply that query.”
Mentioned Adofo-Mensah: “We’re actually assured in him, his work ethic and his preparation. However I can not sit right here and let you know I do know something for sure.”
There is not a lot precedent for projecting McCarthy’s subsequent step. He was the primary quarterback within the NFL’s fashionable draft period (since 1967) to overlook his whole rookie season due to damage after being chosen within the first spherical.
However realistically, the Vikings have 40 days earlier than they should tip their hand. The NFL’s deadline for utilizing the franchise tag is March 4, after which the Vikings wouldn’t be capable of cease Darnold from agreeing to a free agent contract with one other staff when the negotiating window opens March 10. They may at all times signal Darnold earlier than that time, if he’s prepared to forgo a visit to the open market, and buying and selling him after making use of the franchise tag is another choice.
Assessing Darnold for a attainable 2025 beginning function carries its personal challenges. He earned his first Professional Bowl honors in 2024 after throwing for 4,135 yards and 35 touchdowns within the Vikings’ first 16 video games, at which level he ranked No. 12 within the NFL with a 63.8 QBR. However his efficiency then cratered within the Vikings’ two most vital video games — losses within the regular-season finale to the Lions and wild-card spherical to the Los Angeles Rams — as he threw a mixed 23 off-target passes, in response to NFL Subsequent Gen Stats, and took 11 sacks. His QBR (14.8) ranked thirty first out of 32 certified quarterbacks throughout that interval.
Within the fast aftermath, O’Connell stated it will likely be “essential” to think about Darnold’s full “physique of labor” reasonably than specializing in the Lions and Rams video games. And in response to Adofo-Mensah, the Vikings mentioned the opportunity of Darnold upending their timeline for McCarthy even earlier than the season started.
“I at all times ask Kevin [O’Connell] earlier than the season begins, ‘Hey, what info would you want to form of change your thoughts?'” Adofo-Mensah stated. “And to say it beforehand so that you simply’re not form of whipped round with what probably may occur. And we had these conversations beforehand. We thought there was an opportunity Sam Darnold may play at a excessive stage. Simply seeing what he had finished at earlier stops and what Kevin’s infrastructure and our infrastructure right here has finished for different quarterbacks which have performed right here, we thought there was an opportunity for a excessive stage.
“Did I do know it was going to be a Professional Bowl? I am not going to take a seat right here and let you know that. However I feel that there was some a part of us that each one believed that Sam was going to have a extremely good season, and so once we made the transfer, that was a part of the calculus.”
McCarthy turned 22 earlier this month and is youthful than many of the prime quarterbacks in 2025 draft. If the Vikings resolve he wants one other 12 months of seasoning, re-signing Darnold is a sensible possibility. Something in need of that, nevertheless, may spur a 3rd possibility: pairing McCarthy with a unique veteran who may give them a reputable on-field exhibiting till McCarthy is prepared. And the Vikings already are deep into evaluating the likeliest candidate for that function after signing Daniel Jones to their apply squad in November.
Jones spent six weeks studying O’Connell’s scheme and was added to the 53-man roster for the playoffs. The Vikings made that transfer primarily so as to add Jones to the Vikings’ 2026 compensatory decide method, however Adofo-Mensah acknowledged the bigger reality about Jones’ presence this season.
“It was simply giving ourselves choices relying on what probably may occur this offseason,” O’Connell stated of including Jones. “It isn’t the expertise, as a result of clearly you possibly can watch movie and see the expertise, though it does assist to see it up shut at occasions, however actually simply how he’s in conferences, the varieties of questions he asks, the dynamics within the room, various things like that. And that was an incredible alternative for us and for Daniel … to see if that is the constructing he desires to be in. … I feel he is a possible possibility for us going ahead.”
If nothing else, this season offered a transparent glimpse at Darnold’s ceiling. The Vikings understand how properly he can play of their system, however they noticed his limitations as properly. They will pair that info with their finest projection of McCarthy’s progress and, within the subsequent six to eight weeks, their plan on the place will probably be clear.
