“Kevin O’Connell Is Scared to Death”: Cris Carter Believes J.J. McCarthy’s Failures Are Making His HC Anxious

It was another week and another plumb awful showing from embattled Minnesota Vikings second-year QB J.J. McCarthy. The 23-6 Week 12 loss against the Packers on Sunday might not even have been his worst outing yet, and that’s saying something.

McCarthy has now entered concussion protocol, even though he never left the game against Green Bay with an injury. The injury is likely genuine, but it brings back memories of his previous ankle sprain, which many believed was just a fib from head coach Kevin O’Connell to protect his guy.

At some point, though, O’Connell will have to decide whether McCarthy is still his guy. And this is where Vikings great and Hall of Famer Cris Carter steps in.

Carter, who caught 1,101 passes in the NFL, sixth-most all time, knows a thing or two about quarterbacks. And he’s worried not just about McCarthy, but about O’Connell as well.

Carter said on his podcast that the HC was likely “scared to death” watching how poorly his big QB decision has played out so far in 2025. That said, he also urged patience in a league filled with snap reactions. “I think Kevin O’Connell is scared to death. That’s what I think,” Carter began on Fully Loaded.

“I think that last year, him being injured, he does not look like the guy that got drafted in the same class as him. Okay… Caleb Williams has 20 more starts than him, and it looks like it. So for me, if we’re being fair, we need to get at least double-digit starts in there. And then the Vikings are going to have to make a decision afterwards. Do we go on in year number three?” he added.

From Carter’s perspective — and many others around the NFL, including fans and the media — McCarthy is “holding up” what is an otherwise strong and talented team in Minnesota. But as Carter also said, it’s too early to judge the Michigan product with any sort of certainty or finality. “After what we’ve seen, we don’t know. Because he didn’t remove that,” he said.

“Typically, every quarterback, when they get out there, they have to remove the variable: can they play at this level? Can they learn? … Okay, I’m gonna have some success, but once the tape gets out to the whole league, guess what? No, you’re not an NFL quarterback. So they’re trying to find out, is he an NFL quarterback?” Carter continued.

At the end of the day, McCarthy has started just six games. That’s not nearly enough run to tell firmly if a guy is the guy.

But boy, we can certainly say that this start has been far from ideal. Among qualified QBs (with 150+ attempts) this season, McCarthy is either last or second last in the metrics.

He is last in completions (86), last in completion percentage (54.1), second-last in yards (929), second-last in TDs (6), last in passer rating (and by some way, with his 57.9 mark sitting nearly 20 points below the next-worst number), and second-last in yards-per attempt (5.8).

McCarthy has also thrown 10 picks (fourth-most) and has the highest INT rate (6.3) in football. These numbers are so bad that when put next to Minnesota’s infamous No. 12 pick in 2011, QB Christian Ponder, they make Ponder look like Rookie of the Year material. (He was not)

Undrafted rookie out of Minnesota, Max Brosmer, is in line to start if McCarthy can’t get through the protocol in time for Week 13 against the Seahawks. And while he’s a completely unknown commodity, it can’t get much worse at this point.