After the Kirk Cousins era ended in Minnesota, much like it began—in mediocrity—head coach Kevin O’Connell and company were ready for the next chapter. Unfortunately, five other teams were also ready for their next chapters at the 2024 NFL Draft. The Vikings saw four QBs drafted before they traded up to No. 10 to snag National Champion JJ McCarthy.
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They had also signed veteran Sam Darnold to a one-year deal, so the transition was smooth, and of course — something of a QB competition during the summer. Darnold seemed to be out in front, but McCarthy was really impressive during the preseason. That is, until he suffered a meniscus injury in his knee that required surgery. It also ended up costing him his entire rookie season.
He became the first-ever 1st-round QB to miss his entire rookie year due to an injury. A dubious distinction, and doubly negative for a football junkie and perennial winner like McCarthy.
As expected, O’Connell wanted to be “purposeful” about making the most of McCarthy’s lost season. During a chat on the Fitzmagic and Big White podcast, he explained how the Vikings kept the rookie engaged and learning despite being sidelined.
“We tried to be really purposeful with it… And that’s him sitting in on every Saturday meeting, where I got through the call sheet with Sam line by line. Elevating plays, taking out plays, the conversation of the why, play-caller intent as he’s learned our offense. But now, as you guys know, the week-to-week offense, and the nuances of why you have certain motions, or why you call things certain things.”
O’Connell isn’t viewed as one of the best head coaches and top offensive minds in the NFL for nothing. He essentially said, ‘There’s no time to feel sorry for yourself, you may have lost your rookie season on the field, but you won’t lose it in the film and meeting rooms.’ That’s how you build a football player with strong character and values.
O’Connell also wanted to make sure that, despite not being able to suit up and take the field, JJ McCarthy could still build chemistry and relationships with his Vikings teammates by remaining around the team throughout his rehab process.
“So we really tried to take advantage of some of the other things, from a technology standpoint, you can use. And then just try to make sure that he was around the football team as much as possible. For anybody that’s ever had a significant injury, the last thing you ever want guys to do is think the team is over there and I’m over here. So we tried to make sure, as the season went on, that didn’t happen.”
The injury was definitely far from ideal. However, it did kind of set up McCarthy for the ideal QB career trajectory. Instead of learning the playbook and implementing it on the fly, he was able to do things more deliberately, which will have helped the ideas stick with him.
“My hope was as much as he can take a step back and take all of that information in, without the threat of, ‘shoot I’m one snap away, I gotta learn all of this plus how it’s gonna feel if I go into the game.'”
The science of sitting a QB behind a veteran for a year or two has been well documented. We won’t name ’em all, but Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes should be enough to convince you it’s generally not a bad idea.
In a massively encouraging update for Vikings fans, O’Connell also said McCarthy is already healthy and rearing to go.
“He’s off to a great start for his offseason, he’s in here every day, he’s working his tail off, and he’s healthy. I’m excited to see him kind of hit the ground running for sure.”
The fact that O’Connell said he’s “excited to see” JJ McCarthy hit the ground running next season is a pretty clear indication that the Vikings intend to go into the summer with McCarthy as their guy. That’s even more evident now that the team didn’t tag Sam Darnold, as reported by Ian Rapoport.
