Darnold starts, McCarthy to get 'significant' time and everything else to expect in Vikings preseason opener

A look at how Kevin O'Connell plans to use his QBs and which players will be in the spotlight

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — Local TV is about to have a field day in the ratings on Saturday afternoon. Minnesota Vikings fans, who have been rarely treated to worthwhile preseason football in the last decade, will get their first sneak peak at new quarterbacks Sam Darnold and first-round pick JJ McCarthy on Saturday afternoon.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell announced his plans for splitting up the playing time on Thursday.

“Sam Darnold will start the game, and then we will transition to J.J. McCarthy, for what I'm very excited to see, a significant amount of work.”

In the last two seasons O’Connell hasn’t played his starting quarterback in the preseason but this time around is very different. The free agent signee Darnold is starting to get on the same page with the first team offense stringing strong practices together over the last two weeks while McCarthy is learning the ropes as an NFL quarterback.

“Now, we're reaching the point where we get to see a good barometer on where we're at,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell did not say exactly what “significant” means in terms of how many series Darnold will play or when McCarthy will give way to second-year QB Jaren Hall. Nick Mullens is not expected to play.

On what he feels that he can learn about McCarthy’s progress, O’Connell said: “Nothing can quite simulate real play clocks, real repercussions for things like maybe you don't do your job and it affects others or vice versa. I think it's just a really good way of seeing exactly where you're at.”

Justin Jefferson will not be in uniform for the matchup.

What to expect from the QBs

Considering the distribution of reps, Darnold’s preseason work seems more about getting him a first look at playing inside US Bank Stadium than it does the veteran proving himself in the QB competition. Getting a chance to practice the cadence with the first-team offensive line in an actual game setting could be valuable as well as executing some real-speed decisions in O’Connell’s offense.

Darnold has been showing off the No. 3 overall pick arm during camp so we’ll be looking for a couple of passes that demonstrate why the Vikings signed him for $10 million with the belief that he could lead them this season.

For McCarthy there will be much more focus on the operation. How does he get in and out of the huddle? Does it appear he is throwing the ball on time? Will we see some flashes of the arm strength and athleticism that he has shown off on the TCO Performance Center? Can he get into some situations where he has to manage the clock and chaos of the two-minute drill in a real game?

McCarthy has looked pretty well in control of the offense in practice but it will be another sign of his development if he can come across that way versus the Raiders.

He mentioned the idea of playing against “vanilla” defense. It’s very possible Antonio Pierce will still toss a couple of blitz looks or disguised coverages at him just for the heck of it. Pierce comes across as a coach who wants to win every preseason game, not let a rookie QB sit back and pick him apart.

Which receivers will step up?