Friday mailbag: The preseason has arrived
Fans are curious about McCarthy's progress thus far
By Matthew Coller
Football time, everybody! We have a preseason game and the highest drafted QB in team history getting “significant” playing time. It’s been a long time coming. So let’s dive into what’s on Vikings fans’ minds heading into the preseason…
Arin J…. Matthew, the Internet is a crazy place with all the trade rumors, Addison plus 2 1sts for Aiyuk, etc. and the free agent bin is not enticing, will the Vikings trade for another receiver as hedging their bet with Addison or hold tight? If they hold tight, who besides Powell and Nailor would be the the most exciting candidate(explosive or great route runner, hands) etc.
It seems like any time there’s a player on the trade block, every single team’s internet rabble rousers find some way to shoehorn their team into the mix because it gets reaction/clicks/likes etc.
If the Vikings didn’t do anything to acquire another receiver by now it’s very hard to see them making a move at any point unless Nailor or Powell got hurt. There’s always a chance they look at the cut list in the same way Josh Doctson or Aldrick Robinson ended up in purple but outside of that the time for moves of any significance has pretty much passed.
As far as who might emerge, Jeshaun Jones has made a lot of catches in camp. He seems to track the ball well. Lucky Jackson and JJ McCarthy have connected a number of times. Thayer Thomas has stood out a few times. They have more solid dudes rather than big upside athletic prospect types behind Powell and Nailor. There’s a real battle for a WR5 spot. Right now I’m not sure who would get it.
Nick M…. It’s August 2025, the expectations for the Vikings are through the roof after the team finished 8-9 and had meaningful development from some young players. The Vikings made huge investments in the off-season and it’s time to roll. As many fans wanted, JJ McCarthy got a complete red shirt year. Now the storyline is: will JJ be ready for all the pressure of the moment when he is finally going to see real game action with sky high expectations? One of the sub stories is second guessing not giving JJ any playing time when you didn’t even make the playoffs ahead of such a crucial year. How plausible does this sound to you? Should the Vikings consider that when deciding when JJ should play?
That sounds fairly plausible if Darnold is playing well enough to keep them in the playoff race this year. I wouldn’t be concerned at all about him not being ready if he doesn’t see much game action in 2024. Do people think that he has to play this year or he will fall behind in his development? Because if he is not playing, that allows him to focus entirely on his development from a week to week basis and have an entire offseason to build on his physical tools and show up in 2025 ready to start.
There are lots of QBs who didn’t play much as rookies and then came in and were good right away. Philip Rivers threw 30 passes his first two seasons and then went 14-2. Eli Manning didn’t play a lot and then went 11-5. Carson Palmer sat out his entire first year and quickly caught on and went 11-5 his second season as a starter. McNabb played only a couple games in Year 1 and then also went 11-5 in Year 2. More recently Jalen Hurts, Jordan Love, Mahomes…
The reality is, if the QB is good, he’ll keep getting better no matter the circumstances and he’ll be good to go when the time comes.
Ben….. Do you think the Wilfs are trying to avoid giving a premature extension?? They did it once with Childress and again with Zimmer. They allowed Zimmer and Spielman to overstay their welcome surly they will give KOC and Kwesi at least some leeway right??
Could be. They might also just want to see how they feel like this whole thing at the end of this year and decide between a short extension or longer extension. If they go 5-12 and things looked pretty ugly, they might want to play it a little more year to year and see where the McCarthy part of it goes. If they go 10-7 and win a playoff game with McCarthy, then long-term extensions for everybody.
I’ve never thought extensions meant much because owners will always just fire coaches whenever they feel like it but to paraphrase Cousins, it’s about what an extension would represent. If they did it now, it would mean full buy-in. The feeling I get is that they want to see the plan in action first. I don’t think that’s irrational unless they expect the plan to result in an NFC North title this year.
Bradley P… Which rookies have been the most impressive in camp?
Honestly, the whole class has looked pretty good so far. McCarthy is coming along, Turner is getting consistent first-team reps in a rotation, I’ve noticed Rouse’s anchoring in pass pro on a number of occasions, Will Reichard has been a monster, Jurgens looks like he could make the team and Levi Drake Rodriguez is getting some first-team reps as a seventh rounder. Plus the two UDFAs Murphy and McGlothern have made some noise.
Chad I…. I'm in a 55-man fantasy dynasty league so we dig pretty deep. I grab Vikings whenever I can, but cuts are coming after this year's draft. Is there any conceivable reason to hang on to Dwayne McBride? Not just looking at 2024 but beyond.
55? How is that even possible? I don’t see much reason there. McBride just hasn’t looked the part. Running backs should stand out almost immediately if there’s something there. I’m still thinking that they might look for another RB on cutdown day.
Jason……How much do you anticipate each qb will play this weekend? Also is there a reason to play Nick Mullens at all?
KOC said they won’t be playing Mullens. I’ll guess that Darnold plays 2-3 series, McCarthy goes through the third quarter and Jaren Hall gets the fourth.
Rzuppelli…. Pancakes or waffles?
The only breakfast I eat is McDonalds egg McMuffin.
Chuck A… I know it's hard to tell in practices-any sign the run game has made any notable changes in concepts/design (other than Brandel opposed to Risner)?
I think they’re going to run to the edges more with Chandler. He’s so freaking fast. Brandel does look like a pretty powerful guy but the Vikings also have all run-stuffing DTs up front so it’s been a little hard to tell how it’s all working out in the run game so far. Plus we just haven’t seen a lot of Jones. They are keeping him mostly in bubble wrap until the season.
Mike T… Matthew, with the likely cut forthcoming of Lewis Cine, yet the emergence of players like Ivan Pace Jr., I'm more convinced than ever that football smarts should be weighted more than athletic ability when it comes to drafting. We've seen it with players like Patterson who couldn't seem to master the mental part of the game (route running) yet was a physical freak. Treadwell may be another example. I understand it's a physical game and we need good athletes, but isn't the smart athlete as valuable or more valuable than one who has amazing measurables??? If so, how do you think teams could assess that better?
In order to be an effective NFL player you have to have the intersection of football IQ, how quick a player can identify patterns, toughness, worth ethic, courage, coachability, instincts, athleticism and physical traits.
The thing about Theo Jackson vs. Lewis Cine, for example, is that Theo ranked in the 95th percentile at the 40-yard dash and 83rd in vertical jump. Cine was 98th and 75th in those categories. Jackson is still one of the most athletic humans walking planet earth but we treat him like he’s a try-hard. The gap usually isn’t that big between the great athletes and the good athletes, which means the separating factors are often all those other things that I named. Guys like Metellus and Jackson have all of them, which make up for the little bit of difference in athleticism.
To your question, I don’t think there’s ever going to be a best that measures the most important factors perfectly. Think of it this way: You’re a good driver in 75 mph traffic. Are you a good NASCAR driver? That’s college vs. the NFL.
How hard are you going to work once you got millions dropped in your bank account on draft night? Do you have the capacity mentally to see something one time and then ID it in a fraction of a second? That’s why the draft will always have an element of randomness.
Jordan D… You’ve mentioned a few times how much better the passing by J.J. McCarthy looks from training camp compared to minicamp. Could you expand on that and maybe give contrasting grades/rankings?
I’m not sure how to grade or rank that. In minicamp and OTAs it looked like he was really feeling it out. If you take a golf and then go out on the course, does it work right away? Probably not. You have to get used to it. I think that’s what was going on. McCarthy was trying to get the footwork down and had passes sailing or coming up short on him but when he spent that time during the summer trying to master it then he got more comfortable with it. Accuracy is always a combination of the footwork/timing and the actual release of the ball. When he got the first one down, the second has come with it.
McCarthy showing so much improvement in accuracy gives us clear evidence that he’s willing to put in the hours that it takes to make progress.
Ben… Who’s a coach you think is getting fired after this season that probably shouldn’t be??
If Rodgers stinks then Robert Salah is probably going to get the axe and that’s really unfortunate because I think that guy is good at his job and has just been handcuffed by the QB situation. I don’t see Todd Bowles as being special but I’m guessing Tampa Bay will regress and he will be the one to pay for it. Maybe Sean McDermott if Buffalo falters?
Kyle S… Who will win the punt-off?
I’m not sure. Both dudes can boom the bleep out of the ball. What it might come down to is whether either one can show some touch. Who can pin the other team deep and show control over their distances because Daniels has told us that he has a formula for depth of the kicks. I’ll go with Wright keeping his job unless I see something different.
Jeremy K…. What is with the push to sit JJ? What is he going to learn from the bench? Aaron Rogers stunk his first full season. Jordan Love stunk the first half of last year. It turns out rookies stink out of the gate. The game speed cannot be simulated. Why not play the guy in what amounts to a practice season?
Jordan Love was one drive from the NFC Championship game and Rodgers threw for 4,038 yards, 28 TD, 13 INT with a 93.8 QB rating and the Packers had the 5th best offense in the NFL in his first season. What the heck are you talking about?
This is not a practice season. This team has the best receiver in the NFL, the best tackle duo in the NFL, one of the top 10 edge rushing groups in the league, the best safety room in the NFL and a top-five defensive coordinator. They wanted a QB who might give them a chance to make the playoffs with those things rather than putting all the expectations on a rookie.
Austrian Vikings Fan…. At the draft, analysts named one downside of JJ Mccarthy that he only had a fast ball. Have you seen some variety (touchballs etc) in his throws at practices?
Yeah, I’d say so. Sometimes he whips a checkdown faster than he needs to but his actual throwing of the football has been good. It’s been pretty clear from guys like Allen and Love that the pure throwing part can be improved with time and effort, especially for someone who’s 21 years old. I’m sure he will still have that tendency to throw the ball through a wall sometimes because the fastball has always been a go-to for him.
My policy has always been that once a guy is drafted I’m only judging him on what he looks like in front of me and McCarthy’s accuracy has looked decent to my eye. The draft guesswork …ope… I mean reports, don’t mean a thing once they are in the NFL. Otherwise internet draft scout darlings like Malik Willis and Desmond Ridder would be franchise QBs and Brock Purdy would be playing in the arena league.