Friday Mailbag: What’s JJ going to look like?

Vikings fans are getting amped for training camp wondering about how JJ McCarthy is going to play stylistically

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone! Only two more of these and then we’ll be talking about actual training camp practices. For now, let’s get into your questions…

Bradley P…Check the Mic podcast listed their 16 Best Positional Units and the Vikings had three of them, whereas none of the other North teams had one. Oversight or should we plan the parade?

No disagreement from me on the Vikings’ inclusion on Sam and Steve’s lists. If things go right for this team health wise, they have a top 3-5 roster in the entire league. The area that I might give a little more credit in the NFC North is Detroit. If Za’Darius Smith re-signs with them, they might have an argument along the defensive line with Aidan Hutchinson coming back, DJ Reader, a first-round pick in Tyliek Williams, Alim McNeil, Levi Onwuzurike — that’s a lot of talent. Maybe Jameson Williams’s 2024 got overlooked a little bit too because him and St. Brown along with Sam LaPorta, Tim Patrick and Kalif Raymond is a scary group.

The Bears could have a really good set of weapons if Burton and Loveland turn out. They might also have a strong O-line. I could see the Packers’ D-line ranking highly if things click with Lukas Van Ness.

It might be hard to rank a backfield as a positional unit since it’s only one or two guys but Detroit and Green Bay have very strong arguments there.

It’s a phenomenal division overall but I think if you break down the non-QB rosters of every team, the Vikings come out the strongest overall.

Eldon….How do you think the preseason game reps will be broken down among the Vikings QBs? Do you think we see a lot of McCarthy??

I don’t think we’re going to see a ton of McCarthy but I’d be surprised if he doesn’t play more than what we’ve seen from QB1 in the past. Cousins and Darnold were given one or two drives and then put on ice for the rest of the preseason, whereas McCarthy might end up getting an entire quarter in the first game. With the joint practices with the Patriots mixed in, I’m not sure we see much more than that though.

As far as the backups, I would guess that Sam Howell gets a good amount of work. They are going to want Howell to have as many reps as possible because A) he is new in this offense B) he allows them to evaluate all the players around him. That might be harder to do with Brett Rypien or Max Brosmer in there. I’d guess we see Brosmer in every game if the competition for QB3 is as real as I’m expecting it to be but probably not until the fourth quarter of these games.

Pickle Enjoyer… List your five favorite bands and your five favorite guitarists

Very tough exercise because I like a lot of stuff. The bands that I have listened to the most in my life are probably Ozzy, Metallica, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana. Top five guitarists, I’d go Randy Rhodes, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen, Tom Morello, and Prince.

But I could add another 50 guitar players to that list. Jerry Cantrell, Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Paul Gilbert, John 5, Kirk Hammett, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Slash, Gary Moore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Bonamassa… the list goes on and on.

Never Played Madden…. Nice article on Brosmer. Smart kid. Then again, KOC was a smart kid but didn’t last as a player in the NFL. What does Max need to prove or improve on to make it to at least backup or journeyman level in the NFL.

Yeah, KOC and Max Brosmer were very different prospects coming out. KOC was a freak athlete but needed a ton of refinement and development of his passing. Brosmer has athletic limitations but he has a ton of experience as a pocket passer, throwing the ball accurately and understanding how to read defenses and how all the passing concepts work.

I see Brosmer as potentially falling into the Nick Mullens category as a guy who can have a long career based on his knowledge, how he works with other QBs in the room, how he can run a scout team offense and being able to get into a game and run the offense if called upon (though maybe not as wild of a risk taker as Mullens).

At his age, there isn’t something that he needs to really improve upon like arm strength or accuracy etc., it’s just about showing in practice that he can get the ball where it needs to go. You’d be amazed how hard it is to throw the ball accurately and on time to the right receiver in the progression when everything is going 100 mph. Things look a lot easier on TV than in real life. If he can do that when everybody is going full speed, he has the accuracy and IQ to be in the league for a long time.

Jake J… If I told you that there were 5 Vikings on the 2025 roster who will make the next Vikings quarter century team (2025-2050) who would you guess makes it?

Justin Jefferson, JJ McCarthy, Jonathan Greenard, Christian Darrisaw and Dallas Turner would be my picks.

In order for somebody to make enough impact to be on the next 25 year team, they are going to need a lot more time as a Viking, which is why McCarthy and Turner are guesses here rather than guys like AVG and Brian O’Neill.

Some other potential nominees would be Jordan Addison (if everything stays on the straight-and-narrow), Blake Cashman, Byron Murphy Jr., Donovan Jackson and Will Fries.

And, because they are the Vikings and they have a crazy history of finding undrafted greats, maybe I should throw Theo Jackson and Bo Richter on the list.

VikesFan93…. I was curious what you think Viking brass is likely to do, were we to lose DC Brian Flores to a HC position after this season? One option, of course, would be to go out and bring in a new DC. However, since we love the B Flo scheme and our D players already know it and are set up for it, do you think we would be more likely to promote from within and roll with the same scheme? Who would be most likely to become the new DC (Daronte Jones, Mike Siravo, Chenzo Funari, Mike Pettine)??

I’ve been a proponent of Daronte Jones being the successor if that happens. Jones has coached in multiple different schemes and has a great understanding of coverages. Remember, he’s a guy that got hired in Minnesota originally by Mike Zimmer and then was a DC at LSU for a year and was hiring here again for Ed Donatell’s staff and then remained on with Flores. That’s pretty telling. Every time Harrison Smith talks about his experience in the latter years of his career, he cites working with Jones as one of the things he’s enjoyed. With three years under Flores, he will completely understand the nuances of Flores’s style and can continue working with the staff that’s already in place and has been carrying out Flores’s ideas over the last few years.

Anglo Vike…. You mentioned the other day about Wes Phillips being under the radar but I would like to nominate Keenan McCardell as being extremely overlooked. We know that Jefferson and Addison have talent but I think that McCardell has been the key behind them plus helped develop KJ Osborn and Jalen Nailor as well. He also coached Diggs at Maryland prior to his being drafted, so another name for his resume. The Vikings have always been known for their WR corps but, in my view, McCardell has had a massive influence - what say you Matthew?

I agree that McCardell is not only the best at his job but probably the least talked-about impactful coach out there. Let’s not just skirt over Jefferson and Addison’s development under McCardell because those guys are gifted. There’s no more important person in the organization than Jefferson and McCardell was so valuable to him that he asked KOC to keep McCardell when KOC got hired in 2022. He’s helped guide him through his rise to superstardom and the challenges that come along with that from defenses and the outside world.

Keenan got a couple offensive coordinator interviews two years ago but I didn’t hear anything last year. He’s certainly deserving. Though he does seem right at home as a guy who understands how to teach the receiver craft like few others.

These last two questions really speak to a hack that the Vikings have with their coaching staff. It’s an All-Star team. And even with some of the O-line issues they have had the last few years, their performances under Chris Kuper have been markedly better than many of the previous years. They squeezed everything they could get out of a Robinson/Brandel/Bradbury/Risner unit last year.

Bradley P…. Which NFL quarterbacks on their current contracts (rookies or veterans) would you trade straight up for McCarthy? I couldn’t come up with a ton.

The streak of weekly McCarthy Trap Questions continues. The easy answers are Allen, Mahomes, Jackson and Burrow. After that, Jayden Daniels is the answer that probably annoys some Vikings fans because they are in the same draft class but his performance last year was no fluke. How much does Jalen Hurts have to win to get any credit as a great quarterback? I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t pick him and that doesn’t make any sense to me after he’s taken two different teams to the Super Bowl.

The slight issue with the question is that the Vikings roster is so stacked right now, I’d take several more sure-thing QBs for the next two years and mess up the future cap in order to make it all work. Justin Herbert on this team would be disgusting. Jared Goff can take the right team to the Super Bowl. I’m not sure I’d take either of them for the next 5 years due to the huge cap advantage but for 2025 and 2026 I would.

To your main point, when you consider the upside with his talent and contract, it’s a great place to be at the quarterback position.

Matt D… What will we see more of from McCarthy this season: WR screens or 0-10 yard passes over the middle of the field?

Oh, way more 0-10 yard passes over the middle. In 2023, Cousins threw 83 passes between 0-10 over the middle and only had 46 total passes behind the line of scrimmage to any position. Last year Darnold had 98 short throws over the middle and 79 behind the line.

Certainly we are going to see an uptick in wide receiver screens if Rondale Moore or Tai Felton or both end up on the roster as rotational players but TJ Hockenson’s return is going to result in a lot of wide open underneath stuff for McCarthy to lean on as defenses sell out to stop the downfield passing game.

Ryan T… Talk me into the Vikings having a top 10 or top 5, whichever is more fun, run offense in 2025.

So last year the top two rushing teams were untouchable — Baltimore and Philly both went over 3,000 yards — but the third, fourth, and fifth ranked teams didn’t completely untouchable numbers. The Packers were fifth with just under 2,500 yards on the ground. In order to do that, they needed 1,329 yards from Josh Jacobs and 502 from Emanual Wilson and then a handful of yards from Jayden Reed, Jordan Love/Malik Willis. Could the Vikings get 1,000 from Aaron Jones, 800 from Jordan Mason and then 300 from JJ McCarthy, and another handful from Ty Chandler (or Cam Akers?), Rondale Moore, Tai Felton and Justin Jefferson?

It’s not the craziest thing I’ve ever heard but still feels like a pretty big stretch. They would have to run a lot more than they have in the past. The average top-five rushing team had 542 rushing attempts in 2024. The Vikings under KOC have had 457, 393 and 404 runs.

Top 10 is much more realistic. The Falcons ranked 10th in 2024 with 495 carries at 4.5 YPC for 2,219 yards. That would require the Vikings to become much more confident running the ball beyond just first down or when they were ahead. KOC would need to trust it as a true weapon. With the way they rebuilt the offensive line, I could see that happening. Those first three games are going to be really telling. They should be able to run against Chicago, Atlanta and Cincinnati. That could build some belief in it early.

It also depends on how much McCarthy is going to run. Last year the QBs who are most easily compared to him in terms of mobility, Baker Mayfield and Brock Purdy, were between 300 and 400 yards. If they got 1,700 from the RB duo and 300ish from McCarthy, they can sneak into the top 10.

Ramsey K… Given how present play action is in the NFL these days, why aren't teams running more flea flickers? Granted, they take longer to execute but isn't it just run game equivalent of PA? How many times should teams run flea flickers in a game? I say at least twice per game...

It is interesting because the NFL used to use flea flickers all the time back in the day and now there might be a handful around the entire league per year.

If I had to guess, it’s probably because of the amount of blitzing that happens in the NFL. If you run a flea flicker into a blitz, it’s going to result in a huge loss and possibly the quarterback getting murdered. I will say that it’s not a crazy idea to bring them back because 2-deep coverages require safeties to get downhill quickly on runs. Maybe a flea flicker could get them to sell out for a run play and let somebody go deep.

Another thing that has almost completely disappeared is the halfback pass. Teams ran that thing pretty often in the early days of the NFL and then it fizzled out in the 90s.

The trick play that is always talked about as gaining momentum is the rugby style lateral. Kansas City messed with it a couple times, yet it never became a regular thing.

College football still owns the best trick plays by far.

Brent M… Aside from football just being back, what are you most looking forward to when training camp opens, both personally and professionally?

Personally, it gives me a chance to leave the house and see other human beings outside of the golf course. I don’t mind working from home but I’ve only gone to TCO Performance Center about a dozen times since January — that’s way too much working from home for me.

As far as professionally, I think this is the most amped up for training camp that Vikings fans have been since I started covering the team. Maybe 2018 could compete with it but even then there were still a lot of arguments going on about the quarterback decision. It seems that the fans are in lockstep this time around. That makes everything feel more important and more energetic.

The other part is that we have all been asking endless questions about how this team is going to look and now we will start to get some actual answers. As a reporter, I’m a big fan of new information. It should be a fun time.

Florian K… A few of days ago you used the term "game manager" in reference to QBs. Some use it as an insult, or shade as you youngsters call it. Sort of like Miss Congeniality, a really nice person but not quite a winner. Can you give one of your classic well rounded and balanced opinions on game manager QBs?

The best game manager of all time was Tom Brady. When I think of game manager, it’s someone who is a pocket quarterback who is making good decision after good decision after good decision. Going to the right places with the football, avoiding big mistakes, Even when Brady was putting up insanely huge numbers with Randy Moss, he still only threw eight interceptions and got sacked 21 times that entire 2007 season.

Brady had the 10th best sack percentage and 5th best sack percentages of all time. He was also brilliant at throwing the ball to tight ends and running backs in the intermediate areas. I pulled up his 2017 data and he was the third highest graded intermediate passer by PFF and the No. 1 short passer.

Not to mention that Brady was great with situational stuff. He understood the clock and score and used every second to his advantage in clutch situations. He was prolific and getting the call in and directing everyone.

All that stuff is game managing. There are lesser QB versions of all that who turned into good QBs. Guys like Alex Smith, who went 99-67-1 in his career. Justin Herbert plays a little too much like a game manager for my liking but he fits the profile. Jared Goff, Derek Carr, 2016 Sam Bradford, Ryan Tannehill etc.

It seems like “game manager” these days means that the guy is just an unathletic, unexciting, middling QB. I think it’s more of a stylistic type of thing.

As it pertains to McCarthy, they need him to do all the game managing stuff but he’s probably not going to be Tom Brady so there has to be a playmaking element to his game. Joe Burrow and Brock Purdy and two QBs who mix game manager and playmaker really well. They are in command of their offenses but when things break down they can do something special.