'How's JJ looking?' For starters, ready to learn

Vikings new QB JJ McCarthy hit the field for the first time in a 'learning environment'

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — JJ McCarthy did not violate the NFL’s gambling policy when he lost his first bet as an NFL player. The stakes were high though.

At rookie minicamp on Friday, the Minnesota Vikings’ rookie quarterback had a “friendly competition” with defensive players that if he had three or fewer balls hit the ground during 16 passing plays then they would run gassers at the end of practice. He would run if more than three landed on the turf.

“If you guys saw, I was out there running,” McCarthy said after practice, laughing.

Not only did he lose the trash talking battle, he threw a pick-six to linebacker KJ Cloyd, who danced into the end zone after McCarthy tried to fit the ball into a tight window. His first mess-around-and-find-out moment in a purple uniform.

“I gotta stop talking smack,” McCarthy joked.

It was an eventful day for the 21-year-old quarterback. He showed off his impressive arm strength, firing some sideline throws that whizzed into tight windows and ripping a ball so hard over the middle that receiver Malik Knowles had it bounce off his hands into the air. But the pick-six wasn’t the only missed pass. He airmailed a deep ball by about 10 yards over his receiver’s head and overthrew a number of balls high.

Such is life as a quarterback that the Vikings know they will need to give plenty of time to develop.

“I was more anxious than anything,” McCarthy said. “You're just waiting so long to get back to real football again and then, being in this league, it's a dream come true as a kid. Being able to just be out there with the guys and really just live your dream has been truly special, so I was just trying to be present, take in the moment….so much fun out there today.”

O’Connell said that McCarthy was out on the field early in the morning walking through the practice, “not because anybody told them to, but he's trying to have the best possible day that he can today and then try to do the same thing tomorrow.”

More important than the precision of McCarthy’s passes is what he can learn from them and how he can maximize the offseason program in preparation for training camp.

“Starting from the foundation up, really getting down the formations, the motions, the personnel, the general info like cadences and just how to manage the huddle,” McCarthy said.

That process began before he even arrived. Coaches had Zoom calls with their new QB working on understanding their concepts and he took particular footwork that O’Connell showed him during the team’s visit during the pre-draft process.

“It'll feel like a lot at times to him and that's OK, we just want to continue to stress him above the neck and then when we get out here on the grass, it's techniques, fundamentals, rhythm, timing, all the things that go into playing quarterback in our offense,” O’Connell said.

The head coach described it as a “total learning environment,” which includes breaking down a teachable moment with his pick-six.

“When they're not feeling the rush, [quarterbacks] tend to be a little more aggressive with their arms, and I like that – trial and error – and we move on to the next rep,” O’Connell said. “But hopefully, as I told them the second time we got a chance to rep that play, in a joking way I said, ‘Let's hope we can survive Rep No. 2 of your Vikings career on the play.’ And he was great. He's having a blast out here.”

McCarthy may be drinking out a firehose when it comes to the amount of information he’s being asked to retain but he already prepared himself for how overwhelming the process of learning an NFL offense was going to be. He’s trying to take steps each day rather than hoping to cram everything at once.

“I've fell victim to the paralysis by over analysis before,” he said. “Where you just study way too much and then your short-term memory gets all jogged up and you're not able to perform when you're asked of. So, I'm taking it slow incrementally and they're doing a great job of just making that process go as smoothly as possible.”

O’Connell said the goal is to use this week to have McCarthy prepared for when the rest of the squad shows up and things get real with OTAs.

McCarthy said he’ll be ready.

“I just can't wait to keep learning and continue to grow with this offense,” he said.

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