JJ McCarthy built himself for this moment
New Vikings quarterback has taken a professional approach to the game since a young age
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — Think back to fifth grade. Remember what you were thinking about back then? Well, new Minnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy distinctly recalls what was on his mind as a fifth grader: becoming the best football player he could possibly be.
“Fifth grade is really when I started editing my life to get to this point today – stop with the B.S. in school and really focus on my grades, focus on training, and focus on all the right things,” McCarthy said during his introductory press conference on Friday.
The Vikings’ first-round pick isn’t just spinning a yarn. He received his first D-I offer in eighth grade. After a remarkable start to his high school career, he was forced to make a professional decision to change schools.
When McCarthy was a junior at Nazareth Academy in Illinois, COVID hit and the state shut down high school football. He decided to leave to attend IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, a school entirely made up of elite athletes.
IMG created a “secure campus” during COVID, not allowing kids to leave the grounds in order to avoid putting them at risk of spreading the virus. The situation was far from ideal with social distancing, masks indoors and other precautions that made life difficult for young people across the country. But that didn’t keep McCarthy from doing what he does best: connect with teammates.
“People gravitated toward him,” said current IMG head coach Billy Miller, who was assistant head coach during McCarthy’s 2020 season.
Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah observed that McCarthy’s “emotional intelligence” was his super power. On Friday, the new Vikings quarterback agreed, saying, “Being able to connect with my teammates on and off the field is something that I hold to most importance.”
At a school filled with top athletes, there is no magic trick for galvanizing a group. Old fashioned passion for the game and work ethic drew players to McCarthy.
“He’s always had a passion for football and he always has a burning desire to get better,” Miller said. “There was never a time where I saw JJ not talking about football or asking questions about football. It was all about ball all the time. That’s the type of kids we are looking for: Guys who love football and want to be great at it.”
Miller recalled something that Bill Belichick once said: If the best player on your team is also the hardest working then you have a chance to be great. That’s how he described McCarthy at IMG.
“We had to sit six feet away from each other, we had to wear masks indoors, you had to do social distancing but we would still have film studies,” Miller said. “JJ would still come in and he would learn defenses, different fronts, blitzes, coverages, footwork, fundamentals, arc on the ball, throwing the ball in rhythm and timing…he was a total student of the game. You can see how that was a smooth transition from here to Michigan.”
At IMG, McCarthy went undefeated and led his team to a national championship. He was named Florida Player of the Year.
Coach Miller highlighted one particular game in which McCarthy battled through a high ankle sprain against the fifth ranked team in the country Duncanville (Texas). He was in a walking boot all week including the day of the game, yet the immobilized McCarthy went 19 of 30 passing attempts for 246 yards in a 41-14 destruction.
So what makes him this way? Where did his professional approach come from — the same one that made him a favorite of Jim Harbaugh at Michigan?
“I think JJ is very in touch with JJ,” Miller said. “He understands what he needs for him to go out there and be the best that he can be. He doesn’t let past failures or success define who he is. No matter the situation, good or bad, he knows it’s the next rep that matters so he’ll focus on that. ”
Miller used the example of McCarthy’s pre-game meditation, which was highlighted during college football playoff broadcasts this season, to demonstrate how he mentally approaches the game in ways that work best for him to succeed.
Despite his success at Michigan, McCarthy finished the college season with questions about his lack of volume passing and skepticism about whether he was a product of Michigan’s loaded team. It was something that Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell acknowledged that they had to figure out during his evaluation.
But the same things that helped McCarthy shine in high school in college were on display during the pre-draft process and helped convince the Vikings they were making the right choice.
“He absolutely crushed the process postseason, which is hard to do when you've won a national championship and done some of the things that he did as a college quarterback to then have a great rest of the process like he did,” O’Connell said. “Attacked it every step of the way. A competitor and a guy that believes very strongly that the best football is out in front of him and he's gonna work like crazy to make that happen.”
McCarthy and O’Connell looks like a match made in football-y heaven. And the 21-year-old QB clearly knew that going into the draft process. On the call with the team telling him that he had been picked, McCarthy told O’Connell that he wanted to be in Minnesota no matter what slot he was taken.
“It was just the perfect fit for me,” McCarthy said on Friday.
As excited as he was to get that call, the young quarterback quickly moved onto the next play.
“Absolutely thrilled when I got that call and now it's just, let's get to work,” McCarthy said.
There is a lot of work to be done. With only around 700 college pass attempts, there are technical elements that he can only master with a ton of reps. He might have to be patient and wait to play behind Sam Darnold in Year 1. He is going to have to learn that NFL defenses are more intricate than anything he’s seen before.
We never know how things will turn out after a team drafts a quarterback. We can confidently say of McCarthy, however, that it will be his mindset and approach that gives him the best chance.
“I'm just more excited than anything to get him here, allow him to get around some of his teammates and start building those relationships,” O’Connell said. “I feel great about where my relationship's at with J.J. because I feel like we've built one up in a pretty short amount of time. He knows that I'm going to be with him every step of the way. We can't wait to get going.”