Takeaways from Vikings minicamp, Day 2

Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips talked QBs and veteran leaders discussed changes

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By Matthew Coller

The Minnesota Vikings held their second day of minicamp on Wednesday. It was a light practice that included only a couple full speed 7-on-7 portions.

Here were the takeaways from what we heard…

Bringing Kyler Murray along in the offense

The fact that the Vikings are splitting reps between their two quarterbacks may be different than in past years where they have had a clear QB1 at minicamp but the process of bringing a veteran quarterback into the mix is nothing new to Kevin O’Connell’s coaching staff.

On Wednesday, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips talked about what he’s learned from teaching veteran QBs the offense after they have been in other offenses during their careers.

“I think if I’ve really learned anything from coming in new with Kirk and with the whole offense is... we probably installed too much coming in,” Phillips said. “It’s like, ‘hey, we got to get our offense in,’ and you’re pushing the envelope, pushing the envelope. I think backing off where there’s still a lot of volume, it’s NFL football, but understanding that, ‘hey, we don’t have to get every variation of every concept in right now.’”

Phillips continued…

“Let’s try to make sure we can come back, hit the play again, make sure that each guy’s getting a rep or two per week of each concept that we’re installing to make sure that we’ve got a good grasp, good understanding, whether we had to learn from a rep prior or whether we were successful.”

Phillips said that Murray has been studying the offense hard away from the facility in order to grasp as much as possible during the “learning phase” of the offseason.

The comfort level with the offense that Murray has by the end of minicamp may play a role in whether O’Connell is willing to name him the starter early in camp or continue to play out the quarterback competition deeper into training camp.

It’s been ‘arrow up’ for JJ McCarthy

Going into the offseason, only one thing was certain about the Vikings quarterback situation: That JJ McCarthy needed to improve in vital areas of his game in order to have any chance to win the starting job.

According to Phillips, the staff has been impressed with the work that McCarthy did over the offseason

“It’s just been a continuous upward arrow for him and it is fun to see guys come back in shape,” Phillips said. “Guys have been working from a skill and fundamental standpoint as well on the things that have been talked about throughout a season and they come back and say, ‘oh, that looks a little better. Oh, look at him. I can tell he’s been working on that, been very intentional in the offseason on his own when nobody’s watching.’ So there’s several things with J.J. that we noticed right off the bat. that were improvements from things that he had done or continuing to grow on some of those techniques and fundamentals.”

Last year O’Connell talked at length about McCarthy’s need to improve his throwing mechanics. His issues with anticipation throws and “layering” the football showed up in his Completion Percentage Over Expected, which was the third worst in the NFL per NFLNextGen stats.

If the Vikings are going to give McCarthy a legitimate chance to win the QB competition in training camp, they will need to believe that he has taken big leaps forward and can throw accurately with great consistency.

It’s very hard to say with any degree of certainty based on OTAs/minicamp whether that will happen. The Vikings will really only be able to get a sense if the improvements are going to translate if he gets first-team reps in camp.

Brian O’Neill wants to remain a Viking

The Vikings Pro Bowl right tackle did not fully participate in OTAs due to his contract situation, per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. But he has been doing everything during minicamp.

After practice on Wednesday, he made it known that he wants to remain a Viking.

“I want to be here and there's nowhere else I want to be,” O’Neill said. “That rings more true now than ever. If you've been around me long enough, you know much this place means to me. There is unequivocally nowhere else I'd rather be."

O’Neill has become the clear leader of the Vikings offensive line room and has continued to play at an exceptionally high level into his 30s. Last year he was graded as the 13th best tackle in the NFL by PFF and he was 11th in 2024.

Normally a player of O’Neill’s talent and performance level would be a lock for an extension but the Vikings’ situation is a little unusual this year because they just hired a new general manager. It’s unclear whether Nolan Teasley will be willing to sign a 31-year-old veteran to a long extension before he has the season to evaluate where he stands.

However, tackles are so difficult to find in the draft or free agency and they have often aged quite well. It makes sense to lock in the tackle position going forward rather than risk struggling to find a successor.

In terms of how much an extension might cost, the top right tackles are making between $22 and $28 million per year AAV and there are eight tackles with more than $30 million guaranteed.

Aaron Jones is happy about the hiring of Frank Smith