Coaching and supporting cast are major factors in success but there is no magic wand. JJ McCarthy's success will have to be because of the steps forward that he takes
The real question is how do you keep the veteran players from “checking out” while you develop your franchise QB? It has to be very frustrating for a receiver to bust his ass to get open only to have the ball sail 10 feet over his head.
Pay someone what they’re paying Jefferson he’d better grow the eff up and put his money where his mouth has been. If you say you’re a leader, act like a leader.
JJ's injury this year no doubt derailed his development a little. At has age, that's not something he can't recover from. I've seen nothing from JJ yet to suggest he can't be a winning QB. He's been a little overwhelmed sometimes, a little late to react, but never clueless, aside from maybe a few rookie moments in his debut.
I also don't mind KO's adjustments mixed with a trial by fire in some scenarios. Game day is not for studying, it's for testing. The more situations JJ is put in, the more data they'll have to correct and build something for him beyond this season. It's clear they're still trying to find a happy medium just four games in to his career, but having him hand off 35 times and throw twice per game over ten yards does nothing to develop him into the QB he needs be to succeed here.
I don’t think saying that the main issue right now is not running the ball more is incompatible with recognizing that a lot of the problems (penalties, clock, ignoring checkdowns, flat out missing throws) are 100% on McCarthy. At the end of the day, I think they had a real good shot to win that game had they run the ball more, even with the fumbled kickoff. That’s something you can just do without needing your QB to magically be good all of a sudden, so that is where the frustration comes from for me. Obviously McCarthy needs to fix a ton of stuff to be the long term answer, and odds are he never does that in KOC’s scheme, but the goal is to win games while your QB finds a way to improve. The play calling is not conducive to that right now. KOC said they ran that trick play in part to give JJ a mental break from everything that goes into a standard drop back pass, and I understand that specific play was like 3rd and 10 so running was not a real option in that instance, but how about running the fricking ball more to give him a mental break.
The 3rd and 1 call is going to be the litmus test for McCarthy's development this year. That's a staple of this offense, that's a throw he has to be able to make by the end of this season if this is going to work out in a reasonable time frame that lines up with this teams window. If he can't make that throw he's not going to make it in this offense.
I just look at his early career performance and compare it to other Qb’s early career performances who turned out to be solid starters or others who just didn’t have it. The stats, the play, the lack of touch, the eyeball test all suggest the latter.
I’m holding out hope still because he has a good attitude, wants it more than anything, and there are times where he is doing some pretty high level stuff. Maybe my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but I don’t recall Rex Grossman or Trey Lance making the deep out anticipation throws with accuracy that McCarthy has flashed a few times. It probably won’t work, and I don’t think he was ever really a good fit for KOC’s offense, but I’m not completely out yet.
The real question is how do you keep the veteran players from “checking out” while you develop your franchise QB? It has to be very frustrating for a receiver to bust his ass to get open only to have the ball sail 10 feet over his head.
Pay someone what they’re paying Jefferson he’d better grow the eff up and put his money where his mouth has been. If you say you’re a leader, act like a leader.
The Vikings are an old football team, they don't have time to wait for "9" to grow the eff up.
JJ's injury this year no doubt derailed his development a little. At has age, that's not something he can't recover from. I've seen nothing from JJ yet to suggest he can't be a winning QB. He's been a little overwhelmed sometimes, a little late to react, but never clueless, aside from maybe a few rookie moments in his debut.
I also don't mind KO's adjustments mixed with a trial by fire in some scenarios. Game day is not for studying, it's for testing. The more situations JJ is put in, the more data they'll have to correct and build something for him beyond this season. It's clear they're still trying to find a happy medium just four games in to his career, but having him hand off 35 times and throw twice per game over ten yards does nothing to develop him into the QB he needs be to succeed here.
I don’t think saying that the main issue right now is not running the ball more is incompatible with recognizing that a lot of the problems (penalties, clock, ignoring checkdowns, flat out missing throws) are 100% on McCarthy. At the end of the day, I think they had a real good shot to win that game had they run the ball more, even with the fumbled kickoff. That’s something you can just do without needing your QB to magically be good all of a sudden, so that is where the frustration comes from for me. Obviously McCarthy needs to fix a ton of stuff to be the long term answer, and odds are he never does that in KOC’s scheme, but the goal is to win games while your QB finds a way to improve. The play calling is not conducive to that right now. KOC said they ran that trick play in part to give JJ a mental break from everything that goes into a standard drop back pass, and I understand that specific play was like 3rd and 10 so running was not a real option in that instance, but how about running the fricking ball more to give him a mental break.
The 3rd and 1 call is going to be the litmus test for McCarthy's development this year. That's a staple of this offense, that's a throw he has to be able to make by the end of this season if this is going to work out in a reasonable time frame that lines up with this teams window. If he can't make that throw he's not going to make it in this offense.
I just look at his early career performance and compare it to other Qb’s early career performances who turned out to be solid starters or others who just didn’t have it. The stats, the play, the lack of touch, the eyeball test all suggest the latter.
I’m holding out hope still because he has a good attitude, wants it more than anything, and there are times where he is doing some pretty high level stuff. Maybe my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but I don’t recall Rex Grossman or Trey Lance making the deep out anticipation throws with accuracy that McCarthy has flashed a few times. It probably won’t work, and I don’t think he was ever really a good fit for KOC’s offense, but I’m not completely out yet.