Vikings Camp Journal: Joint practice, Day 1

A deeper look at JJ McCarthy's performance against the New England Patriots from TCO Performance Center

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings participated in the first of two joint practices against the New England Patriots on Wednesday, here is what we learned…

What I heard

Kevin O’Connell spoke with the media prior to practice. He talked about the ripple effect of Rondale Moore being lost for the season.

“The punt return spot is is up for grabs and we've got some talented guys, maybe without the experience level that you would always want,” O’Connell said. “But at the same time, the upside and the ability should be a really good competition and with that third receiver spot it's still kind of it's still the same thing. I think there's guys that have done some really good things all across the depth of that receiver room and we'll continue to give guys opportunities to go make plays.”

The big question is whether the Vikings will try to acquire another wide receiver and/or punt returner with Moore out of the mix. Last year they waited until very late in training camp to sign Stephon Gilmore after they had several weeks to evaluate the players who were in the running for cornerback spots. It appears they are doing the same thing with depth wide receiver.

They are giving opportunities to Lucky Jackson, Jeshaun Jones, Tai Felton and Thayer Thomas at WR4 and Silas Bolden/Miles Price at punt returner to show them that they shouldn’t go into the market and acquire another receiver. The joint practices and second preseason game should carry a decent amount of weight in that decision (they signed Gilmore right after joint practices with Cleveland in 2024).

As far as what O’Connell is looking for over these two days when it comes to JJ McCarthy, he is looking at this as a “checkpoint” to evaluate the young quarterback’s progress.

“I think we're looking for a lot of things that they can control to consistently be to the standard that we ask and then be able to evaluate the post snap work to have a great understanding of where the player's at and while we still have a nice way here leading up to the regular season of how we then need to prepare from there.”

In other words, they are using McCarthy’s reps against the Patriots to figure how where he needs to improve over the final stretch of the offseason.

According to TJ Hockenson, the reps that McCarthy got on Wednesday were pretty darn good. What the Pro Bowl tight end kept emphasizing was that the offense was working at the right pace.

“In my head he played well,” Hockenson said. “Put the ball where he needed to and played fast. We were able to move the ball the whole practice. A lot of things for him to learn from…To come out here and for him to see a different defense, different routes, different leverages, playing against different guys…for him to play as fast as he did today mentally and physically was a lot of fun to see and you’ll see that on Sundays.”

Hockenson added that he has been particularly impressed with the way McCarthy has

“He doesn’t feel like a young guy,” Hockenson said. “The way he controls the huddle. His energy in the huddle, how he talks about the game and the mentality is high-level thinking…He deserves all the credit… being as engaged as he has been and as much learning as he’s done has been a lot of fun to watch.”

“You talk about a young guy acting like a vet, he doesn’t have any problem with pre-snap stuff,” Hockenson added.

Vikings left tackle Christian Darrisaw talked with reporters following practice. He was able to participate against the Patriots, which was a big step forward. He seemed thrilled about getting into the fray.

“I was ready for today, I’m feeling great,” Darrisaw said. “Today was a win as part of the rehab process. We’ll see how things respond but we’ll keep taking a day at a time.”

Darrisaw didn’t take all of the full speed reps but was on the field more during 11-on-11s than we have seen him in practice all summer. O’Connell and Darrisaw have been hesitant to commit to him playing Week 1 but participating in the closest thing to real football in the joint practices at least keeps Week 1 in play.

The veteran left tackle also talked about rookie left guard Donovan Jackson. He talked about being there for Jackson through the difficult journey of jumping into the NFL as a starter right away on the offensive line.

“He’s a great football player, we all knew that coming in,” Darrisaw said. “It’s not easy taking the step from the college to the professional level but every day he’s getting more comfortable and trusting the coaching. That’s the biggest thing as an offensive lineman because coach might want you to do something his way and it’s something you’re not used to doing so it takes time. He’s growing every day. I’m grateful to have the ability to play next to him.”

Jackson had one of the day’s biggest highlights: Blocking two Patriots defenders to the ground to open up an explosive screen play for Aaron Jones. Players were crazy celebrating after the play and were still talking about the block as they came off the field.

“When I looked up I saw Aaron right there and green grass,” Jackson said. “He gave me the go call and I took off running. I didn’t know who I was running to, I saw DBs come into the fold and I was like, ‘I gotta go get that.’ Aaron did a great job of setting up blocks for me. I had to run down and then run back and do four more plays. It was fun to get a good play off.”

Speaking of the day’s highlights, Max Brosmer had another one on Wednesday. He hit Tim Jones for a 40-yard touchdown pass that was almost identical to the one he connected with Jones on during Monday’s practice.

Brosmer is continuing to build momentum coming off a strong preseason game. He explained his mentality going forward after showing that he was capable of stepping in and leading a scoring drive.

“It’s a never ending process of learning the offense, learning your guys on the team, learning how to be the best player and guy in the locker room you can,” Brosmer said. The interesting part is that now we are facing a different defense this week against the Patriots. If you talk to guys who have been in the league nine or 10 years and they will be like, ‘what DC are you playing?’ And they’ll tell you exactly what type of defense you’re playing because they played them three years ago. Taking mental notes of who we’re playing and hopefully using them down the line of my career and be that guy talking to the rookies and telling them ‘I know what defense you’re playing.’”

Of all the interesting things that were said to reporters at TCO Performance Center before and after the joint practice, Patriots HC Mike Vrabel had the best line. Asked what he remembered about playing with Kevin O’Connell when they overlapped in New England, he said: “He wasn’t as good as Tom Brady.”

What I saw

Purple Insider was posted up on the offensive side of the field, so this recap is going to be focused on the offense…

— McCarthy opened practice 6-for-6 with several A+ throws, including a 20-yard out route to Jordan Addison that had great anticipation and ball location. He also had a tight-window throw to Jeshaun Jones, who got a handful of first-team reps.

The seventh pass was a jump ball that gave Addison a chance to catch it but it was broken up. And then McCarthy had his worst moment of the day: He totally airmailed a pass to a wide open Jalen Nailor, which was picked off by the Patriots.

That sequence pretty well encapsulated McCarthy’s camp. He’s been more accurate than not and found the right receivers and executed the offense well but the bouts with accuracy have cost him some easy completion.

— We saw Tai Felton and Thayer Thomas mix into the first sequence of 11-on-11s with the first team. McCarthy completed his first four passes and impressively completed two passes to Hockenson. Over the past few practices, McCarthy and Hockenson’s chemistry has really appeared to take off.

McCarthy closed the sequence with a solid 15-yard completion to Jalen Nailor.

— One thing that has to be mentioned about the 11-on-11s is that the Patriots’ defense was causing a lot of havoc. They created pressure on multiple drop-backs, some of which turned into completions as the pocket was collapsing or it looked like NE would have had a sack.

As far as the reason for the pressure, several reps seemed to need the ball to come out a tick later and several had a Patriots player winning the battle up front. New England has a really strong D-line and it showed.

The other thing that was interesting is how physical the Pats’ corners were with the Vikings receivers. They were flagged a bunch of times during practice.

— Onto McCarthy’s best moment of practice. In the 2 minute drill, he ripped a throw to Addison, then found TJ Hockenson to get the drive moving. But Nailor couldn’t hang onto a pass and then he had to throw the ball away and scramble under pressure. That set up a fourth down. He dropped back, found Addison over the middle and converted for a 15-yard gain, setting up a “game-tying” field goal.

It may have been McCarthy’s best looking two-minute drive of the year to date. He was in control, made smart decisions and got them into easy field-goal position.