It's no secret that Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy has struggled mightily in his first season as a starter. But since McCarthy has only made six starts in his young NFL career, there's really still no clear explanation for exactly why he's struggled so much this year.
Despite the sample size still being relatively small, some have been sharing who they believe is at fault for the young quarterback's poor play this season, including former Vikings starting offensive lineman Alex Boone.
During a recent episode of "The OLine Committee: An NFL Offensive Line Show," Boone went on a bit of a rant about how Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell hasn't done enough to help make things easier for McCarthy out on the field this year.
"The stats of third down are so bad because all they do is throw it, and it's like, well, no sh*t.
Eventually, you think that the coach will turn around and be like, 'Okay, listen, it's not working. It is not working. We're all going to get fired because we're looking bad. We're going to get Kwesi fired because he drafted this kid No. 10. We're all going down on this sinking ship, and we're taking this kid with us, when we should just run the ball or throw it sooner.'
...They're a really efficient running team. They're not good. They're efficient, which means you're really good because it's like five, six yards a carry, and it's like, just do that more, you f**king idiot. Does it make sense?
I'm sorry. I just can't anymore because eventually I do look at this poor kid, and I'm like, 'You are the youngest kid in the NFL. Why are we crushing you so much? Maybe we should just not let you throw it so much.'”
How much blame does Kevin O'Connell deserve for the struggles of Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy?
With how historically bad McCarthy has been for Minnesota this season, it shouldn't come as a shock that it's also resulted in people, like Boone, pointing fingers at O'Connell.
All offseason long, O'Connell claimed over and over again how ready McCarthy was to step in and take over as the starting quarterback for a Vikings team that won 14 games in 2024. Well, even Stevie Wonder can see that those claims weren't even close to being correct.
In his six starts this year, McCarthy has looked very nervous and indecisive, which is what many would typically expect from a quarterback who has never started in a regular-season game before a few weeks ago.
Despite his poor performances, O'Connell hasn't done a whole lot to make life easier for his young quarterback out on the field this year.
Some might say that Minnesota has recently been calling more run plays than they did earlier in the season, and that should be enough. But it also matters when these run plays are called.
On their very first offensive drive in their Week 12 loss to the Green Bay Packers last Sunday, the Vikings started off great with running back Aaron Jones gaining a total of 16 yards on two run plays. Those pair of plays were then followed up by McCarthy throwing a nice 15-yard pass to Justin Jefferson.
But then, instead of going back to handing the ball off to Jones or Jordan Mason, O'Connell decided to call three-straight pass plays. All three plays resulted in McCarthy throwing an incompletion, and Minnesota ended up having to settle for a field goal.
In the first half of the loss to the Packers, the Vikings actually called 17 run plays and just 12 pass plays, and they went into the locker room at the end of the second quarter only trailing one of the top teams in the NFC by four points.
Unfortunately, Green Bay was able to increase its lead to 11 points early in the third quarter, and that seemed to result in O'Connell returning to his old pass-happy ways of play-calling.
Despite the Packers taking a two-score lead, there was still plenty of time left in the game for Minnesota to make a comeback. But instead of continuing to utilize a rushing attack that averaged 5.1 yards per carry in the first half, O'Connell had the Vikings begin the second half with seven pass plays and only two runs on their first three drives.
Unsurprisingly, this approach by Minnesota was not successful, as it resulted in McCarthy running for his life against a very talented Green Bay pass rush, led by Micah Parsons.
O'Connell would probably say that the game situations dictated his play-calling in the second half, but there was no reason for him to shy away from the run as much as he did during the second half of the loss to the Packers (at least in the beginning of the third quarter).
It's decisions like these that have caused people like Boone to question O'Connell's decision-making when it comes to his young quarterback.
McCarthy has taken the majority of the blame for his awful performances this season, and he's definitely not free of criticism. But O'Connell hasn't done the kid any favors either with how he's ignored what the 22-year-old quarterback is currently incapable of doing, and at this point, it's completely fair to question whether he is even the right head coach to develop McCarthy.