Not too long ago, legendary former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Cris Carter made some headlines when he made the claim on his "Fully Loaded" podcast that J.J. McCarthy was someone who former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah wanted to draft in 2024, but not head coach Kevin O'Connell.
On Monday, O'Connell appeared on KFXN-FM's "Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barreiro" show and was presented with a chance to respond to Carter's claim.
To the surprise of some (and maybe not so much to others), Minnesota's head coach didn't exactly deny what the Vikings legend said about his current quarterback.
"Yeah, I can't really speak to his sources.
I will just say this, Dan: it was a time and place in this organization where there was a lot of momentum, from me included, to draft a quarterback and to try to go get a quarterback that we felt like we can hopefully develop and build around under the premier development of what we thought we can do with time on task.
And having a guy like Sam [Darnold], that I had a ton of confidence would go out there and have a great year, we would figure it out after that.
...Once Kirk [Cousins] had moved on, it felt like the right time and place for a lot of people that we needed to add a young quarterback.
Then you go in it, it's a draft, Dan. We still feel so strongly about who J.J. is and what he's made of and where his upside can get to, all while having lost an entire calendar year of development where we tried.
We tried virtual reality, we tried, but nothing quite can mimic what you go through when you go through the ebb and flow of playing quarterback in the NFL.”
Kevin O'Connell doesn't deny recent J.J. McCarthy claim made by Minnesota Vikings legend Cris Carter
All O'Connell had to say was, "No, that's not true," when asked about Carter's recent comments about McCarthy.
But that's not what the Vikings head coach did.
Instead, O'Connell skirted around answering the question and then proceeded to ramble on and on about how Minnesota wanted a young quarterback after Kirk Cousins left, but then never mentioned that McCarthy was specifically that young quarterback he was referring to.
Going back to those few months before the 2024 NFL Draft, it was very obvious that Drake Maye was the young passing prospect O'Connell had his eye on. I mean, the Vikings literally went out and hired Josh McCown to be their new quarterbacks coach in part because he coached Maye in high school.
Minnesota even reportedly made an offer to the New England Patriots in an effort to land the No. 3 overall pick and draft Maye, but that offer wasn't accepted, and Minnesota wound up selecting McCarthy instead.
McCarthy obviously had some bad injury luck as a rookie, then he struggled when he got on the field in year two, and now the guy who drafted him is no longer employed by the Vikings.
Things have fallen so far for the young quarterback that his own head coach won't even defend him on a local radio show.
Again, all O'Connell had to say was "No, that's not true" when asked about Carter recently claiming that McCarthy was a player that the former general manager wanted more than the head coach.
But, of course, he didn't say that, so now it is completely fair to assume that Carter was telling the truth.
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