When it comes to the business side of the NFL, there’s little patience for learning on the fly. From first-year head coaches to young players, the proof is in the pudding. It’s both a blessing and a curse for the league.
Through that lens, the public scrutiny that’s currently raining down on head coach Kevin O’Connell, quarterback J.J. McCarthy, and the Minnesota Vikings was unavoidable.
The Vikings are hardly the first to hand the keys of their franchise over to a young QB with no real NFL reps under his belt. The readiness of the player has to be weighed heavily on those decisions, though, and the team’s admission to working through fundamental skills, like footwork and throwing mechanics, in Week 12 of the regular season is a bad look for everyone involved, but especially team leadership.
Now expected to miss his sixth start of the season due to injury this week, McCarthy’s challenges go much deeper than the physical act of reading a defense and throwing the football. It doesn’t take much in this league to go from franchise savior to yesterday’s news, and how Minnesota’s 22-year-old QB handles the mental side of the game over these next few weeks could end up defining his Vikings future.
The Minnesota Vikings aren’t questioning J.J. McCarthy’s mental toughness, and that could be the key to kick-starting his career
Everyone within the Vikings organization deserves their share of the blame for this year’s ugly, 4-7 start, and that includes their young quarterback. McCarthy hasn’t looked NFL-ready on the field in 2025, and that could force the team to at least seek veteran competition in the offseason.
At this point, it’s hard to find many silver linings, especially after how McCarthy and the Vikings’ offense performed against Green Bay last week; they nearly had more turnovers (3) than net yards gained (4) in the second half of that game.
With undrafted rookie Max Brosmer — an immediate fan-favorite as a former Minnesota Golden Gopher — poised to make his first NFL start Sunday in Seattle, McCarthy’s most important reps will be the mental ones, as in, blocking out the noise and continuing to focus on what he can control.
The good news? Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips sees a player in McCarthy who can overcome the current heavy flow of adversity (and be better for it).
“There’s just going to be a lot of opinions out there, a lot of negativity, especially when you’re not winning as many games as you’d like,” Phillips said on Tuesday. “So you’ve got to put all of that out of your head and focus on really what you can control, and that’s going to work, and improving at your craft. … If you can do that, then over time, smart people who work hard and have talent are going to get better, over time. I believe that, and I think that’s where, J.J., that’s the path that he’s on.”
Phillips repeating the words “over time” should resonate with Vikings fans. It shows the belief the franchise has in McCarthy, as a top-10 overall draft pick, but also seems to admit that it could take longer for things to come together than fans were hoping for.
With how time works in the NFL, with jobs literally hinging on every snap, it all comes down to the process. McCarthy’s version probably should have included more time as an understudy to a veteran like Sam Darnold, perhaps? — but the Vikings created their own mess with how they handled the depth chart this offseason.
To Phillips’ point, no one can hold McCarthy’s hand and lead him to NFL stardom. He’s going to have to take the coaching, do the work behind the scenes, and come out on the other side a better player.
Otherwise, someone else will be taking his spot as the Vikings’ next franchise QB in short order.