On the doorstep of Minnesota Vikings training camp, the moment is here for quarterback J.J. McCarthy. As ESPN's Kevin Seifert noted, he is the only first-round draft pick quarterback in the modern era (since 1967) to miss his entire rookie season due to injury.
But the entire organization is invested in him as the quarterback of the present and hopefully the long-term future, and McCarthy is stepping into an enviably great situation.
Heading into the 2024 NFL Draft, the Vikings were widely seen as the best situation for one of the members of a deep class of rookie quarterbacks to land in. McCarthy's situation is so enviable that Caleb Williams, who went No. 1 overall to the Chicago Bears, felt he "needed" to go to the Vikings, according to an excerpt from a recent book by ESPN's Seth Wickersham.
Despite not being asked to throw the ball a lot during his college career at Michigan, McCarthy has projectable traits that made him a worthy first-round pick. The Vikings were sufficiently compelled by him to part with draft capital and move up one spot to make sure they got him.
Personal coach for Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy makes interesting revelation
Alec Lewis of The Athletic recently had the chance to talk to Greg Holcomb, a respected quarterbacks coach who has worked with McCarthy for "more than a decade."
Holcomb hosted a quarterbacks camp for middle school-aged boys this offseason. As odd as it may seem, shy of him having a son or another relative who was participating in the camp, Bears general manager Ryan Poles was in attendance and introduced himself to Holcomb during a changeover.
McCarthy became a topic of conversation, perhaps after an inquiry from Poles about who Holcomb has worked with.
"He was talking about how much they [the Bears] loved J.J.,” Holcomb said. “And said to me, ‘I don’t think people realize how close we were to possibly taking him.’ Obviously, they love [No. 1 pick] Caleb [Williams], but I thought that was interesting.”
Williams was the consensus No. 1 overall pick heading into the 2024 draft, and the Bears seemingly never really wavered from taking him.
But if they had taken McCarthy, the domino effect of hypotheticals that would have come after goes deep, all the way to the Vikings taking a different quarterback (they reportedly tried to trade up for Drake Maye).
It was already interesting, based solely on it being McCarthy's regular season debut among other things, but now the Vikings-Bears "Monday Night Football" season opener at Soldier Field on Sept. 8 has another layer to it.