Kevin O'Connell reveals if J.J. McCarthy could start in Week 1 for the Vikings

At the start of the team's 2024 training camp, it seemed like the odds were very high that the Minnesota Vikings were going to open up the regular season with Sam Darnold as their starting quarterback and let rookie J.J. McCarthy learn from the sideline.

Well, after more than a handful of practices during the last two weeks, McCarthy has some now thinking Darnold isn't as much of a lock to be the Vikings' Week 1 starter.

Minnesota still has three preseason games to play before they have to make an official decision. But the thought of the Vikings beginning the 2024 regular season with McCarthy as their starter no longer seems like an insane pipe dream.

Kevin O'Connell not closing the door on J.J. McCarthy starting for the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1

With there being a guarantee that Minnesota will enter the upcoming regular season with a starting passer not named Kirk Cousins for the first time since 2017, Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell has answered a ton of questions in the last few months about the team's plan at the quarterback position for the 2024 campaign.

During an appearance on KFXN-FM's "Bumper To Bumper with Dan Barreiro" on Wednesday, O'Connell was asked if he hasn't ruled out the possibility of Minnesota going with McCarthy as the team's starting signal-caller for their regular-season opener against the New York Giants.

The Vikings head coach then provided the following answer.

"I definitely don't want to be in a world where anybody shows up to [the TCO Performance Center] everyday thinking they've got a ceiling, a time stamp, on them of what the expectations are."

Earlier in the conversation, O'Connell also said that he believes in "playing the best player that gives you the best chance to win."

So, basically, Minnesota is still going to give McCarthy as much time as he needs to develop. But if he goes out during the next few weeks and blows away O'Connell and the rest of the Vikings coaching staff with his performance, then he's going to have a legitimate and realistic shot at starting in Week 1 over Darnold.

The fact that the regular-season opener is less than two months away and O'Connell still isn't 100 percent committed to Darnold as Minnesota's Week 1 starter speaks to how much McCarthy has been able to impress the Vikings ever since the team drafted him in April.

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