A Dissection of the Vikings’ QB Battle So Far

The first observation was QB coach Josh McCown working with J.J. McCarthy on his footwork. There seemed to be a jump step of sorts as McCarthy planted his right foot on a few dropbacks.
A Dissection of the Vikings’ QB Battle So Far
McCown had him smooth out that jump step as he planted his foot, quieting his feet in a sense. Jaren Hall then provided a perfect demonstration for McCarthy on the next rep. From what I saw, McCarthy didn’t do this throughout the remainder of the practice. More on his performance later.

My second observation with the quarterbacks is how they conducted themselves throughout practice. I focused on Sam Darnold, to begin with, then McCarthy. Here are some early impressions.
Sam Darnold
I would describe Darnold as mechanical. He’s not as robotic as Kirk Cousins, but he conducts himself in a similar fashion while operating practice. His experience shows. He appears to be a fairly polished practicer in individual drills, setting the tone early with crispness and doing things the right way, like enthusiastically selling the play-action fakes.
As for Darnold’s performance …
During practice, Darnold threw an ugly interception in red zone drills. He tried pump-faking but still illustrated a throw to the middle of the field that Harrison Smith picked off. On the very next play, he scanned the entire field before connecting on a touchdown pass to Jalen Nailor. The bounce-back was nice, though it should be noted there was no pass rush on the rep.

Darnold faced consistent pressure from the defense during team drills. Jaquelin Roy beat Ed Ingram causing a would-be hospital ball from Darnold to Justin Jefferson. Later, Darnold left Jefferson out to dry again on a route across the middle that was nearly picked off by Theo Jackson (pass interference was called on Dwight McGlothern, who was covering Jefferson). At one point, Darnold seemed confused by the defensive formation and called an audible to a run play that was stuffed in the backfield by James Lynch.
Darnold did have the best throw of the day — a beautiful, deep, arching pass that Jordan Addison caught down the left sideline.
J.J. McCarthy
McCarthy, at least today, wasn’t as swift as Darnold between reps, but he had a lot more interaction with his teammates. He was very involved, whether high-fiving guys or just being vocal — I’m not sure I’ve seen a more social quarterback in a training camp with the Vikings. Based on body language, he appears to be an emotional and animated guy.
As for today’s performance … McCarthy was better than I expected.

While footwork may be a focus of his in the early development stages of his career, McCarthy has an arm that’s more than adequate. During red zone drills, McCarthy threw multiple touchdowns on passes where he reduced the velocity of the ball without losing accuracy.
I did not see McCarthy throw an incompletion on throws to his left, specifically. He actually threw quite well in that direction all practice.

I’ll continue to monitor each quarterback’s progression throughout camp.
That’s it for today. Check out Sean’s Twitter feed @SeanBormanNFL. More to come from Vikings training camp in the days ahead.
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