The Mind-Boggling Factoid about J.J. McCarthy’s Situation
Every Minnesota Vikings fan, player, and coach’s worst fear played out on Wednesday, as the franchise announced that rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy will miss the entire 2024 season with a torn meniscus.
The Mind-Boggling Factoid about J.J. McCarthy’s Situation
The 21-year-old had surgery on the injury he suffered last weekend in a preseason win, and his once-promising rookie campaign was over before it truly began.
And according to CBS Sports‘ Doug Clawson, the situation is entirely unprecedented. On Wednesday, after the McCarthy injured reserve designation, Clawson tweeted, “J.J. McCarthy is the first quarterback drafted in the first round in the common draft era (since 1967) to miss his entire rookie season due to injury.”
To which Vikings fans, a group wildly familiar with sports-themed pain and suffering, universally declared, “Sounds about right.”
Minnesota made the wrong kind of history via the Clawson tweet, the first franchise in the Super Bowl era to be rocked by a season-ending injury to its 1st-Round quarterback. You absolutely cannot make it up.
In McCarthy’s stead — and with severely diminished enthusiasm — Sam Darnold will fully assume QB1 duties in 3.5 weeks, assuming he doesn’t get injured, too, in the next 25 days.
Darnold has not found stardom in the last six seasons after joining the NFL as the third overall pick in 2018. Before the McCarthy injury, some Vikings faithful insisted that the 27-year-old could produce a “Baker Mayfield season” in Minnesota, which is now the great hope for 2024 Vikings operations.
After Darnold on the depth chart, Nick Mullens would be the next man up, with second-year signal-caller Jaren Hall on deck if no additional signings or trades take place.
McCarthy posted encouragement on Instagram on Wednesday, “A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it,” a quote from Marcus Aurelius.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell also addressed McCarthy’s injury. “He’s confirmed everything that I hoped to see early in training camp through his performance last Saturday, but our fan base and everyone should just be excited about the fact that we’ve got our young franchise quarterback, I believe, in the building,” he said.
“And now it’s about the unique aspect of continuing a very critical development process for him, where maybe the physical reps aren’t going to be there in the short term, but this is going to be a small bump in the road.”
The Vikings hit the road for a game at the New York Giants in Week 1 and are one-point underdogs.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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