Everyone Wants an Announcement from Vikings — That’s Not Coming.
Almost every time Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell gets in front of a microphone, a show host or reporter asks him if J.J. McCarthy will be the starting quarterback in 2025.
Everyone Wants an Announcement from Vikings — That’s Not Coming.
The presenter already knows the answer to the question, asks it anyway, O’Connell dances, and we’re back to square one.
Folks want a formal announcement from O’Connell, and it’s simply not going to happen.
Kevin O’Connell on Naming a Starting Quarterback
Once again, O’Connell was asked on The Rich Eisen Show about McCarthy as his QB1. He gave a familiar answer.
“J.J. is going to be in a great position to assume and ascend in our organization. But right now, we really don’t have any feelings on competition as much as we’ve got an obligation as coaches to put our players in position to attack that competition phase. Sam Howell will be a part of it,” O’Connell replied.
“But we’ve got to get Sam ready to play. We’ve got to get Brett Rypien ready to play. Excited about our quarterback room, but now it’s our job to go coach them.”
The Vikings traded for Howell late last month, presumably to fill the QB2 role.
O’Connell added about McCarthy, “When he is taking snaps, he’s taking plenty of snaps from Ryan Kelly, who happens to be a 10-year starting center in this league. Take that for what it’s worth. I don’t think Vikings fans or any wildly successful nationally renowned broadcasters like yourself should be worried about the amount of reps J.J. is going to get with the ones. We’re going to have him ready to go.”
Kelly is the starting center, so O’Connell tipped his hand about McCarthy as QB1. It’s just that he won’t formally announce it. It’s not how competition works for a young quarterback.
Why Do We Keep Doing This?
Of course, a website like Bleacher Report ran with this headline from the Eisen-O’Connell interview: “Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell Won’t Confirm J.J. McCarthy as QB1 Following Sam Howell Trade.”
The title insinuates that McCarthy is “maybe” option at quarterback for the Vikings, but in reality, the process mandates that McCarthy go through the necessary summer steps to earn his job.
Reporters need not ask O’Connell any more about his QB1. Those questions are useless because when the Vikings, as an organization, swatted away the Aaron Rodgers rumors this offseason, they spoke with their actions.
J.J. McCarthy Must Earn It
McCarthy missed his rookie season due to a torn meniscus and has since fully recovered. He’s back. He should be at rookie minicamp on Friday, organized team activities three weeks later, and training camp in July.
The preseason follows, and with each of those summer phases, he will prove to coaches and teammates that the QB1 job belongs to him.
Slapping a QB1 title without earning it would be dumb, and that’s why the Vikings aren’t doing it.
For example, down in Carolina, rookie 1st-Round wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan must oust Jalen Coker, Adam Thielen, and Xavier Legette for the WR1 post. No Panthers coach has constructed a billboard illustrating McMillan as the WR1.
These players must earn it.
Everybody Knows the Reality, Though
The funny part? From show hosts and reporters, this is a charade. The writing for McCarthy’s QB1 takeover is on the wall. When a club drafts a quarterback with the 10th overall pick, that man will at least get a glance at the starting quarterback position, and without Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold, or Aaron Rodgers on the team, it’s just a no-brainer that McCarthy will get his turn.
If the Vikings didn’t think McCarthy was ready for QB1 this autumn, they would’ve signed Aaron Rodgers. It’s quite simple.
But they didn’t.
More McCarthy Musings from O’Connell
O’Connell added more context to McCarthy’s offseason. “Yeah, he’s having a great start to his offseason program. The journey he’s been on really before the injury. This guy comes in here with an incredible amount of energy and excitement for him coming here last year. He was getting better every single day,” he told Eisen.
“The growth from Day 1 of rookie minicamp this time last year all the way through his first performance in the preseason game, his growth in practice playing against a really good defense every day. There was a lot to be excited about. As Sam was having a great camp, so was J.J., and that was a really good thing for the Minnesota Vikings at the time.”
The Vikings have an 8.5-win over-under total from oddsmakers with McCarthy on deck.
O’Connell added, “He had the injury, as you know, and nobody was more crushed about that than me — probably second to J.J. He really had to deal with what that was like to have the game taken away. ‘I’ve got to focus solely on my rehab. I want to be out there with my guys. There’s nothing I want more.’ He had to really laser his focus and center on getting healthy, and he did that. He was able to attack the offseason once the season kind of ended, and kind of be in this building every day.”
“He’s bigger. He’s stronger. I can see it in his arm. I can see it in his movements. I can see just the ownership of playing quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. He gained a lot from last year, albeit not how we drew it up. Now can we just build and build and build and progress?”
A formal announcement on McCarthy as the QB1 won’t arrive until late summer. Hoping to coax it from O’Connell before that is futile.
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