Kevin O’Connell Wastes No Time to Talk About the Vikings’ QB Situation
The quarterback position has been a big talking point for Vikings fans since before the season ever started.
Much of the discussion during the summer revolved around how good J.J. McCarthy could be as a starting quarterback, but then, he got injured in Week 2, resulting in five consecutive starts for Carson Wentz.
Since McCarthy’s injury, the question has become: when will we see the young QB again? Kevin O’Connell wasted no time to discuss it after the Vikings’ 37-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night.
Kevin O’Connell Talks QB Plans Moving Forward
“If J.J.’s healthy, J.J. will play. That’s been the case since the injury. That’s always kind of been my mindset, and I hope we’re right around the corner from seeing him be healthy, have a week of preparation, and go compete because that’s what he wants, and that’s what he’s been working towards,” O’Connell said.
McCarthy went down with a high ankle sprain in Week 2 of this season, and he hasn’t sniffed game action since. He was able to get back onto the practice field ahead of Minnesota’s Week 7 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, but Wentz ultimately got the start instead.
The main purpose for holding McCarthy out has been to ensure that he doesn’t step onto the field and immediately get hurt. Remember, the Vikings utilized a top 10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to bring McCarthy to Minnesota.
Seeing as McCarthy has now missed 23 of a possible 25 games (including Minnesota’s Wild Card game from last season), the worst-case scenario would be to rush him back onto the field only to see him get hurt again.
On top of that, the injury happened at one of the worst times for the Vikings. In Weeks 4 and 5, they were traveling overseas. In Week 7, the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles came to town. In Week 8, they had to turn around on a short week and play the Los Angeles Chargers. There wasn’t exactly a great place to ease him into the lineup again.
“I know there were a lot of estimates with the injury timeline with the high ankle. It ended up being on the longer end but about what we thought,” O’Connell continued.
Week 9 isn’t exactly a cakewalk for the Vikings either as they are heading to Detroit to take on the Lions, but at the very least, Minnesota will have about a week and a half to prepare for this game.
If McCarthy does become the starter, the question then turns to the backups. Wentz was very clearly playing hurt on Thursday night due to his shoulder injury, and it only seemed to get worse as the night went on.
“We’ll see how Carson comes out tonight as far as what our overall quarterback depth looks like, but we’ll prepare our team at every position based on what our health looks like, but we also need to be ready to go to work on the practice field and improve,” O’Connell concluded.
If Wentz is unable to go next week, Brosmer could remain the QB2 behind McCarthy.
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