Vikings Owner Pounds the Table for You Know Who
It must be J.J. McCarthy hype season if even the Minnesota Vikings owner is chiming in with takes.
Vikings owner Mark Wilf wasn’t shy this week about heaping praise on his next big thing.
McCarthy, a 1st-Round pick from the 2024 NFL Draft, will lead the Vikings into 2025 as QB1 after missing his rookie season with a torn meniscus. The team allowed Sam Darnold to leave in free agency and resisted the temptation to sign Aaron Rodgers, paving the way for McCarthy to take the reins in September.
And according to Vikings owner Mark Wilf, the youngster is ready.
Mark Wilf Says J.J. McCarthy Has “Gravitational Pull”
Wilf joined KFAN this week, talking to the Voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen, about several topics, and of course, he opined on McCarthy, his product’s one big hope for the future.
“He has a gravitational pull as a leader. He really does. I think the way the players support him, I think, of course, the talent is there,” Wilf told Allen.
“Coach Kevin O’Connell is glowing in his praises of how he’s handled everything to date, and from an off-the-field perspective, we couldn’t be happier, so all the things are pointing in the right direction and we are going to be supporting J.J. to have him be the success we want him to be.”
It’s usually a role of the general manager and head coach to pound the table for players, but McCarthy is so enticing that even Wilf jumped on board.
Not for nothing, Wilf’s commentary mirrors that of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell all offseason. Everyone is aligned, and McCarthy is evidently fantastic behind the scenes.
Vikings Will Need It
For a Super Bowl-starved franchise, McCarthy absolutely must be the real deal.
In the Super Bowl era, since 1966, Minnesota has the NFL’s fourth-best win percentage, with no Lombardi trophies to show for it. In fact, of all 16 franchises that top the board per win percentage, the Vikings are the only one without a Super Bowl triumph.
Every other team has at least one chip.
A Redshirt Rookie Season
Despite the great hope in play last year, too, McCarthy didn’t take a single regular season snap. In the preseason, right off the bat, Minnesota played the Las Vegas Raiders, and McCarthy bedazzled fans and a national onlooking audience. Although just a “practice game,” the young Wolverine showed all the necessary tools to eventually morph into a wonderful passer.
A few days later, he revealed a torn meniscus, and that was that. The Vikings “couldn’t have nice things,” as the cynical and meme sayings go.
Now, however, McCarthy has fully recovered from the meniscus kerfuffle, and no insurmountable quarterback stands in his way on the depth chart.
Perfect Situation for Young QB
McCarthy will also waltz into a quintessentially perfect gridiron situation.
He has the NFL’s second-best defense from 2024 at his side. He has the “quarterback whispering” head coach, well-known for extracting the very best from every quarterback in his orbit., And if that’s not enough, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, Jalen Nailor, and Tai Felton will be there on Sunday to bail McCarthy out.
The Vikings have never constructed a depth chart and coaching staff this friendly to a young quarterback. Never.
Kevin O’Connell on McCarthy
Speaking of O’Connell, the young head coach said about McCarthy two weeks ago: “He’s having a great start to his offseason program. 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 all drew it up.”
“But he’s already showing, early on here — today was our third day of phase two, on the grass — I think all his teammates feel it, I know the coaches do, myself included. Now, can we just build and build and progress towards when we get our first competitive opportunity come training camp.”
McCarthy and the Vikings get organized team activities (OTAs) underway in five days.
O’Connell added, “By owning playing quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, that’s footwork, that’s rhythm, that’s timing, that’s running the huddle, that’s running the show, that’s cadence, that’s identifying defensive structures that he’s gotta be responsible for getting us into the right plays. He’s owning it.”
Maybe McCarthy’s gravitational pull, described by Wilf, will take the purple team to The Promised Land.
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