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  • 6/25/2025
Tyler Forness discusses Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy and how the national media overlooks one key element when it comes to the QB's preparedness going into the upcoming season
Transcript
00:00National media continues to be wrong about J.J. McCarthy, and it boils down to one element that they just don't understand.
00:09The Minnesota Vikings are entering the 2025 season with a brand new starting quarterback in J.J. McCarthy.
00:15They selected him 10th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, the highest draft pick ever for a Minnesota Vikings quarterback,
00:21beating Dante Culpepper, who was taken 11th in 1999, 25 years earlier.
00:26Now, it's been a really tough road for McCarthy. He tore his meniscus in his first preseason game against Las Vegas Raiders,
00:32where he objectively looked fantastic, and the sky felt like the limit.
00:38But of course, as it does with almost everything Minnesota Vikings came crashing down.
00:42Now that he's entering the offseason and training camp as the bona fide starting quarterback with seemingly no competition,
00:49unless you count Sam Howell as that, which nobody does, there's a really interesting narrative surrounding McCarthy.
00:54And it continues to be perpetrated by people who are smart, and they don't understand, or they're at least not talking about this one concept.
01:03McCarthy isn't your standard first-year starter or rookie.
01:06He has an entire year in an NFL building, in an NFL system.
01:11And that entire year makes a big difference.
01:14Here's the quote from Graziano talking about J.J. McCarthy.
01:17Quote, yeah, he looks the way they would expect him to look at this point in his developmental process, and that's the key thing to understand.
01:24The process that Adam Schefter says, there's nobody under more pressure.
01:27But they don't want him to focus on the pressure he's under.
01:30They want him to focus on the process.
01:32Is he ready to start right now?
01:33Probably not.
01:34Can he be ready the first weekend of September?
01:36The Vikings believe that he can.
01:38He's been working on detail stuff, fundamental stuff.
01:40Remember, he lost last year due to injury, so that's a year of development he didn't get working on altering the trajectory of some of his throws.
01:48So that's been a lot of what the offseason has been like.
01:51A lot of learning.
01:52A lot of putting the lessons into practice.
01:55For J.J. McCarthy, Kevin O'Connell would have told you this time last year that Sam Darnold wasn't ready yet to be their starter.
02:01But he believed he could get him there by the first weekend in September, and he did.
02:05Obviously.
02:06So they believe the same thing about J.J. McCarthy.
02:08They believe in their process, and they think he'll be ready.
02:12Overall, there's really not a whole lot that's wrong with it.
02:14But there is one element here that just does not really resonate, or at least needs to be clarified more, and Graziano does not do it.
02:24Remember, he lost last year due to injury.
02:27Yes, he did not get to practice on the field.
02:30He did not get to do a lot of those reps, and some of that mechanical stuff is very fair.
02:34McCarthy needed mechanical work, and it seems like he's done that.
02:38The over-rotation with his back leg, the swinging leg, the drive leg, that has been a huge, huge factor in some of those missed throws that he talks about.
02:49And when you look at him during minicamp, that has calmed down.
02:52He doesn't have that bowler swing anymore.
02:54It's just a slight swing.
02:56And that slight swing is going to help him stay under control and throw more accurately with consistency.
03:01But here's the one thing that they don't seem to understand or they don't want to.
03:05J.J. McCarthy has been tremendous, and he's gotten a tremendous advantage because he got to spend an entire year in a quarterback room with Sam Darnold, Nick Mullins, Brett Rippin, three veteran quarterbacks, including Darnold, who failed as a top five pick, which is even more pressure than a top 10 pick.
03:23And it was in the New York media market.
03:26Not to mention, you have Wes Phillips, who's a good offensive coordinator, Kevin O'Connell, and Josh McCown, both of whom played football in the National Football League.
03:34They played quarterback in the NFL.
03:36Now, obviously, McCown did it for a significantly longer period of time, but that matters.
03:42Having the ability to go ask questions, which you've heard many defenders talk about, including Harrison Phillips.
03:46Hey, why did you do this? Why does this matter? Why did you change to this when you saw this?
03:52And learned a lot of that kind of stuff and absorbed and is ready to take on that role.
03:57That doesn't get talked about. Why?
03:59Because it doesn't drive numbers. It's not sexy, but it's the reality.
04:03He's had so many opportunities to really grow and thrive.
04:08Well, why aren't you talking about it?
04:10Why aren't we having those conversations?
04:11Because the off-field is just as important as on the field when it comes to developing a quarterback.
04:16Yeah, you need to be able to throw a really nice ball.
04:19But if you can't go from A to B to C in those progressions and throw it accurately with touch or zip, whatever the situation calls for, it doesn't matter.
04:26You have to be able to know what to do, when to do it, and how to get there quickly.
04:31And that's where the bookwork comes into play.
04:33He's got the bookwork down.
04:35Having spent all that time in the meeting rooms, having spent all that time in the film room, it's going to help him tremendously.
04:40And we need to talk about that more.
04:42I'm Tyler Fronis with ADZ Sports.
04:44Skull Vikings.

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