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
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.