00:00And J.J. McCarthy is one of the biggest questions in all of football this season
00:03because he enters into a football team that last year started Sam Darnold.
00:09Not a high, highly regarded quarterback.
00:13They win 14 games.
00:16Darnold throws 35 touchdown passes,
00:19tacks on 4,300 passing yards.
00:22And yes, they were eliminated in round number one,
00:26but they also in week 18 had a chance to be the number one seed
00:29in the entire NFC.
00:32In comes J.J. McCarthy, drafted as a top 10 quarterback,
00:36top 10 player by the Minnesota Vikings
00:38for his first ever NFL starts off of a torn ACL.
00:44And oh, by the way, was a confounding prospect
00:47because at Michigan, he was a game manager essentially,
00:52not lighting the world on fire.
00:5536.50 and a half is his passing yard total.
01:00Again, he replaces a guy who threw 4,300 yards.
01:0324.50 is his passing touchdown total.
01:07Considering some of the other numbers we've referenced,
01:09that's not a low number, right?
01:11For perspective, Jaden Daniels has the same exact passing touchdown prop.
01:15Is J.J. McCarthy good?
01:20A top 10 quarterback?
01:22Where are you on J.J. McCarthy?
01:23I need to see it before I believe it.
01:25Again, those are Sam Darnold type of numbers, right?
01:28And when you just see what he was able to do last year,
01:31and to your point, 35 touchdown passes, 4,000 yards,
01:34they're expecting J.J. McCarthy to basically duplicate
01:38almost 80 to 85% of the production that Sam Darnold had
01:42a veteran quarterback in his third or fourth team.
01:45I just don't see it.
01:46Coupled with the fact that Jordan Addison now potentially has
01:49off-the-field issues, he might be suspended potentially
01:52for three games with a DUI.
01:54You take him out of that lineup that runs the secondary routes
01:58and everything underneath, they're going to double-team
02:00Justin Jefferson, and that leaves potentially T.J. Hawkinson
02:04as your main offensive weapon, you know,
02:06with secondary wide receivers.
02:09There's going to be growing pains.
02:10We saw it with Caleb Williams.
02:12Jaden Daniels is the outlier when it relies in terms of quarterbacks
02:16and rookie quarterbacks, right?
02:18And even though J.J. is a second-year guy,
02:21he hasn't made an NFL career start outside a preseason game.
02:25And to your point, he was basically a game manager
02:28for the most part in a run-heavy offensive attack in Michigan.
02:32Now they're expecting him to be the guy.
02:34I just, again, there's going to be growing pains.
02:37Eight and a half win total.
02:38I would sell it to the under.
02:39I would sell both totals, the passing touchdowns and the total yardage.
02:44I just don't see it in year number one.
02:46Aaron Jones is a year older.
02:48His rushing total is only 740.
02:51He rushed for 1,000 yards.
02:52The book is basically telling you they're going to be a pass-heavy offense,
02:55and J.J. is going to light it up.
02:57Again, I'd rather be wrong.
02:59I'm selling early.
03:00O'Connell's a really good offensive coordinator, a good offensive head coach.
03:03That's what you have with J.J. McCarthy.
03:05And also, he's not a true rookie, so he's been in the system,
03:07just doesn't have those live bullets flying.
03:09But also, Joe's right at this point.
03:11This isn't the 1987 guy who just won the Rose Bowl coming in the NFL.
03:16Like, hey, I'm a great team leader.
03:17I threw for 1,600 yards in college, but we won the national championship.
03:21You're expected to deliver in that pocket and deliver big time here.
03:24We're not doubting it because they drafted him for a reason,
03:27and an offensive coordinator in O'Connell that says, you know what, this is my guy,
03:30that says something a lot about it.
03:31But the expectations coming into the season where it wasn't Timmy Chang in college,
03:35like, hey, man, he's going to sling it all over the place from a pro-style offense.
03:38He was a run-first offense guy, and I always get a kick out of where they go to Penn State,
03:42and it was the greatest win they ever had with Harbaugh not there.
03:45I was like, well, this quarterback is so good,
03:46you didn't want him to throw the football the entire second half.
03:48Like, I do have questions as well.
03:50Do I think he could be a good quarterback?
03:51Yes.
03:52Am I betting money for him to win the division or have a great season?
03:54No, I'm not.
03:55Sometimes you just have to prove it to me, and that's where McCarthy's in the case for me.
03:59Just want to say, last year, the NFC North was dominant, right, heading into the playoffs, right?
04:04Didn't we say that?
04:05Well, they're Packers, Vikings.
04:07Right, right.
04:07Yeah.
04:07Could this now be a regression?
04:10They're more like the NFC South than they are the North of last year?
04:14Yeah.
04:14Because I think they're going to beat each other up this year.
04:17Well, I think they were turned out to largely be frauds.
04:20They sent three playoff teams.
04:22They won zero playoff games.
04:23Right.
04:23They played the AFC South, they all beat the Chicago Bears, and they, I believe, played the NFC West, which ended up having a down season because San Francisco wasn't good.
04:35I mean, I know that that sounds harsh, but that's a part of that puzzle.
04:39The other thing for J.J. McCarthy is to remember what Minnesota's expectations were last season coming into the year.
04:46They were supposed to be a team in between four and seven wins.
04:51So, you know, what's different year over year?
04:55They've made the offensive line a lot better, and that's where I think a lot of the optimism comes from for this football team.
05:01And that's where I think a lot of the optimism comes from for this football team.
