Fine, Let's Discuss Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy

The Challenges of J.J. McCarthy's Early NFL Career

J.J. McCarthy has had a rough start to his career as the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. On Sunday, against the Chicago Bears, he didn't perform well, despite a strong final drive. However, the first 57 minutes of the game were filled with too many mistakes for those last three minutes to make up for. McCarthy needs to significantly improve in several areas moving forward.

As we look at McCarthy’s performance over the past five games, it's clear that discussions about him online are often irrational and not constructive. There's already a lot of negative comparisons being made to past Viking quarterbacks who have struggled, and some people are even rewriting history by saying the Vikings have "fumbled" the quarterback position.

One example is Sam Darnold, who was mostly brilliant for 17 weeks last season. Most of the football experts laughed at the idea of him being a solid answer for the Vikings. After being cut from multiple teams, Darnold had the best season of his career with the Vikings in 2024. However, he faltered in the regular season finale and then in the Wild Card playoff game against the Rams. Despite this, the Seattle Seahawks signed him to a three-year contract worth over $100 million, a deal the Vikings weren’t willing to match.

Now, with the Seahawks off to an 8-2 start with Darnold under center, some people are claiming the Vikings made a serious mistake by not giving Darnold that money and instead going with McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie year due to a knee injury.

On Sunday, Darnold once again faced the Rams with the chance to secure the #1 seed in the conference and the top spot in their division. Once again, he performed poorly, throwing four interceptions in a 21-19 loss. While both teams had chances to win, neither victory would erase the fact that they both played poorly.

The key difference is that one of them is an eight-year NFL veteran with dozens of starts, while the other has only started five games in his NFL career. It's unlikely that there was a long line of people trying to get Darnold to MSP after that playoff game, but I haven’t seen any passionate defenses of him either.

It's possible that the Vikings might have had a better regular season if Darnold were still the starter. However, the decision to move on from Darnold and give McCarthy the reins was based on the hope that the Vikings could develop their own long-term solution at quarterback, similar to how the Chiefs, Bills, or even the Packers have done.

Five games are not enough to draw any conclusions about McCarthy's potential. My other point of frustration with the criticism of McCarthy is that he took over a team that went 14-3 last year with a lot of talent around him. The Vikings do have plenty of talent at the skill positions, which I can acknowledge.

However, does that matter? No, because a quarterback still has to be out there, see things happen, take the hits, and do all the little things required to be an NFL quarterback. This season is about the development of J.J. McCarthy, as I mentioned in my previous piece, and that includes both the good and the bad.

An example of this is Caleb Williams, who was not good in his rookie season with the Bears. He took too many sacks, looked confused, and generally didn’t look like a #1 overall pick. But no one in Chicago was calling for Tyson Bagent to take over. Now that Williams has a year under his belt and a new head coach, he's showing signs of being pretty good.

If we’re talking about the quality of the talent around McCarthy, it would also help if players like T.J. Hockenson, Jordan Addison, and Justin Jefferson could stop dropping passes that hit them right in the hands. The Vikings had half a dozen drops on Sunday, which is tough for any quarterback to overcome, especially a young one struggling.

As I said in the beginning, trying to have a rational discussion about this topic is probably a futile exercise. The criticism will continue until something changes to make people happy. I'm not sure what that change would be, and I'm not sure if the critics know either.

I’m not ready to give up on J.J. McCarthy after just five NFL starts. I hope we see signs of development soon. For now, the roller coaster continues for this season, for better or worse. Unless there's an injury, there won’t be a change, so it’s time to sit back and enjoy the ride.