Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy has faced injury setbacks early in his career, missing his entire rookie season and now dealing with issues in his second year. Because of that, the Vikings must approach his situation cautiously.
Veteran quarterback has filled in admirably, leading to a 2-1 record for the Vikings since he took over. Nonetheless, McCarthy is beginning to take part in practice, and so the question surrounding this situation is, when will Minnesota insert the young signal caller under center?
“Good Morning Football” co-host Jamie Erdahl discussed on “The Rich Eisen Show” with guest host Tom Pelissero whether the Minnesota Vikings should go back to McCarthy when he returns from injury or stick with Wentz for the time being.
“I do feel that him having the two games experience and then even if it is a long break now he can actually conceptualize what it means to be a starting quarterback,” Erdahl said. “When he was sitting in meetings last year, he had no concept of what the speed of the game felt like or what the IQ demands were of the playbook. It could be explained to him, but now he’s got a two-game sample size.
“I think he needs to be like 110 percent healthy before we even then add another week and then get him in there. But they’ve got two games in five days next week coming off a bye, so I think we see Carson for a little bit, and I’m okay with that.”
Vikings Praised for Handling of J.J. McCarthy Injury
Over the offseason, the Vikings handed the keys to the franchise to McCarthy after letting Sam Darnold leave. Nonetheless, Erdahl praised Minnesota for taking their time with the player rather than rushing him to see if he’s indeed their franchise quarterback.
“The easy thing to do would be to just say, ‘All right, there’s all this pressure on us. We’ve got to prove that J.J., we’ve got to prove we picked the right guy out of the six quarterbacks. Let’s push him back out the moment he’s healthy.’ There’s a difference between healthy and ready, which is where I give Kevin O’Connell credit for doing the hard thing.”
Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy Makes Most of Situation
After spending the past few weeks on the sidelines recovering from his latest injury, McCarthy is choosing to make the most of his time away from the field. With veteran quarterback Carson Wentz taking over under center, McCarthy has taken a step back to observe and learn.
While there’s no substitute for in-game reps, he sees value in studying how someone else runs the offense. Speaking with reporters on October 15, McCarthy shared the learning lessons from watching Wentz lead the team as the starting quarterback.
“I would say, you can tell by his experience with the anticipation in the windows, with the quickness of when the ball’s getting out of his hand,” McCarthy said. “Just little things that he does pre-snap that he’s been kind of telling me about.
“We’re reading certain plays, seeing different leverages from certain secondary defenders, and just the timing of everything is something that I’ve been really impressed with and took a lot from.”
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