On Tuesday morning, Vikings coaches and doctors gathered at the team’s practice field to watch JJ McCarthy practice. The second-year quarterback had practiced a little Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and the hope was that everyone would leave with McCarthy ready to start a short week against the Chargers.
Once again, it was hope. Not the mandate.
After going through the steps, McCarthy told the staff that the sprained ankle he suffered in Week 2 against the Falcons hasn’t quite returned yet. And the staff decided to err on the side of caution and hold McCarthy back another week, giving him 10 days of track time to prepare for a titanic Week 9 matchup against the Lions on Nov. 2 at Ford Field.
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It’s all about McCarthy’s health, as he comes back strong to face bad luck due to injury for a second straight year. More than that, though, it’s a story about quarterback development, during a season in which we see recovery projects such as Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones playing lights out. Mayfield is now on his fifth NFL team, Darnold is on his fourth and Jones is on his third.
It’s also probably no coincidence that two of those three made it after coming through Minnesota (and the stops with the 49ers and Rams on these guys’ trips aren’t a fluke in the final results, either).
What’s important for the Vikings is to not become what the Jets, Giants and Browns are in this equation: the teams that drafted these guys and failed to bring out the best in them.
So let’s get to the Vikings’ current situation with McCarthy.
Just to be clear: The additional rest is expected to prepare McCarthy for the Vikings’ game against Detroit. Assuming it’s ready, the plan is to start it. And the hope is that in the meantime, they’ll get a quarterback with a head for throttle and, more importantly, full of confidence.
If McCarthy had made 50 or 100 starts in his NFL career, the Vikings might have decided the best course of action would be to limp him in against a Chargers team that is going to be eager to break out of the 1–3 rut they find themselves in.
The idea reminds me a lot of a conversation I had with Matt LaFleur a little over two years ago when the Packers coach and I were talking about the advantage of being able to sit Jordan Love for three years, save for a few calls to the bullpen.
“I think — and this is just my opinion — that the league would benefit if more guys took that approach,” LaFleur told me. “What happens is these guys get thrust into situations where there’s not a lot of talent around them and they lose confidence. I’ve seen that happen too many times, and it’s hard to come back from that. I think we’d be able to develop more quarterbacks if we gave guys a few years to sit down and learn the game and then go play.”
In this case, the talent around McCarthy isn’t the problem. It’s his ability to perform at a high level. But the point is the same: a young quarterback’s confidence must be built and protected. As LaFleur would tell me, once a quarterback loses that confidence, it’s very, very difficult to get it back.
It took Mayfield and Darnold several restarts to get there, and Jones yo-yoed throughout his seven years in the league. These three are now in a good place. But it took longer than expected because the initial problems had left their mark. While you can’t completely prevent a quarterback from taking these scars, you can limit them.
The other side of this deal, of course, is that McCarthy will be expected to play well when he returns. In other words, he can do what he did in the fourth quarter in Chicago in Week 1 and make the three or four plays that result in a win rather than a loss.
If he doesn’t, then the Vikings have Carson Wentz ready. This is also why they tried to bring back Darnold and Jones; these guys left because they found opportunities to become long-term starting quarterbacks. Minnesota wants to give McCarthy enough runway to prove himself when he returns to the lineup, likely next week. But he won’t have an endless rope to get there.
So, ultimately, the goals here are simple: give McCarthy the best chance to develop, a better opportunity than so many other highly drafted quarterbacks have had; giving McCarthy time to show the coaches, the front office and his teammates what he is and can be as an NFL quarterback, for better or worse; and give those teammates the best QB available.
Ideally, the Vikings can do all three at once, make the playoffs, and move forward with McCarthy as the guy they drafted him to be.
For now, what we can say, at the very least, is that the plan to get there is pretty solid.
I think Tuesday morning showed that.
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