Last offseason, training camp was a spectacle despite the Minnesota Vikings trying to downplay a quarterback competition that everyone wanted to see throughout the course of training camp.
What we ended up getting was Sam Darnold as the starting quarterback with J.J. McCarthy firmly at number two. As training camp progressed, McCarthy started to get more and more snaps with the first-team, leading into his dynamite preseason performance against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Unfortunately, McCarthy tore his meniscus, ending his season prematurely.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah reveals initial plans for J.J. McCarthy’s rookie season
Before the injury, it felt like McCarthy was making a big case to be the starting quarterback from day one. Now, Darnold played incredibly well last season, which raises even more questions about when McCarthy would have taken over, if at all.
During a rare appearance, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah told Access Vikings that the plan was to have McCarthy sit the season to learn.
“You know, I think it’d be hard for me to talk about that just alone, because you have a QB PhD or QB Nobel laureate (Kevin O’Connell). And so we had just constant dialogue and conversations about what we wanted for J.J. that year, and he started exceeding that pretty quickly. You know, we’re really, we’re pretty clear, I think, publicly, that we didn’t want him to play, not because he wouldn’t play, but we just thought for the life, for the kind of the better success of his career spirit to sit and watch. And so he kind of pushed, he was pushing a little bit in terms of maybe becoming the backup, or different things like that, but just the day over day growth that he would show he’s so coachable. You give him a coaching point, he’s going to go home and make sure that that coaching point is you really saw things like that. And he was on the count, we were excited about that again.
“He had that great first preseason game. The preseason people remember the Raiders played their first team. Played their first team defense while he was a little bit of a glimpse to see him against regular season NFL-type players, we just loved it. And not only just the play, but how he played through the interception, if people remember, just talk to the coaches, it was just a positivity and a joy that he played with, and he was going to come back, and he had that great recovery moments that matter, not necessarily that he came over the sideline, got his coaching, took it, and then went out there and played with his teammates. So that was an exciting time for us.”
What’s interesting is how Adofo-Mensah framed his answer. He used the word “publicly” when discussing whether or not McCarthy was going to play. That gives him an out to actually divulge more, because you don’t like to share any more than you have to.
With Adofo-Mensah’s public comments, you can read between the lines and figure out exactly what he means. What he meant here was: the plan was to sit him, but we might switch that up if new information comes to the forefront.
As things sit, the Vikings ended up getting what they wanted with McCarthy sitting the entire season.
