The Minnesota Vikings are set to enter the 2025 season with J.J. McCarthy as their starting quarterback. There are a lot of questions about how ready McCarthy is going to be when the season starts, but the discussions among those in the national media continue to miss the mark.
ESPN's Dan Graziano is the latest to do so when discussing whether or not McCarthy would be ready to start the season on NFL Live.
"Yeah, he looks the way they would expect him to look at this point in his developmental process, and that's the key thing to understand. The process that Adam Schefter says there's nobody under more pressure. But they don't want him to focus on the pressure he's under. They want him to focus on the process. Is he ready to start right now? Probably not. Can he be the first weekend in September? The Vikings believe that he can.
"He's been working on detail stuff, fundamental stuff. Remember, he lost last year due to injury, so that's a year of development he didn't get working on altering the trajectory of some of his throws. So that's been a lot of what the off season has been like, a lot of learning, a lot of putting the lessons into practice. For J.J. McCarthy, Kevin O'Connell would have told you this time last year that Sam Darnold wasn't ready yet to be their starter, but he believed he could get him there by the first weekend in September, and he did, obviously so they believe the same thing about JJ, McCarthy. They believe in their process they think he'll be ready."
There is a lot of truth in what Graziano said. The Vikings do believe in McCarthy, just like they believed in Darnold. However, the tone behind it is a complete whiff.
We know that McCarthy didn't get to practice after his torn meniscus in the first preseason game, but it's not all about the missed practice time. There is an element that Graziano isn't talking about: McCarthy has been with the Vikings for over a year and spent an entire season with Darnold, head coach Kevin O'Connell, and quarterbacks coach Josh McChown learning the offense in the film room.
Having that experience, plus the virtual reality training that he has access to, is going to put him in a different class than a standard first year starter. He will have a significantly higher readiness level than all the rookie starters last year because of that experience.
Why is that not mentioned? It should be, because that's going to be a huge factor of his success early and often. Nothing can ever be normal with the national coverage of the Vikings.
This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.
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