Daily Norseman
Brian O’Neill, Josh Oliver, and Josh Metellus are good candidates
What player do you think gets the next extension? I think is could/should be O’Neill due to his massive cap hits the this year and next year.
Minnesota Vikings News and Links
Kevin O’Connell explains why J.J. McCarthy hasn’t been named Vikings’ starting QB
Why haven’t the Minnesota Vikings declared J.J. McCarthy as the starting quarterback yet? It’s clear that he’s the guy, but why won’t head coach Kevin O’Connell say publicly what appears to be so obvious?
The reigning NFL coach of the year provided an answer to that question when asked by Kay Adams.
“We can’t even line up defensive players from our own team against him yet. So we really don’t have a need to have anything more than just development time, learning time, teaching phase for our entire team,” O’Connell said in an interview that was released via Up & Adams on Wednesday.
“But trust me, J.J.’s going to get all of the prerequisite work for us to come out of the spring feeling great about where he’s at and heading into training camp. As those days and weeks click off the calendar here, I’m sure he’ll be in a great position to do a lot of good things for us.”
“We’re going to have a great offseason program and take it day-by-day with a plan for J.J. to allow him to leave for the summer before he comes back here for training camp feeling like he’s absolutely ready to go,” O’Connell explained.
“He’s done his part, I’ll tell you that. He’s killed the rehab process. He’s got his weight back up. He’s strong. He’s probably, metric wise, a lot further along beyond than he was before the injury last year. Very excited to officially get this thing going with him.”
J.J. McCarthy Impressing Vikings Vets with Energy & Work Ethic
When J.J. McCarthy wasn’t able to throw a football, he picked up a gratitude journal.
McCarthy spoke Tuesday to media members for the first time since undergoing surgery to repair the meniscus injury that sidelined him for his rookie season.
The Vikings QB, who feels “even better than before” the injury, spoke about looking ahead but also reflected on the past 8 months of rehab. McCarthy noted the impact of returning to the gratitude journal, a practice he initially picked up during his collegiate career at Michigan but had strayed from.
He said it was the tragic passing in September of Greg Harden, former Michigan performance and life coach, that prompted him to revisit a daily journal session.
“It was one of the things that I felt benefited me the most during my first injury in college, and bringing that back up was something I was very grateful to do,” McCarthy said.
*“As simple as that seems, you know, the little things that go overlooked and underappreciated when you’re healthy, or you can walk, or just the ability to see, that’s been a great...
