Daily Norseman
After a miserable loss to the Green Bay Packers, a game in which J.J. McCarthy continued to struggle, the Minnesota Vikings face an increasingly difficult path with McCarthy’s development. The increased difficulty comes as McCarthy appears to have lost confidence after six games of ongoing accuracy and other issues.
The Vikings’ game plan against the Packers was a conservative one offensively, looking to run the ball and take the pressure off McCarthy after rallying veterans around McCarthy to help boost his confidence earlier in the week. It didn’t work.
The Viking’s scoring drives stalled in the first half resulting in long field goals. McCarthy never really seemed comfortable or in-rhythm when called upon to pass, and had just two completions of significance. In the second half the Vikings fell behind and were forced to pass more, but McCarthy simply wasn’t up to the task. The Vikings second half offensive drives amounted to three 3-and-outs and two interceptions. 15 plays total.
McCarthy appeared to be noticeably demoralized toward the end of the game and while both McCarthy and Kevin O’Connell tried to put a good spin on it after the game, clearly McCarthy’s confidence has been shot. He continues to hold the ball too long often times and accuracy remains an issue as his second interception was way off target.
Bottom line with McCarthy right now is that he isn’t sufficiently functional as a starting quarterback right now and his trajectory after six games is downward. Matt Waldman, in writing that McCarthy was the most difficult/polarizing quarterback evaluation of the 2024 draft class, had this evaluation which seems prescient at the moment:
McCarthy’s development hinges on two things: 1) How accurate is he really? And 2) How well can he address his decision-making/processing gaffes?
If the high-end positives are an indicator that he’ll address most of his flaws, McCarthy can become a franchise starter with Pro Bowl production potential. If the McCarthy proves accurate enough but he can only make minor-to-moderate improvements with his decision-making and processing gaffes, he’ll need a great infrastructure of surrounding talent and scheme fit to sustain starter production and that may only translate to McCarthy becoming a high-end journeyman starter.
If McCarthy can’t overcome his flaws and he’s not accurate, he’ll be the Zach Wilson 2.0 that’s the version we’ve seen of Wilson thus far in his NFL career. My projection is Jake Plummer: A player who will be expected to become the franchise who eventually figures it out but not without some difficult times and possibly a team change for him to get there.
At this point, McCarthy is on a worst case, Zach Wilson 2.0 trajectory. It’s still early- he’s only had six starts- but his level of play right now isn’t adequate for the Vikings to play competitive football. Kevin O’Connell is trying to game plan around McCarthy’s weak points by running the ball, but even with limited attempts and a good ground game McCarthy is struggling to...
