Daily Norseman
The Minnesota Vikings concluded their mandatory minicamp last week, but Kevin O’Connell said the starting quarterback competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy would continue into training camp. Just how long into training camp it would continue was a little vague. Equally ambiguous was O’Connell’s explanation about how snaps may be divided between the two quarterbacks in training camp and what the criteria for naming a starting quarterback would be, other than the one who elevates the team the most. He also said that while they track data on the two quarterbacks in practice, it may come down to more of a ‘feel thing’, where both he and the quarterbacks would know who felt better running the offense.
He did, however, assure everyone that there is a plan in place that will both allow that competition to play out and provide ample time for the eventual starting quarterback to be fully prepared for the regular season and the Packers week one, despite that those two goals may very well be mutually exclusive. Below is a link to O’Connell’s full remarks at the end of minicamp, including the quarterback competition, beginning at 3:30 of the video.
Allowing the quarterback competition to play out may very well be mutually exclusive with fully preparing the starting quarterback for the season. The reason largely comes down to reps, but there are other factors too. But let’s consider what allowing the competition to play out looks like, and then what fully preparing the starting quarterback for the season looks like.
If the Vikings are going to let the competition play out, surely that will involve competing and splitting reps equally through at least the joint practices against the Ravens, which are scheduled for August 19-20. The reason for that is because team drills in joint practices are the closest thing to real games in training camp, including preseason games for the most part. Having both quarterbacks show what they can do in as close to a real game situation as possible is the ultimate test of which quarterback can elevate the team the best. Having them prepare equally up to that point, and potentially beyond, in terms of having equal reps also makes sense so one doesn’t have a built-in advantage over the other in working with the offense. Preseason games may offer some value as well, but given other teams are typically playing basic schemes and mostly non-starters, they don’t provide a close approximation of a real game. Results can be misleading.
In recent years, joint practices have been one of the more important parts of training camp in terms of player evaluations at every position, so it only makes sense that any quarterback competition includes them as well.
If the competition was cut short after, say, one week of training camp, or one quarterback getting the lion’s share of the reps at that point before ultimately being named the starter, was it really a...
