Do yourself a favor and read this....right now

[StickierBuns]

I prefer McCarthy over Maye. Drake is just so young that anything can happen. Maye may become the best QB in the NFL or he may be the next Mitchell Trubiski. I think McCarthy, with his maturity and selflessness, is a much better fit for the Vikings and the culture they're trying to build.

JJM is 6 months younger than Drake Maye.

[purplefaithful]

The local lens:
========================
QB J.J. McCarthy says the Vikings are 'just a perfect fit for me'

J.J. McCarthy's youth and low usage at Michigan mean he comes to the Vikings with things to learn from a coach who's said rookie QBs benefit from time to develop.

During the lead-up to the NFL draft, J.J. McCarthy became convinced that the Vikings — with Kevin O'Connell calling plays, 17-year NFL veteran Josh McCown overseeing quarterbacks and a cast of Pro Bowl offensive players populating the huddle — were the best spot for a rookie quarterback in 2024.

After the Vikings drafted him 10th overall on Thursday night, McCarthy said the other five first-round quarterbacks all shared his opinion.

"First, the organization's outstanding, and then you have the players and pieces that are around it and the coaches," McCarthy said in his introductory news conference Friday. "It was just a perfect fit for me. I talked with a lot of quarterbacks throughout this process, and it was the perfect fit for them, too. Obviously, it's a huge honor, and I hope to just prove them right."

If he is shown to be correct about the Vikings, and the Vikings about him, it might be because of a careful process the team hopes to use for the nascent stage of McCarthy's career. McCarthy, who turned 21 on Jan. 20, was the youngest quarterback taken in the first round on Thursday night, and he came from a Michigan offense that ran 60.8% of the time on its way to a national championship last season, asking McCarthy to throw just 654 times in his final two years there.

The Vikings became convinced they could win with McCarthy through a process that peered beyond his lack of work.

"A lot might have been made of the sample size, and I think you can get caught up with looking at box scores and total statistics," O'Connell said Thursday night.

But McCarthy's youth, and his relatively low usage in college, do mean he comes to Minnesota with things to learn. He'll do so while playing for a coach who's said several times he thinks rookie QBs benefit from time to develop.

O'Connell's last year in Washington came in 2019 with owner Dan Snyder pushing for first-round pick Dwayne Haskins to play, and Haskins threw 12 touchdowns against 14 interceptions while winning three of his 13 career starts. Sam Darnold, who signed a one-year deal to start for the Vikings after Kirk Cousins left in free agency, is another cautionary tale; the Jets started the third overall pick in the 2018 draft right away and let him go after three seasons, starting him on a sojourn that made the Vikings his fourth team in seven seasons this year.

Darnold is in Minnesota partially to buy McCarthy time. While the Vikings won't hold the rookie back if he's ready, they don't want to rush him before they feel he is.

"No detail is too small," O'Connell said. "It's really working at a clip that is learnable, digestible and allows these guys to really stack some days on top of each other. It'll be the same for J.J. I consider the spring a learning, teaching phase: how we handle it from a skill development phase, technique, fundamentals, all the things that a young quarterback in this league [needs]. You just wish you had more [time] every single day, and we're going to try to maximize that time, and not put any sort of preset target date of, 'Here's where we need to be at this moment.'

"It's going to be our jobs as coaches — myself, [offensive coordinator] Wes [Phillips], Josh, [assistant QB coach] Grant [Udinski] to put him in the absolute greatest learning environment we possibly can."

After the Vikings drafted McCarthy on Thursday night, General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah recalled a Zoom call with McCarthy where the quarterback asked him, "Is there any reason you wouldn't draft me?" Adofo-Mensah said he told McCarthy his smaller college workload made him "just a bit of an unknown." But the Vikings were sold on him after an evaluation process that emphasized an area where McCarthy shined.

O'Connell analyzed tape of the draft class on third downs, where quarterbacks are often required to drop back and throw without help from play action, run-pass option plays or quick throws. "You really go back and focus on those weighty downs, those third downs where you see him [at] third and 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 [yards to go], move the football team at a pretty strong clip."

According to Pro Football Focus, McCarthy had the second-best passer rating on third downs last season at 91.0, just behind Oregon QB Bo Nix's 92.2 rating. Nix's adjusted completion percentage (86.5%) also edged McCarthy's (81.5%). But McCarthy averaged 10.6 yards per target on third downs, compared to 6.3 yards for Nix.

"He made a lot of those plays," O'Connell said. "By the time I was able to absorb all the film, really get to know J.J., connect some dots and understand what we're projecting, I'm really excited to have him on our football team."

McCarthy said Friday he understood why his usage at Michigan might have given teams pause. "I guess from the standpoint of volume of reps, I can see that," he said. "But you know, this was a pro-style offense that Coach [Jim] Harbaugh ran in [San Francisco] and had success with, so just being able to do the things they expect me to do coming in here has been huge."

The foundation he has around him, the one he believes will be the envy of the 2024 QB class, is one he's eager to use.

"They have to know that you care and want to get better," McCarthy said. "So it's getting around them, exhausting those relationships and making sure I almost bug them too much about wanting to get better and learn. That's a lot of the regrets that former players have told me: they wish they spent more time with their coaches and used those resources to their utmost advantage. I plan on doing that."

https://www.startribune.com/vikings-qb-j...fresh=true

[Montana Tom]

I prefer McCarthy over Maye. Drake is just so young that anything can happen. Maye may become the best QB in the NFL or he may be the next Mitchell Trubiski. I think McCarthy, with his maturity and selflessness, is a much better fit for the Vikings and the culture they're trying to build.

Maye is just not a winner.  I realize he was a good player on a not-so-good-team, but it appears McCarthy has been a winner since high school.  63-3?  Ridiculous.

[StickierBuns]

KOC has no plans to rush his development, either. Very, very important.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/4003...-nfl-draft

I do NOT want to see JJM starting any games before the last 2 or 3 if they are low pressure, out of the playoff mix type things. I think fans need to chillax about seeing him before then.

[Vikergirl]

https://twitter.com/alec_lewis/status/17...y8jQSZZVWQ&s=19

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It was going to be McCarthy or Maye. Glad it's done and they can continue to build this team

[purplefaithful]

KOC has no plans to rush his development, either. Very, very important.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/4003...-nfl-draft
I do NOT want to see JJM starting any games before the last 2 or 3 if they are low pressure, out of the playoff mix type things. I think fans need to chillax about seeing him before then.

This is a very good read. This resonated with me;

"A lot of times when we go back over history and say, 'These quarterbacks have missed,' there's a lot of hands that are dirty in that regard. And we're going to make sure that our hands are clean and give him the best opportunity he can to be the best player he can be in this offense."

I like how the Vikings say they will approach his teaching and development. Take a page out of GB's book in that regard. 

I went back and watched the local pressers JJ and Turner had. These are both kids lol! Both handled the lights well, you can tell they came from big time programs. 

Vikings gave Darnold $10mm this year which says a bunch. Keep him healthy and hope he does well, rushing McCarthy would be a crime.

[The ghost formerly known as PG]

I’ve been doing a little online research since Thursday night. First, JJ is ambidextrous. There was a video on X of him throwing long passes and PLENTY of TDs with his left hand. These weren’t ducks, my friends, they were zippy passes in pretty tight windows. Maybe some of the draftniks on our board already knew that, but it sure impressed the hell out of me!

The other very interesting thing I read was that apparently in 2022 the OC for Michigan started installing KOC play concepts in their offense, as they realized that the Vikings were doing a lot of things offensively that they were either doing or wanted to install. KOC has said that when they met with JJ they worked with him on some play concepts and then took him out and worked him on the field. He said JJ was able to quickly perform what they worked on, and he was very impressed with how fast he picked it all up. I really think we got the right guy. He’s a piece of clay for KOC. He’s very intelligent, a leader, highly competitive, very athletic, and simply a winner. I am so excited about him and he’s the guy I wanted all along, despite all the Maye love.

[purplefaithful]

Nice to see you again PG!!

[The ghost formerly known as PG]

Nice to see you again PG!!

Thanks PF!! Glad to be back

[MaroonBells]

KOC has no plans to rush his development, either. Very, very important.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/4003...-nfl-draft

I do NOT want to see JJM starting any games before the last 2 or 3 if they are low pressure, out of the playoff mix type things. I think fans need to chillax about seeing him before then.

Agree. No matter how tempted they might be to start him, I strongly believe it's best for his long-term development to sit, watch and learn this year. I know there are former QBs who disagree with that, but I would love nothing more than to see his 1st time in the limelight to be in year two when he knows the offense completely, and the Vikings have used that $100M+ cap space to add a handful of high-priced free agents to his surround. By then, Jaren Hall might be a pretty good QB2 as well. 

If all goes as planned, that '25 team should be a legit Super Bowl contender.