NFL Training Camp Takeaways: Vikings Setting Up J.J. McCarthy, Sam Darnold for Success

Minnesota’s coach thinks both guys can play, and now it’s about picking one that’ll translate when the games count. Plus much more on the other rookie quarterbacks after Week 1 of preseason.

McCarthy passed for 188 yards and two touchdowns Saturday. / Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

We’re at 17 teams now on my NFL training camp tour, and will be at 21 by the end of the week. And with that, here are the takeaways after the first full weekend of preseason games.

I really like J.J. McCarthy’s progress. It’s obvious how good his situation is with the Minnesota Vikings—with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, Christian Darrisaw, Kevin O’Connell, Wes Phillips and Josh McCown, among others, giving the rookie a rock-solid supporting cast and football infrastructure. He also acquitted himself nicely, especially in riding out some bumps, in his preseason debut against the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday, completing 11-of-18 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns and an interception.

And maybe best of all is that he’s playing for a staff that won’t force him out on the field in the regular season before he’s ready.

Over the past few months, I’d heard about the detailed plan O’Connell had for whichever quarterback the Vikings drafted, a plan drawn up before Minnesota moved up a spot in the first round to take the former Michigan star. So being in the Twin Cities at the end of last week, that plan was the first thing I wanted to talk to O’Connell about, and he explained how it’s one he’s thought a lot about, and incorporates his experiences as a player, quarterback trainer and coach.

The first piece was how he stocked the room, with McCown as quarterbacks coach, and Grant Udinski as assistant offensive coordinator-assistant QBs coach, and Nick Mullens, who could help teach younger guys the system, and be ready in a pinch without taking practice reps that O’Connell wanted to give to McCarthy and Sam Darnold.

After that, it was about writing a script that gave McCarthy and Darnold the best chance to improve, as simple as that sounds. Darnold, of course, had played in different systems and for three different teams before arriving in Minnesota after signing a one-year, $10 million deal as a free agent, while McCarthy was coming from a very stable college environment. So while their needs would cross over at times, the areas where they could make leaps were different from one another.

“There is no one way,” O’Connell told me Thursday. “The process and the development plan need to be applied with detail and great urgency to individualize an approach. You have to be willing to evaluate step by step, day by day, while also preaching and building a plan where guys never say to themselves, I didn’t get a little better today. I didn’t get more comfortable today. How that’s going is, both Sam and J.J. are further along than I probably thought they would be at this point.”

In other words, the benchmarks the Vikings are looking for Darnold to hit aren’t always the same as the ones they need McCarthy to hit. Those also aren’t always so apparent to the naked eye, which is where O’Connell really got to the crux of the matter.

The key, as I saw it, in what O’Connell was relaying was this—how the quarterback enables the other 10 guys in the huddle to do their jobs will go a long way in deciding who becomes the starter.

“What we’ve got to avoid is the illusion of quarterback play,” he continued. “It might be something as simple as, That might have been your best throw of the day, but was it really real? You get a top-10 pass rush in this league, and you took the wrong drop. You started your eyes in the wrong spot, and you fell into a completion where somebody watching practice may say, This guy’s ready to go.”

And that part of it, obviously, comes down to what O’Connell knows and we don’t.

It’s his playbook, and he called the play, so he knows if Darnold or McCarthy read it right. He knows if either quarterback set the protection correctly. He knows who the ball is designed to go to, and where the coverage should push the quarterbacks. All the same, he, again, knows if the result on a preseason Saturday is likely to equate to a regular-season Sunday.

That, of course, isn’t to downplay any of the success McCarthy or Darnold might have (or seem to have) in the footage that the general public gets to see. It’s simply to try and apply a regular-season contest to a preseason setting, which you can’t really do if you’re not wearing a headset on the sideline.

Doing that is the challenge facing, and exciting O’Connell. Because he thinks both guys can play. And now it’s about picking one that’ll translate when it counts, which, in turn, protects the development of the younger one—because it implies he won’t play before he’s ready.

“I know what I called,” O’Connell said. “I know what you did, every single snap. I also know what was not exactly right, what was a little shaky. It might be little things. It might be calling plays in the huddle. It might be cadence at the line of scrimmage, remembering to send your motion. Every single time one of those things happens, that has nothing to do with your ability to play the position.

“That’s purely the comfort of making sure that 10 other guys in that huddle can break the huddle and run the play and be held accountable for the details of their job because I can do the baseline of mine, long before you have a ball leave your hands or make a check or an audible. That’s where I’ve seen the growth and development with J.J. He is getting better at that. Sam’s comfort of the system is growing on a minute-to-minute basis.

“The endgame of all that is a day where J.J. hits Justin Jefferson for some big plays and everybody’s feeling good. But there also might be a small third-and-9 where instead of forcing a ball, he checks the ball down and we get 10. I’m the most excited in the quarterback room when I see it, and they’re like dude, That was just a checkdown. Then after all of this, you get to all the layers of managing the game. Being a game manager is a pretty powerful thing if you’re as talented as these guys are.”

That explanation, and this is just me, goes a long way in explaining why, as good as Kirk Cousins was in Minnesota, I think the Vikings are going to be just fine at quarterback.

And that’s whether McCarthy starts in Week 1, or not until Week 1 of 2025.

---

I wouldn’t discount Darnold as a player. You may have seen our interview with Geno Smith last week—the Seattle Seahawks quarterback was reflective, and appreciative, and humble taking us through the journey that landed him with a new life as an NFL starter in the Pacific Northwest. He’s just a good guy, and a good player, who needed another shot.

So maybe being cast off by the New York Jets isn’t the only thing Smith and Darnold have in common?

For me, Darnold’s story and makeup mirrors Smith’s in a lot of ways, really left the station on Christmas night. Darnold was Brock Purdy’s backup in San Francisco, and the San Francisco 49ers were getting blown out by the Baltimore Ravens, which is what landed Darnold on the field in the fourth quarter of that game. There probably weren’t a lot of folks watching at that point. But I was, and I saw a new Darnold.

Playing for Kyle Shanahan and with a good (obviously) group of teammates, Darnold was playing faster, and more decisively, and making the most out of the cameo he was getting ahead of his March free agency. I filed it away at the time, thinking maybe he could be this year’s version of Baker Mayfield last year. Then, he landed with O’Connell, which gave me more reason to think it could happen.

And here we are now, with Darnold looking squarely at a new lease on his NFL life.

“I just learned so much in San Francisco, not only from the coaches, but from the players,” he told me last week. “The way Brock prepared every single week was inspiring to me. We didn’t leave one stone unturned throughout the week. If there ever was a question, there were so many people to go, Hey, we didn’t necessarily talk about this, what happens in the pass protection if there’s a blitz? Then you add a couple words to the play-call to add a can or alert to it. There’s an answer for every single coverage that we have on tape and every single play that we call.

“That’s what I feel like it’s like in this offense. For me, the Ravens game, it was preparation, understanding, How are we going to attack the defense? I think it was also taking a deep breath, calming my heart rate down, saying, Alright, I’m going to be able to push the ball down the field. We’re trying to come back in this game, but if it’s not there, I can check the ball down with confidence.”

Darnold then added that it’s “easy to say, be more decisive. But it’s like, How?”

The answer? By knowing what you’re doing, and being in an offense that fits you, and learning what defenses are trying to do to you, and sometimes getting to where a quarterback has all those elements working for him at once takes time.

So after getting a taste of this style of offense playing for Ben McAdoo in Carolina, and a better appreciation for it with Shanahan in San Francisco, naturally, he wanted to build on what he’d seen and done in the scheme. Which made O’Connell’s offense in Minnesota a very natural next landing spot.

And, if he can win the job in Minnesota, it does set Darnold up to do what his ex-teammate Mayfield did with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, or what his fellow ex-Jet Smith has done in Seattle.

“I’m so happy for those guys and the success that they’ve been able to have later in their career,” Darnold said. “I think obviously, going through what I did, it is what it is. In some respects, it’ll help me down the line. Not sure exactly when or how, but I know it will definitely help me at some point.”

Don’t be surprised if we’ve arrived at that point. Which, by the way, at least would give the Vikings a little more flexibility to be patient with McCarthy.

---

Goff on Campbell as a head coach: “The best I’ve ever been around. I don’t think you can teach it. I think he’s just got it." / Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

You saw a Detroit Lions player in a fight last week during joint practices with the New York Giants, but it was how they didn’t fight when I was in Detroit that got my attention. The first circumstance came after wide receiver Malik Nabers gave corner Kirby Joseph a head slap after a play. The second wasn’t something I saw on a single play, but a few of them on my morning with the team.

If you’ve been around NFL training camp practices, you get a feel for these things.

There are certain collisions that happen, some by accident, where you almost know that the guy on the business end of things is going to spring to his feet and square up before it happens. It’s a physical game. It happens. And, yet, on a day that was heavy on full-go scrimmaging in Detroit, I saw a bunch of those hits, and no nonsense after them. Guys would get up, pat each other on the butt, and keep it moving.

Now, to be clear, there are circumstances where players should fight. I don’t, for example, blame anyone in a Detroit jersey for rushing to get Joseph’s back after Nabers took his shot. Conversely, there are times where fights are simply a product of teams being in camp, and it being hot, and frustration boiling over. And faced with those sorts of situations, the Lions stayed steady, and never let the temperature turn up to that point.

That, to me, is a team that knows how to practice, and it flies in the face of the idea that Detroit is anything but a mature, smart, professional group—don’t let the bitten kneecaps or up-downs fool you. It also reflects the emotional intelligence of a head coach who doesn’t mind if everyone thinks he’s a meathead, when he’s actually the smartest guy in the room, a dynamic that’s now prominently reflected in his team. And it was on the day I was there.

"The best I’ve ever been around. I don’t think you can teach it. I think he’s just got it,” Jared Goff told me in a quiet moment after that practice on Dan Campbell’s emotional IQ. “All of our coaching staff will watch him in front of the room—he knows exactly when to push, exactly when to pull. Even sometimes when you’re like, Man, is that the right thing? A week later, you’re like, Man I’m glad he did that. He can see ahead better than a lot of guys. I’ve had many moments the last three years where he’s asked for more from me. I appreciate that.

“Then he’ll love me up when I do the right thing and make me feel good. I know he does all of that for everybody. He has such a great feel for who needs what, and I would say that’s coaching staff, that’s players, all the way, top to bottom. He’s a very special kind of human, and I don’t think you can teach that.”

To me, that sets the Lions up to handle the outsized expectations they’re facing. We’ll have more on that from Detroit soon on the site.

---

What Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski did this offseason with his offensive staff shows something some coaches don’t want to admit to themselves—he doesn’t have all the answers. And I think it’s a credit to the 42-year-old, now going into his fifth year in charge, that he’s doing things this way.

In a way, it’s analogous to what Sean McVay did with his Los Angeles Rams staff last year, when he plucked two coaches (Nick Caley and Ryan Wendell) from the New England Patriots tree, and another (Mike LaFleur) who was on the ground floor of Kyle Shanahan’s build in San Francisco.

McVay wanted to diversify his offense (it worked), which is exactly what Stefanski wants to do in Cleveland in 2024. So he brought Ken Dorsey in from the Buffalo Bills, with Dorsey bringing his background from Brian Daboll’s Patriot-centric scheme, and Andy Dickerson to be line coach from Seattle and, before that, McVay’s Rams. He also poached Duce Staley from Campbell’s Detroit staff, and Tommy Rees from the college game.

“We’re always looking to get better,” Stefanski told me after Tuesday’s practice. “We’ve played some good offense. I don’t know that we’ve played great offense. And bringing in coach Dorse, Duce Staley, Andy Dickerson, Roy Istvan, Tommy Rees, we have a bunch of new coaches that allowed us going into the 2024 season to look at everything with a fresh set of eyes. All of those decisions back in January and February and March were leading up to, What do we want this team to look like in September?

“So I say all of that to say, there’s so much offense out there, you can do a thousand things, but we said, What can we hone in on, what are the things that Dorse brings from his background, things we can bring in here, things our new coaches have done, what can we do to put a system together that really fits our guys? What you gotta fight is you can’t put in everything, because then you have nothing. It all comes back to, what do you want to hang your hat on, and then how do you install it, how do you practice it, to get really good at it?”

That, of course, is a challenge. But, clearly, how these moves will be judged will largely hinge on how Deshaun Watson plays in his third season, and second full season, as the starting quarterback. He was suspended for most of 2022, and hurt for most of ’23, and Cleveland made the playoffs last year without him. So the pressure is not just on Watson, but on everyone there to show that he was worth the haul that the Browns gave up to get him.

And this is where I’m intrigued by Stefanski’s hires. As I’ve heard it, Dorsey’s injected really good new ideas into the RPO and shotgun-dropback elements of the Browns offense, while also incorporating more tempo into what they’re doing. All of those things go back to what Watson’s done well in the past, and you can link Dorsey’s background to Watson’s best days playing for Bill O’Brien with the Houston Texans.

Add to that what Dickerson brings from the Seahawks and Rams run games, what Roy Istvan can inject as assistant line coach after working for Jeff Stoutland in Philly, and what Staley has coming over from Detroit, and Stefanski’s giving his team a lot of new levers to pull.

Like he said, the trick will be finding the right ones by the time the season starts.

“It’s absolutely a process, and that’s our job, to find out what best fits our guys,” Stefanski added. “And you leave a lot of good ideas on the cutting-room floor.”

Of course, it’s tough to know now if the good ideas that don’t wind up there will work. But I’d say Stefanski deserves credit for leaving his own comfort zone to seek them out.

---

I think San Francisco can get a deal done with Brandon Aiyuk. The NFC champions are a lot of things, but dumb is not one of them. The Niners knew what they were doing when they gave Aiyuk the chance to go shop himself to other teams. Their bet, on a player they’ve really wanted to keep, was simple—it’d be tough to find a team with football circumstances nearly as good as the ones he already has willing to offer him what he wants.

Thus far, it looks like San Francisco was right.

The Patriots offered a deal in excess of $30 million per year. New England also has a rookie head coach, rookie quarterback, and sits on the other side of the country from where Aiyuk grew up, went to college, and has played as a pro. The Steelers’ offer was around $28 million per year that several other receivers (DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle, Amon-Ra St. Brown) got this offseason. They’re stable, with a Super Bowl-winning head coach, but haven’t won at the level the Niners have of late, and don’t have geographic appeal, either.

So San Francisco, which last moved in the contract negotiation back in May, is in position to strike a deal with a guy they’d like to pair over the long-term with Purdy, George Kittle in his 30s, and the football odometer starting to run high on the bodies of Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel. Things have gotten quiet the past couple of days, an indication that the Niners have finally moved off the spot they occupied in May.

The question then becomes, to me, is whether they can meet Aiyuk’s number, and feel like all that he’s gone through to get here is worth it—because the last thing you’d want is to have is a player who believes he’s been squeezed by the team.

If San Francisco pulls if off, don’t be surprised. Shanahan, GM John Lynch and cap-side mastermind Paraag Marathe went down this road with Samuel and Nick Bosa the past two years. That’s why my guess would be that they find a way out out a deal with another star player. Again.

---

Nix led the Broncos on four scoring drives against the Colts on Sunday. / Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

My impressions on the rookie quarterbacks starts with Bo Nix’s debut in Indianapolis. The Denver Broncos’ first-rounder was 15-of-21 passing for 125 yards, a touchdown and a 102.3 passer rating. All four of his Denver possessions resulted in points. And the poise and presence he played with bolstered the idea that on-task experience in college—he started an NCAA-record 61 games at the major-conference level—indeed equates to NFL readiness.

So how real was what we saw?

Well, talking to Indianapolis Colts’ folks faced with Nix on this particular afternoon, I know they saw a guy who threw it well when he was in rhythm, did a good job creating with his legs when needed, showed really nice speed, and looked ready for the stage (even if he was a bit jumpy in the pocket at times). In other words, if you came in thinking he’d start, you probably weren’t moved off your spot much Sunday.

Here are a few nuggets on the other guys …

• A couple of Bills guys I talked to were pretty impressed with what they were faced with in Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams—one went so far as to call him “the real deal.” In particular, his command in the huddle, pocket awareness, poise, accuracy and instincts stood out to them, which showed both growth, and that pieces of his collegiate game are translating quickly.

• The reviews from the Jets on what they were faced with in Washington Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels were similar. His athletic traits are rare, but everyone knew that. What the Jets could see beyond that was poise, an ability to process fast, and deep-ball accuracy (check out his throw to Dyami Brown). The big question from there will be whether the Commanders can protect him, given their tackle situation.

• We didn’t see enough from Patriots rookie Drake Maye to get much of an impression. The coaches didn’t want to put him out there with the second offensive line, which is understandable. The plan is to play him a lot more this week against the Philadelphia Eagles with the teams’ Tuesday joint practice providing New England the opportunity to ramp him up.

• The Atlanta Falcons got a solid performance from Michael Penix Jr. Outside of a few missed connections resulting from his timing being a bit off with his receivers, Penix showcased his down-the-field accuracy and ran a really clean operation with the poise of a guy who was a multi-year starter in both the Big Ten and the Pac-12. (For what it’s worth, I did talk with someone on the other side that didn’t feel like Penix looked very dynamic talent-wise.)

• We touched on McCarthy earlier—but Raiders folks thought he played really well against them. In particular, his athleticism and decisiveness stood out, good signs since the biggest questions facing the 10th pick in April’s NFL draft concerned how he’d look outside a Michigan scheme that leaned heavy on a dominant run game.

So all the way around, a good start for the Class of 2024.

---

I do have a few odds and ends from my travels last week. Here they are …

• If Anthony Richardson and Jonathan Taylor can stay healthy, the run game in Indianapolis those two will spearhead has a shot to be a real headache—especially when an improving receiver group (Michael Pittman Jr., Alec Pierce, Adonai Mitchell and Josh Downs when he gets healthy) can make you pay downfield. Remember, we only saw Richardson and Taylor on the field together for two snaps last year.

• It’s rare that an offensive lineman is the buzz at training camp, but I’d say that was the case in Cincinnati—where Amarius Mims’s name was raised by everyone I talked to. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t start, and the reason the Bengals saw this coming, despite Mims having just eight college starts, is interesting, too. Their scouts told the coaches that any issue there would be mitigated by Georgia’s game-like practices, and how the talent on that practice field was often better than what opponents threw at the Bulldogs.

• I think Browns receiver Elijah Moore might be a surprise 100-catch guy. He’s had a really good camp, and his feel and football IQ make him a nice fit for Dorsey, whose offense is very friendly to slot receivers.

• It was a shame to see Marquise “Hollywood” Brown go down. He and first-round pick Xavier Worthy had created a dynamic for the Kansas City Chiefs where it looked like they’d not just make plays down the field working together, but also clear space for Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice to work after the catch underneath. We’ll see how fast Brown gets back out there.

• I think Jonathan Greenard will have a very big year playing for DC Brian Flores in Minnesota. Which would be pretty huge for the team, considering the production they’ll be replacing with Danielle Hunter off to Houston.

---

Jones on the Lamb negotiations: “Now I understand completely the angst that’s happening when you’re anxious about it and someone says anything about whether you’re missed or not. Well, CeeDee, you’re missed, O.K.?” / Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

 I can’t imagine the Dallas Cowboys not getting a deal done with CeeDee Lamb. But Jerry Jones’s frustration with the situation has shown a bit this week. First, he said that there wasn’t any urgency to get a Lamb extension over the goal line. Then, on the team’s pregame show Sunday, he walked that back.

“Now I understand completely the angst that’s happening when you’re anxious about it and someone says anything about whether you’re missed or not. Well, CeeDee, you’re missed, O.K.?” Jones said. “But you’re not missed out here competing and it doesn’t put any pressure any place on us.”

So, essentially, Jones is telling Lamb that the Cowboys are comfortable with where they are in the negotiation. Really, the problem here is similar to the problem in the Aiyuk talks, which is that Justin Jefferson’s deal is sitting out there a full 25% ahead of the other deals done by young receivers this offseason.

Which is to say all of this negotiation is hard enough for everyone involved without the background noise that seems to have engulfed it.

---

There was one thing from HBO’s Hard Knocks that I really liked—and that was Nick Saban’s advice to Matt Eberflus on handling rookie quarterbacks. Saban, for those who don’t know, coached Eberflus, then a star college linebacker at Toledo in 1990. So Chicago was a natural camp stop for the Alabama legend in his first summer out of coaching, and we’re all the beneficiaries of getting a glimpse into how Saban imparts wisdom on his proteges.

“Here’s my theory on why NFL quarterbacks fail at such a dramatic rate—to me, expectations are a killer,” Saban told Eberflus. “This kid you got, this kid’s got so much media, so much hype, so much expectation on doing well. And he has to develop so quickly to meet the expectations that everybody has for him. It’s almost impossible. The expectations are a killer, but yet, to use your word, development is the key for him.

“Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions when he was a rookie. It’s the most in the history of football. But it didn’t affect him. It’s like the scoreboard. The scoreboard doesn’t mean anything until the game is over.”

The words of wisdom reminded me of what Saban told the Falcons in 2011, before they traded up to get Alabama star Julio Jones—he called his receiver “unaffected.” It was, as Saban saw it, high praise. It meant Saban saw Jones as someone so steady that no outside factor, positive or negative, would affect his preparation, process or performance.

I think Williams has that trait, too. In fact, I talked to him about it last week, and we’ll tell you about that conversation soon (sorry, yes, that’s another tease.

---

Burrow passes for 51 yards and a touchdown against the Buccaneers on Saturday night. / Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

And, finally, here are my quick-hitters to wrap up the week …

• The Niners did want a player that could help them now in any deal for Aiyuk—they asked Cleveland for Amari Cooper and New England for Kendrick Bourne. What’s interesting is that the Steelers really didn’t want to put a player in any offer, which probably says something about how they see their roster.

• Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is really starting to look like himself again. I saw it at practice last week. Everyone saw it in the game Saturday night. Cincinnati has reason to be excited.

• How little the Michigan stuff moved the NFL needle this week really is a sign of how toothless the NCAA has become with the pros. NFL owners and the league office have always tried to take care of college football—because the health of college football is good for the NFL. But the handling of NCAA matters has become a separate thing all together.

• I don’t agree with a lot of things Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker said. But I do respect his willingness to stand up there and answer questions, and speak truthfully on it, which he did the other day. We don’t have to agree on everything.

• Justin Fields’s Pittsburgh debut didn’t go as well as his practice work with the team. We’ll see what happens when he gets another shot at it against the Bills on Saturday.

• One of my favorite notes from camp: Jon Gruden stayed four nights with the Chiefs, and crashed in the dorms with the staff at Missouri Western State in St. Joseph, Mo. You can say a lot of things about Gruden, but you can’t say he doesn’t love football.

• The throw C.J. Stroud made to Tank Dell over the weekend for a touchdown was another one of those making-hard-things-look-easy throws we’ve seen over and over again from the Texans’ franchise quarterback. I’d be surprised if he’s not in the mix for league MVP.

• Good for Stetson Bennett. The Rams’ second-year man threw four picks against Dallas on Sunday, and somehow collected himself to, in the final seconds, scramble and buy time to make a sidearm, game-winning throw to Miller Forristall to give LA a 13–12 win.

• Irrelevant note: Forristall was supposed to be his high school’s starting quarterback as a junior, having waited his turn to get the job. A freshman arriving at Cartersville (Ga.) High that summer had other ideas. That freshman was Trevor Lawrence, who would go on to start 86 of 90 games in high school and college.

• Seeing JuJu Smith-Schuster cut despite having $7 million fully guaranteed for this year was a good reminder of how fleeting football stardom can be. Smith-Schuster once had a 1,426-yard season, and doesn’t turn 28 until November, yet injuries have taken their toll on his NFL career. Here’s hoping he finds good health and happiness, whether football is part of that equation.