Kevin O'Connell on J.J. McCarthy: 'We've got our franchise quarterback'

McCarthy's regular season debut won't come this year, but KOC firmly believes the Vikings have found their guy.

Aug 10, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) warms up before the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium. / Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

J.J. McCarthy's rookie season has come to an end before it really had a chance to begin. The Vikings' No. 10 overall pick underwent a full meniscus repair surgery on Wednesday morning, knocking him out for the entirety of the 2024 campaign.

It's a brutal blow for the Vikings and for McCarthy, who was so impressive in his preseason debut against the Raiders on Saturday. But while speaking to the media on Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland, ahead of a joint practice session with the the Browns, head coach Kevin O'Connell tried to focus on the positives. O'Connell is crushed for McCarthy, but he firmly believes this is just a temporary delay in the 21-year-old's progress towards becoming an excellent NFL QB.

Based on everything he's seen in the nearly four months since the Vikings drafted McCarthy, O'Connell is confident the franchise has found its long-term answer at the game's most important position.

"As our fans either have already come to find out or will in the future, this guy is so motivated and so dialed in," O'Connell said. "As excited as I was to draft him, he's confirmed everything that I hoped to see. Our fan base and everyone should be excited about the fact that we've got our young franchise quarterback in the building."

"Now it's about the unique aspect of continuing a very critical development process for him, where maybe the physical reps aren't going to be there in the short term," O'Connell continued. "This is going to be a small bump in the road. Other quarterbacks in our league have gone through similar things early on in their journey and came back stronger and better than ever, and I know that is going to happen for J.J."

The Vikings were thrilled to select McCarthy back in April, moving up one spot from the 11th pick to ensure that they landed Michigan's national championship-winning quarterback. They believed in both his physical tools and his overall makeup — the way he works to get better, understands football, and carries himself off the field. All of that has only been verified by the way he's conducted himself this offseason and shown rapid growth in a short period of time.

"There is no question in my mind, the physical talent that J.J. has," O'Connell said. "Even just, (if) you saw him day one back in the spring until Saturday night, the transformation of a really good player (who) had really started to look like an NFL quarterback. Just the work he puts in and the commitment to every aspect of the organic way he's learning how to play quarterback in the National Football League. J.J.'s confirmed to me and a lot of our coaches and players that we've got the right guy in the building for the future."

That's what makes this news so tough to swallow for O'Connell and the Vikings. He was having so much fun coaching McCarthy and watching his development, and now that has to get put on hold to some extent. This year is suddenly about immersing McCarthy in film study and mental reps as much as possible so that he can hit the ground running next offseason.

But O'Connell wants to make something clear: The optimism fans were feeling about McCarthy shouldn't go away. He still has a very bright future as the Vikings' quarterback once he gets over this hump.

"I would not stand up here and tell you that a lot of boxes have been checked in my mind and in J.J.'s mind if that was not true," O'Connell said. "Now he just has to work through this process so that when his time does come, he's healthy and he gets to take the reins of this thing."

This kind of thing always seems to happen to the Vikings, doesn't it?

Matthew Coller: McCarthy's surgery is a setback but shouldn't change Vikings' future outlook