Matthew Coller: J.J. McCarthy is following the path the Vikings' staff has paved

The rookie quarterback talked about his progress and buying into Kevin O'Connell's plan for his development...

J.J. McCarthy / Image courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

EAGAN — Does your brain also turn off when you hear the phrase, “trust the process?”

It has been uttered so many times by athletes, coaches and executives at this point that it’s reached the Mount Rushmore of sports cliches right next to “one game at a time.”

But sometimes cliches are simply true. JJ McCarthy is trusting the Minnesota Vikings’ process for bringing him along in his first NFL training camp.

“Coach O’Connell’s main mantra for this year is: ‘The process is the progress,’” McCarthy said during his first press conference of camp on Friday. “I’m not focused on the outcomes of each day, I’m focused on learning how to get better.”

Since drafting McCarthy with the 10th overall pick, head coach Kevin O’Connell has made it clear that he does not want the former Michigan star QB to play before he’s ready. Through three practices McCarthy hasn’t taken any first-team reps. Veteran Sam Darnold remains QB1 while McCarthy has worked with the second team. The young QB said that he is completely buying into the plan, even if it means that Darnold gets all the crowd-pleasing camp throws to Justin Jefferson for now.

“I’m somebody who went through a similar situation at Michigan when I first came in and understanding that trusting the process, especially when you have somebody like coach O’Connell handling the process, is huge for my development,” McCarthy said.

The process is much more complex than making McCarthy wait his turn behind Darnold. He has to master all the elements of O’Connell’s offense, which proved to be difficult on Kirk Cousins during his first training camp in 2022. When McCarthy put on his Vikings helmet for the first time in OTAs, he realized that the degree of difficult skyrockets at the NFL level. Simple things like relaying the play call take a lot of work to lock in.

“Being around this building, my confidence in this offense is growing exponentially. In OTAs it was very hard for me to get out a play call,” McCarthy said. “Everyone thinks they can play quarterback but try getting out of the huddle. That was my biggest goal coming into camp was to be able to hear it one time and regurgitate it to the guys with confidence. I’ve been doing it so far.”

McCarthy stuck to his plan to remain in Minnesota for the summer to give himself a chance to hit the ground running at the start of camp. He worked out with Adam Thielen, who is familiar with the offense. He was able to call plays and get feedback from a receiver’s perspective from Thielen on different routes.

Now that he’s on the field at TCO Performance Center, McCarthy is working to connect all the dots. Footwork, reads, protections, defenses. He gave an example of a play where he threw a completion but he wasn’t decisive enough about where the ball was going and it came out of his hand without the ideal velocity.

Not that there hasn’t been velocity. McCarthy’s first two practices have featured high speed throws, two of which were highlight-reel worthy during Thursday’s practice.

Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said that the coaching staff has taken notice of McCarthy’s summer grind because he has made progress from where they left off in the spring.

“Some of the work that he put in over the summer you can tell there is a comfort level with some of the things we’re asking him to do, not just with footwork but where his eyes are at the acceptance of the snap… throwing off plant, throwing off hitch on certain concepts,” Phillips said. “There’s a lot of details that he’s getting comfortable with and the more comfortable you are the less you’re thinking about footwork and technique and the more you can just see his arm talent.”

The Vikings staff is in the precarious position of trying to give Darnold all the practice snaps that he needs in order to start Week 1 if needed and build comfort and chemistry with his new teammates while also giving McCarthy the opportunity to either win the job or feel like he’s improved by leaps and bounds by the end of camp.

“It can be a challenge in the situation we’re in,” Phillips said. “You want to give a young guy some opportunities to grow. He has to make some mistakes, he has to have some opportunities to go in there and play with live bullets… we have a plan that we talk through every day…so far it has been pretty close as far as rep allocation.”

The other thing they are trying to juggle is how much to put on McCarthy’s plate versus being understanding of the fact that he threw the fewest passes and was the youngest quarterback in the draft.

“There’s a balance between pushing guys and being patient but at the quarterback position you are not going to be able to force him to get to where you want him to go,” Phillips said. “You do have to take some of the ups and downs at the position and there’s a lot of information to process and a lot of different things for those guys to remember. We like the way he’s developed so far. We like his progression. He’s spent a lot of time in the offseason working and has come back ready to go.”

What the Vikings don’t appear to be dealing with is any pressure from McCarthy. There wasn’t any campaigning for playing time at the podium and the rookie was far from delusional about what he needs to do in order to play. Everyone appears on the same page as we head toward pads coming on and camp really kicking into full gear.

“When the time comes, the time comes,” he said. “I’m training every single day so when the time comes I’m going to be ready.”

Additional notes

— Jordan Love ended his holdout with a four-year, $220 million contract. Certainly the full details won’t be as impressive as the total number but it acted as reminder of the ever-growing advantage that the Vikings have with McCarthy on a rookie contract.

— Shaq Griffin was not at practice after appearing to tweak something on Thursday. It did not look serious when it happened but we will soon get an update from O’Connell about his status.

— Mike Pettine ran practice on Friday with O’Connell, Brian Flores, Daronte Jones and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah attending Khyree Jackson’s funeral in Maryland. Dallas Turner, Jeshaun Jones and Taki Taimani were players who went as well. The team will have an event for Jackson’s family to meet the staff and teammates in Minnesota later in camp.