Matthew Coller: Darnold clicking with Jefferson, McCarthy learning from ups and downs

Wednesday's practice saw the veteran thrive with his superstar wide receiver.

Sam Darnold / Minnesota Vikings

EAGAN — On three separate occasions during Wednesday’s practice, Sam Darnold and Justin Jefferson connected on plays that could best be described as: Wow.

The first came in a red zone drill when Darnold escaped the pocket and fired a pass into traffic. Jefferson went down to the ground to make the catch for a touchdown. Later in the practice, Darnold dropped a fade route in the bucket about 30 yards downfield to Jefferson, who was running free from the defense. And then in the latter part of the workout, the All-Pro receiver shook off a defender to make a back-shoulder reception that would have made every highlight show.

Over the last four times they have practiced together, Darnold and Jefferson have put on a show for onlookers, particularly on downfield passes. .

“It’s been something that I’ve worked on the last couple years,” Darnold said of his downfield passing game. “I feel like early on in my career the first few years haven’t been as accurate as I wanted to be. It’s been a point of emphasis for me in the offseason to get better at that. It’s good to be able to make progress that way.”

The chemistry between Darnold and Jefferson appears to be growing by the day, which has resulted in the 27-year-old QB running the offense confidently on a consistent basis. The more confident he looks, the more likely it seems that he will be the starter in Week 1 against the New York Giants. Darnold took all of the 11-on-11 reps during Tuesday and Wednesday’s practices and every pass directed at Justin Jefferson during full-team work during camp has come from Darnold.

Regardless of whether Darnold plays or not in the preseason matchup on Saturday against the Raiders, the toughest test of his training camp will come next week when the Vikings travel to Cleveland for two joint practices against one of the most difficult defenses in the NFL.

If he continues to roll along the way he has recently against a stout Brian Flores defense, then the conversation will shift from whether he’s starting to the potential upside for this season. Since the middle of last week Darnold has looked much closer in practice to the QB who won four of his last six games in Carolina and played well in one start for San Francisco than the one who went 17-32 to start his career.

It will be worth watching whether head coach Kevin O’Connell shifts snap counts as we get closer to the start of the season. During camp so far there has been a fairly even count between Darnold and rookie JJ McCarthy, with both QBs getting chances to operate two-minute drills and practice against the first and second-team defenses. Will McCarthy see work with the first team in order to see how he compares to Darnold before they make a decision on Week 1 or will McCarthy’s reps be reduced so Darnold can prep for the beginning of the season?

“It’s unique how you’ve got four guys in that room in totally different places in their quarterback journey, but yet all running the same offense, learning the same plays, some with experience, some with none in the system,” O’Connell said on Tuesday.

Darnold’s surge during the dog days of camp has mostly been paired with McCarthy looking like he is gaining more and more comfort in the offense all the time.

He said that he’s been most happy with the way he’s bounced back after tough practices.

“I think the thing I've been most proud of is that one bad day I had, it wasn't an ideal outcome day, but I learned so much in that day and then I came out the next day and had a really solid performance,” McCarthy said. “So just being able to not be on an emotional rollercoaster, be the same person every single day, because that's what being a quarterback in this league is all about.”

Wednesday’s practice will be another that he will need to learn from and come back strong on Thursday and in Saturday’s preseason game against the Raiders. McCarthy had a few plays where he took “sacks,” struggled to connect with receivers in red zone work including an interception to safety Bobby McCain in the end zone and he nearly getting picked off by Theo Jackson during 11-on-11 drills.

McCarthy said when he does have a tough practice he tries to gain something from it in the moment and when he watches back to see what went wrong.

“I feel like the instant learning is what I've been getting the most just because of how great our coaches are,” McCarthy said. “They're always right on it every time and hit it right on the head. That little debrief later on is just me watching film again. There's definitely a multiprocess to that learning experience.”

After days and days of practicing against Flores’ difficult defense McCarthy joked that he was going to be happy going against vanilla preseason defenses. As far as what he’s focusing on for Saturday, McCarthy said:

“All the little details, all the little intricacies that go into each and every rep show up on game day. When there’s a lot of noise and there’s a crowd, just being able to lock in to the level of my training that I’ve been doing on a consistent basis since I got here. And to be able to do it when the time matters.”

O’Connell said earlier in the week that he would announce Thursday the plan at QB for Saturday’s game.

QBs on the move

Both Darnold and McCarthy have made exceptional plays while scrambling or rolling out during camp thus far. That’s something we haven’t seen in a long time in camp as Kirk Cousins was not known for his playmaking when things broke down. O’Connell talked about the value of his QBs being able to make something happen outside of structure and how they balance practicing that during camp versus wanting to play within the scheme.

“The benefit of these guys having that skillset is that either by… bad play call that I got or great call by Flo, the best scenario could either be a scramble or chance to make a playoff schedule or throw away and save the down, those guys have demonstrated the ability to do both with their athleticism,” O’Connell said. “Still remaining passers as they get outside the pocket and attack… I love seeing it, I love seeing out guys at the receiver, tight-end, back position, have to really understand that these plays are going to come to life.”

McCarthy said:

“That’s the beauty of this position. You see the great quarterbacks who are able to find that balance between when to make a play, when to stay on time in rhythm, and that’s something that I’m working toward every single day. Coach O’Connell, obviously giving great advice on when to do so and when not to, and just overall feeling out this league and the speed of it and understanding that I have to throw this with anticipation here instead of, ‘I could get out of here and try to see if something develops later on,’ so just working to find that balance every single day.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES

— Jonathan Greenard did not participate in practice, Aaron Jones appeared to be taking a vet day.

— Kene Nwangwu has received a lot of work in the backfield leading up to the beginning of the preseason. It seems he’s getting a chance to show the coaches he can be quality depth there as well as kick returning.

— Matt Daniels said that he plans to rotate the punters Ryan Wright and Seth Vernon.

— Daniels said that he felt the Hall of Fame game was not a good representation of what the new kickoffs are going to look like when we get to the regular season.

— With Jerry Tillery out, Levi Drake Rodriguez has continued to get extensive looks with the 1s.

— Jeshaun Jones and Thayer Thomas both had strong practices. They should get extensive looks during the first preseason game.