Matthew Coller: Why is JJ McCarthy facing the first-team defense?

Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips explained a quirk to JJ McCarthy's development.

Rookie QB J.J. McCarthy (9) throwing at Vikings rookie minicamp / Minnesota Vikings

EAGAN — J.J. McCarthy dropped back to pass, looked around for somewhere to throw the ball and before you could even say “10th overall pick,” the play was over. Josh Metellus isn’t allowed to deck McCarthy into next Tuesday but if Vikings practice on Wednesday had been a matchup with the Packers then he would have been sacked hard.

For many of McCarthy’s 11-on-11 reps in the two padded practices so far, Kevin O’Connell has pitted the rookie up against the first-team defense. That means facing off with proven NFL starters like Metellus, Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, Ivan Pace Jr. and Byron Murphy Jr.

If he was doing battle against those fellas with Christian Darrisaw, Brian O’Neill, Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison at his side, it would be a fair fight. Instead McCarthy is running the second team against that list of quality defenders.

Why isn’t it 2s versus 2s?

Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips explained that the goal is to better simulate game action for a player who has never played an NFL game before.

“I think it puts you in some situations where you play like you play really in the NFL against some muddy pockets, sometimes where you might have to escape, sometimes where you might have to find the checkdown maybe not in rhythm of the read because you’re trying to go through your read and sometimes the pocket collapses,” Phillips said.

The Vikings OC pointed out that the second-team offensive line having veteran players like David Quessenberry, Dan Feeney and Dalton Risner allows for McCarthy to still get reasonable pass protection but facing the first-team forces the young quarterback to see things quicker than if they were going up against the second-team defense. The idea is that when McCarthy does get behind O’Neill and Darrisaw and has receivers that get open quicker then it will feel easier. Almost like putting the donut weight on a baseball bat so it feels lighter at the plate.

“The processing might have to speed up a little bit and hopefully when you are in there with the first group then things slow down a little bit for you and you’re used to going up against a picked-up pace and a little more pressure at times,” Phillips said.

Schematically speaking, defensive coordinator Brian Flores isn’t one to take it easy on quarterbacks. In fact, he even frustrated veteran QB Kirk Cousins at times during last year’s training camp. The Vikings like seeing McCarthy get a chance to go up against all the things Flores can throw at QB rather than a dialed-back version.

“Flo might not make all of his calls with the 2s that he may call with the 1s,” Phillips said. “So you’re seeing some challenging looks as well.

Flores has been mixing up looks routinely versus the rookie. The Vikings’ DC has also had meetings with McCarthy to help him better understand how to analyze the defense pre and post snap.

“Hopefully the mix allows him to look at a defense, have an idea of what it is initially but there are always tells, there is always somebody who is giving it away and hopefully he can start to find who those guys are,” Flores said. “Whether it’s a tell on a safety that it’s cover-2 or a corner that it’s cover-3 or leverage that tells him it’s cover-1 or when that guy is blitzing he’s always looking [in the backfield]. There’s little things like that.”

McCarthy hasn’t exclusively faced the first team. When the Vikings do their two-minute drills, McCarthy takes on the second team defense. It’s been noticeably less difficult on him, as you might expect.

The final-drive simulations are particularly important when it comes to the young quarterback’s development.

“The one thing you want to see from the start — it’s the old John Wooden, ‘be quick but don’t hurry,’” Phillips said. “You don’t want to see a frantic group out there and it all starts with the quarterback. You want to see clear communication, guys getting to the line. The operation first and foremost, let alone the execution of all the plays.”

He continued…

“We have a whole menu of codes and code words and numbers that these guys have to remember across the board and you want to see a clean operation. And then, can we process what Flo and his defense are doing at a faster pace?”

All parts of McCarthy’s reps against the 1s and 2s were on display on Wednesday. On a number of reps, Flores’ defense did not allow for an easy in-rhythm throw and McCarthy was forced to scramble or check down. When he went up against the 2s in the final two-minute drill, he ripped a pass to Lucky Jackson along the sideline for a first down that was among his most impressive throws of camp.

It wasn’t clear from O’Connell’s discussion with the media on Tuesday when McCarthy will get with the 1s and get a few more resources against the first-team defense but the head coach thinks his work with the 2s vs. 1s will help him better work into the first-team offense eventually.

“He might not be out there with the [first-team] offense, but he's certainly seeing some of the things that will allow him to start phasing into getting into the huddle,” O’Connell said. “We're making it almost harder than it will be when he gets into that first group.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES

— Sam Darnold had a strong day overall after a tough first padded practice on Monday. He threw a long touchdown strike to tight end Johnny Mundt and found Jordan Addison downfield on a bootleg rollout. Darnold wasn’t able to convert on the two-minute drill, however.

— McCarthy had a good two-minute drill and threw another terrific pass in red zone drills to Lucky Jackson but his day overall was difficult vs. the first-team defense. He completed mostly underneath passes and had multiple times where he had to scramble or would have taken a sack.

— Robert Tonyan got injured with what ESPN’s Kevin Seifert is reporting was back spasms. No timetable at the moment.

— Fabian Moreau jumped right into the fray, playing first-team reps on his first day on the team. He mixed in with Akayleb Evans.

— Jay Ward remained at cornerback despite Moreau’s addition.