The good and bad of J.J. McCarthy at Vikings training camp

EAGAN, Minn. — If there is anyone inside the Minnesota Vikings organization with a license to speak freely about J.J. McCarthyit’s Justin Jefferson. The team’s star receiver spent the offseason working with his new quarterback, hanging out with him on and off the field, and Jefferson’s genial public nature allows him to make frank judgments without disturbing the peace in the locker room.

So it was worth noting how Jefferson assessed McCarthy as training camp began last week. His words have proved prophetic.

“You definitely have to have patience,” Jefferson said. “He’s pretty much a rookie. Last year pretty much doesn’t count for him. He’s still new to the scheme, new to coming out here and throwing to these different receivers. So you have to have that patience.

“You’re not really expected to have that same mindset as a veteran. You can’t really have that expectation from him. But we do have the expectation of him being great, coming out here every single day, working his butt off and progressing every single day.”

The Vikings took extensive action last year to minimize the impact of what otherwise would have been a lost year after McCarthy suffered a season-ending torn meniscus in his right knee, four months after the Vikings made him the No. 10 pick in the 2024 draft. They gave him access to audio and video feeds from practice, quizzed him on game plans, assigned him research projects and arranged for weekly meetings with coach Kevin O’Connell.

But there is no substitute for time on the field, and McCarthy’s uneven start to training camp has required more patience than some might have expected. He opened camp with a series of concern-free practices during the NFL-mandated acclimation period, leading efficient drills and making accurate throws in full team settings, even after Jefferson was sidelined by a strained left hamstring.

Once the pads came on, however, McCarthy and the entire Vikings offense have struggled to move the ball. During one eight-play sequence of starters versus starters, the offense gained positive yards only once.

Working against a defense that has unleashed its full arsenal of blitzes and coverage disguises, McCarthy’s accuracy has been inconsistent, particularly in the red zone. He has led receivers out of bounds and thrown high to a number of open targets running along the back line.

At one point during a meeting with reporters Friday, O’Connell felt compelled to look up and say: “The sky has not fallen, so it’s all good.”

McCarthy acknowledged that one of his camp goals has been to regain the touch on passes that he believes he lost during his long injury layoff, and he said this week that he appreciates that training camp can be a setting to run plays — and potentially fail — with “no consequences to it.” The goal is “constant improvement, learning every single day,” he said.

“And when the periods don’t go your way,” he added, “you’re always asking why. It’s never a loss, and you’re always learning from it, good or bad, but especially those periods where they really get you. I feel like that’s where we can learn the most about ourselves in our offense and identity.”

By all accounts, McCarthy is not swimming from a mental perspective, as might be expect from a true rookie. He knows the scheme and understands more about his receivers’ preferences than a quarterback in his first NFL camp. It might sound simple, but Jefferson emphasized McCarthy’s confidence in calling the play in the huddle — an important sign of whether a quarterback has assimilated the various parts of a scheme.

“I feel like just talking with J.J.,” Jefferson said, “and being his locker mate, I feel like he definitely has this head on straight, and he has that confidence to go out there and perform each week.”

Newcomers such as center Ryan Kelly also have appeared reassured. Kelly played golf with McCarthy in the offseason and went out to dinner with him and said he has been impressed with “the way he carries himself” at 22 years old.

“If you have that at [22],” Kelly said, “that’s our guy. You rally around that because you know that he’s doing everything he can to be successful.”

The latest McCarthy-Addison connection. (Versus backups.) The incompletion to Jalen Nailor that I posted about earlier (great throw, should have been caught, Murphy Jr. in coverage) was vs. starters.

pic.twitter.com/wFwputQSqg

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) July 26, 2025

But the next step, and perhaps the most difficult, is performing in game-like conditions — which in Minnesota comes with unique defensive looks from coordinator Brian Flores’ scheme.

There has been a natural tension in Vikings training camp ever since Flores arrived in 2023, largely because his combination of blitz packages and coverage schemes are different from almost every NFL team. Former quarterback Kirk Cousins once bemoaned what he said was in essence an unequal matchup with an offense that was preparing to face more traditional schemes.

So O’Connell had little time for questions about why, on a four-play sequence during Monday’s full-pads practice, McCarthy held the ball twice without throwing before the whistle blew.

“Those are called sacks,” O’Connell said, before suggesting that no quarterback would have much of a chance when pass rushers are converging before he has finished his drop.

“Your job is to just fight through the down with the possession of football,” O’Connell said, “and not allow the defense to take that away and possibly catastrophically change the end of a half there.”

Asked Friday how he is judging McCarthy in the context of the defense’s pressure, O’Connell pivoted to their post-play conversations. In particular, he noted a play from Wednesday’s practice during a two-minute drill, in which McCarthy tried to throw across his body to running back Aaron Jones Sr., nearly leading to an interception by linebacker Blake Cashman.

Mimicking their conversation, O’Connell said: “‘Did you understand that when you’re in a two-minute drive, when we’re right at midfield — potentially throwing the ball back in the middle of the field on first-and-10 — that you can maybe just use your legs and get five or six [yards]?’ That’s what I care about.”

“Those are the things that I’ve really enjoyed and really seen him grow,” O’Connell added. “But at the same time, he’s a competitive sucker now. He wants to win every drill and win every day, and it’s kind of my job to try to bring a complete feel to everything that we’re doing.”

During the red zone drills, however, Flores does not blitz. On those occasions, McCarthy made his share of accurate throws but also missed often enough to be noticed. Twice, his throws took receiver Jordan Addison out of bounds before he could make the catch. He threw high to tight end Josh Oliver underneath the goal post on Monday, and then on Wednesday threw too far out in front of receiver Jalen Nailor.

Asked midweek about some of those passes, McCarthy said he was “missing by inches.”

“That’s what happens when you’re down in the red zone,” he said. “You’ve got to be detail-oriented and really specific with where you’re putting the ball. But there was a lot of good things on tape, and at the end of the day, those concepts are going to be crucial when we get down there. Just the rhythm and timing of everything. So, just more great reps to put under my belt and the rest of the guys.”

In all, McCarthy estimated that he and the offense are improving by about 2% in every practice. On some days, however, the lessons have been more difficult than on others.