J.J. McCarthy Passes Vital Vikings Test

J.J. McCarthy is set to make his first regular-season appearance with the Minnesota Vikings after missing his entire rookie season due to an injury. He has spent this offseason throwing passes to and practicing with Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and others.

Although the 22-year-old was out of action, the coaching staff kept him involved in off-the-field activities. The Vikings' quarterback coach, Josh McCown, always had some task for McCarthy to keep him close to the gridiron.

McCown didn't want the former Michigan Wolverines QB to get out of sight like other players on injured reserve. So, the QB coach assigned McCarthy activities like noting down each of the Vikings' third-down plays.

"Something like that is a tedious job, but it helps you memorize," he said. "And then we'd steal moments when we would quiz him or ask him questions about it, just at random times when we could."

"We're mostly interacting with Sam and questioning Sam on plays, and you don't know what J.J. is taking in and what he's not taking in. But every now and then, it was, 'Hey J.J., what about this?' You try to engage him as if he's playing, and he was on top of it."

McCown and McCarthy mentally experienced things he would have done in practice. The Vikings' QB could always turn the information around, and McCown found this very encouraging.

McCarthy saw the positive side of these activities. He knew that if he worked on this stuff, he'd be able to use that time for preparation and game-plan studies when he returned to the pitch.

McCown even asked the youngster to present the studies to the team to see if he could give them back. The coaching staff wanted McCarthy to keep his mind oround football rather than just listen and learn.

"And that's what I told him. I was like, 'You got to take this time to prepare like you're the guy and figure out the things that you like and don't like about that preparation process that's going to help you get to where you need to go once you're in that seat someday.'" McCown said.

The Vikings quarterback coach dropped a positive verdict about McCarthy's growth last season.

"It's hard sometimes to know exactly how smart somebody is. What are they really going to be able to retain when they start loading a lot of information? And I think he's demonstrated that he's got pretty high-level intelligence and there's a lot there," he said.

Head coach Kevin O'Connell and quarterback coach McCown knew that McCarthy's injury made it impossible to teach him many things. But they tried their best to polish their long-term asset for the future.

With Sam Darnold gone, McCarthy has the opportunity to show his potential in, what would be, his rookie season in the NFL. O'Connell has helped many quarterbacks shine under his reign and McCarthy might be the next in line.