Vikings Coach Makes Honest Admission About Aaron Rodgers, J.J. McCarthy

The Minnesota Vikings are moving forward with J.J. McCarthy after weeks of considering Aaron Rodgers‘ potential fit.

That was the prevailing media narrative for much of March, but the source of the information remained dubious at best until general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah confirmed that Rodgers had a dialogue with head coach Kevin O’Connell.

At the NFL Owners Meetings this week, O’Connell cleared the air.

Vikings Coach Kevin O’Connell Addresses Aaron Rodgers Rumors

Holding court with media in Palm Beach, Florida, O’Connell revealed that Rodgers reached out to him, but that does not mean there are any concerns about J.J. McCarthy.

Here’s O’Connell’s full statement, per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis:

Two things can be true at the same time. We took (J.J.) 10th in the draft last year after a very extensive evaluation process. A lot of things we hoped to see from him we saw in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, he got injured. We tried to maximize as much as we could his ‘redshirt’ year, while still making sure we were getting Sam Darnold and our other quarterbacks ready to play. I think J.J. was able to take some things out of that and be ready to go for the spring.

The second part of that can be true is Aaron Rodgers is a four-time NFL MVP, and somebody who we’ve all had so much respect for competing against him. And he happened to be at a point in time in his career, where he was free to have some real dialogue about what his future may look like. And we happened to be one of those teams he reached out to. I have had a personal relationship with him going back to my playing days. But yeah, so two things can be true.

Look, you guys know near and dear to my heart is the quarterback development process. I’m going to take a very, very personal role with J.J. amongst Josh and Wes and Jordan and all the guys we’re going to have working with him. But I do feel very strongly about where he’s at right now based upon the information we have, the evaluation process, the time we’ve had with him. I feel very good about projecting a really positive year for J.J., and now we’ve got to go to work and do it. Talking about it in March and April doesn’t do a whole lot.

Vikings Kept J.J. McCarthy Informed on Rodgers Conversations, O’Connell Says

O’Connell took the opportunity to build up McCarthy in his statement addressing the Rodgers rumors.

And while McCarthy is unproven until he plays, O’Connell’s words have already changed the tone of the outside conversations on the Vikings quarterback room.

Another important note that O’Connell mentioned was that McCarthy was kept in the know on the ongoing conversations with Rodgers, as he is on every free-agent decision,” according to Lewis.

“I do see him every day throughout the week, and I thought it was important that he was hearing it from me,” O’Connell said.