The Minnesota Vikings received devastating news earlier this week, when it was revealed that rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy suffered a knee injury that would require surgery. The bad news was compounded on Wednesday, when the team announced McCarthy would be sidelined for the entire season after surgery to repair a torn meniscus.
The news comes right on the heels of the Vikings’ first preseason game, in which McCarthy saw his first live action for the Vikings, and looked good for a rookie getting his first introduction to the NFL. There were some obvious things that he needed to work on, but he looked sharp and appeared to have a rapport with several receivers. All very encouraging signs at this point in his young career.
It’s those signs and more that has Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell confident the Vikings made the right choice in the 2024 NFL Draft to take McCarthy. O’Connell spoke with the press on Wednesday after the team’s joint practice with the Cleveland Browns, saying:
“I really believe that J.J. (McCarthy) has kind of confirmed to me and a lot of our coaches and players that we got the right guy in the building for the future,” O’Connell said. “And he did it in a short amount of time. That’s what makes this news hard. Because you know just how exciting it would have been as a daily, minute-to-minute process moving forward. But I think that optimism should be felt by anybody in our building and hopefully our fans.”
The Vikings were going to draft a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft, it was just a matter of which one. While there was ample debate among fans and the media, the Vikings were confident in McCarthy when they brought him in for a pre-draft workout. That confidence resulted in the Vikings trading up one spot to take McCarthy with the 10th pick.
Fans will have to wait another year for McCarthy to make his regular season debut with the team, but he showed some encouraging signs in his first preseason action, and he has the full confidence of the coaching staff. It’ll be a long wait, but O’Connell and crew are confident it will all be worth it in the end.