Tag: Josh McCown

Vikings working with J.J. McCarthy on his footwork heading into training camp

Despite being a high draft pick, teams will want to tweak players. For J.J. McCarthy, that means his footwork is getting touched up.

Despite being drafted high in the NFL draft, teams will want to tweak players. For J.J. McCarthy, that means his footwork is getting touched up.

According to a report from Will Ragatz of Sports Illustrated, the footwork of McCarthy is getting a slight change from what he did at Michigan.

“It’s notable that the Vikings are working with rookie QB J.J. McCarthy on a specific element of his footwork. They’re having start with his left foot forward when receiving snaps out of the shotgun, which is a change from what he did at Michigan.”

If you go back and watch what Michigan did with McCarthy during his college career, his footwork was as simple as keeping the feet even but shoulder-width apart. By getting him to start with one foot back he is able to complete his dropback quicker.

Getting those precious few tenths of a second allows for McCarthy to make a play before a defense is set or to be able to make a proper read. It’s simple but very effective.

Zulgad: J.J. McCarthy’s mistakes need to be accepted, part of the process

J.J. McCarthy is like any other rookie quarterback, he is going to have growing pains, and it is important to remain patient.

J.J. McCarthy’s every move on the football field will certainly be dissected. That’s a given. The question is just how much stock should we put into what we see or hear reported about the Minnesota Vikings’ first-round quarterback.

This came to mind after watching McCarthy participate in Organized Team Activities that were open to the media on Tuesday at the TCO Performance Center. I’m as guilty as the next person of keeping an eye on McCarthy.

I charted his passes in team and seven-on-seven drills and noted that he was working with non-first-teamers. McCarthy’s arm has been stronger than I thought, but his two incompletions were both thrown high, and there were times he looked to scramble because the play broke down around him.

Not surprisingly, scrolling through X in the days after that practice, I saw plenty of commentary on McCarthy’s performance, and a few aggregators took it upon themselves to emphasize the mistakes.

So what are we to make of this?

My suggestion: Nothing.

Like the rest of the world, sports fans and media are eager to pass judgment on what they see, and sometimes, that is the right call. But when it comes to McCarthy, it makes little sense to try to judge anything.

That doesn’t mean he should be ignored or that progress reports are a bad idea, but there’s a big difference between monitoring someone’s progress and judging it, and judgment on McCarthy is quite a ways off. It certainly can’t come during the Vikings’ offseason program.

McCarthy, 21, might have been the 10th pick in last month’s draft, but he also is a work in progress. The Vikings didn’t sign veteran Sam Darnold to be their long-term starter, but they are paying him $10 million on his one-year contract to have a starter in place so that they have the luxury of time when it comes to their young quarterback.

Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown have a plan for McCarthy that includes working to fix some of his mechanics. Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips, for instance, mentioned Tuesday the Vikings have McCarthy in a “left foot up stance, which is a little different for him.”

That might seem like a simple change to make in the shotgun, but for now, McCarthy has to think about it each time he sets up to take a snap.

Remember the draft experts’ criticisms of McCarthy’s throws at Michigan? O’Connell saw those, too, and now it’s his job to make sure McCarthy’s footwork and throwing motion enable him to change any troublesome tendencies. Coaching bad habits out of a quarterback isn’t easy because the natural thing is to go back to what you were comfortable doing when the pressure is coming. That can’t happen.

That’s not even getting into the fact that McCarthy is learning an NFL playbook for the first time. Kirk Cousins had played 10 NFL seasons in 2022 when he was first handed O’Connell’s playbook and later admitted to the system’s complexities.

O’Connell, a third-round pick by New England in 2008, knows all about the fine line between success and failure for a young quarterback, and he knows that many jobs depend on McCarthy ironing out any issues.

That means McCarthy will have moments in practices where his strong arm wows you and he will have moments where his failure to make the proper read, or set himself correctly, will raise eyebrows. At some point down the road, it will become fair to critique those moments. But, for now, McCarthy should be afforded the opportunity to make mistakes in the name of getting it right in the future.

That’s going to take time and patience. The Vikings appear willing to accept that, and the fanbase should be as well.

Zulgad: J.J. McCarthy gets his first ‘teachable’ moments under the eye of Kevin O’Connell

All quarterbacks go through ups and downs, but J.J. McCarthy gets the benefit of having the watchful eye of Kevin O’Connell.

The rosters for Friday’s first day of the Minnesota Vikings’ rookie minicamp included 45 players. The seven draft picks were joined by 17 undrafted free agents, 16 players receiving tryouts, and five with the Vikings last season.

No offense to 44 of those players, but only one of them was the focus. That’s what happens when you are considered a team’s quarterback of the future, and that’s the title that J.J. McCarthy holds after being selected with the 10th overall pick by the Vikings in last month’s draft.

Only one of the past three days was open to the media, which could be considered a dry run for what is to come for McCarthy this offseason. The Vikings’ organized team activities — which are optional but often draw a majority of the roster — begin later this month and will include veteran QB Sam Darnold taking much of the first-team work.

On Friday it was McCarthy and Parker McKinney, in a tryout deal out of Eastern Kentucky, taking snaps. McCarthy was the one getting frequent feedback as he worked under the watchful eyes of coach Kevin O’Connell, quarterbacks coach Josh McCown and offensive coordinator Wes Phillips.

The 21-year-old McCarthy, coming off leading Michigan to a national championship, exuded a confidence that spoke to his preparation for this day. “It didn’t feel like my first day,” he said. “I’ve been going over the offense for a long time now. So being able to (go) out there and perform and execute, that’s new, but it was nothing that was overwhelming or too much.”

McCarthy, who was introduced to portions of the Vikings offense in pre-draft meetings with O’Connell and others, took 16 snaps Friday that the Vikings hope will be significant one day, only because they will serve as a reminder of his first time on the field at TCO Performance Center. There were some passes with nice touch and others that fell incomplete. There also was a pass that undrafted linebacker K.J. Cloyd stepped in front of and returned for what would have been a pick-six.

“We’ll go in and watch the competitive reps in (7-on-7) that we had,” O’Connell said. “We’ll watch individuals and try to tie some teaching points. You know, ‘Was he open enough throwing to his left? Was he closed enough throwing to his right? What did you see here pre-snap that made you anticipate making that throw, or why didn’t you anticipate making that throw?’

“Then we try to tie it all together with our multiple views. Total learning environment. I know some folks may be keeping track of completions and interceptions and things like that. Too early for that conversation, I can tell you that much. But it’s all teachable.”

This would be true for all position groups on the field this weekend, but especially for McCarthy and fellow first-round pick Dallas Turner, who will be stepping in as one of the Vikings’ key edge rushers this season.

O’Connell is a straight shooter for an NFL coach, so when he wants to turn down the temperature on McCarthy he will say that, and when he’s asked about the approach to developing him, you are going to get a relatively abridged but honest answer.

There will be continued questions about when McCarthy might start, but O’Connell clearly sees this as a work in progress and not a race to get the rookie under center in an NFL game.

The weekend camp was part of that process.

“We’re keeping it pretty tight for right now as a group, but J.J. is getting a little bit more – you know, a little bit extra here and there, a little bit of stacking some things together for him,” O’Connell said. “So when Monday
comes around, that’s the way I’m kind of looking at this weekend. … (It’s) really about preparing him to then step in with the full group next week, and then a week from there, we start our first OTA with the whole group.

“He’s doing a great job of handling everything and just enjoying seeing the process, rep-to-rep improvement, taking coaching points from Josh or Wes or myself, and just continuing to build on what we – we spent a lot of time together pre-draft, and one of the real benefits of that, is in a lot of ways, a lot of things we’re talking about he’s not hearing for the first time now.”

Zulgad: Vikings’ draft decisions paint a clear picture of when Super Bowl run should come

The recent moves by the Minnesota Vikings has painted a clear picture of when this team can see it’s Super Bowl window open.

The Minnesota Vikings might not have had a plethora of selections during the three-day NFL draft, but the picks they did make, especially the two in the first round on Thursday, provided a clear view of the direction in which general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is taking this franchise.

Where would that be? To open a Super Bowl window starting with the 2025 season.

That conclusion comes from following the trail of bread crumbs that Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell have been leaving for many months. The latest batch came Thursday through Saturday as the Vikings were able to land one of the quarterbacks they targeted, by trading up one pick to select Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy at No. 10, and then by paying a significant price to move from No. 23 to 17 to select standout edge rusher Dallas Turner from Alabama.

Those trades, and others made by Adofo-Mensah, leave him open to second-guessing because he didn’t have picks in the second, third and fifth rounds. But the decisions make more sense if you look at the pattern he and coach Kevin O’Connell are using as far as roster construction is concerned.

The Vikings’ free agency losses in March cost them two quality players in quarterback Kirk Cousins and edge rusher Danielle Hunter. But that also created the type of salary cap space this team lacked for so long in part because of Cousins’ contract(s).

Hunter was replaced in free agency by the edge rushers Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel. Turner, who had 10 sacks last season en route to being named the SEC defensive player of the year, gives the Vikings the type of quality depth on the edge that defensive coordinator Brian Flores didn’t have last season.

The Vikings’ two top quarterback targets in the draft — at least the ones that were believed to be realistic — were North Carolina’s Drake Maye and McCarthy. The Vikings reportedly made a substantial offer to the New England Patriots for the third pick in order to take Maye but were rebuffed. Minnesota held the No. 11 pick and, thus, began the waiting game that Adofo-Mensah brought to an end by making a trade with the New York Jets to go up one spot.

O’Connell and new quarterbacks coach Josh McCown will become McCarthy’s near constant companion as they develop him and, in the meantime, have veteran free agent addition Sam Darnold in the starting role. That is one of the reasons why the Vikings will target 2024 as being competitive but also remain realistic as far as what it means in the ultra-competitive NFC North.

O’Connell declined to speculate on when McCarthy might start, but both O’Connell and McCown were quarterbacks in the NFL and are aware of how much damage can be done by throwing a young QB (McCarthy turned 21 in January) in before he’s ready.

The five selections the Vikings made from the fourth through seventh rounds likely only turned out one player who will be a regular this season. That would be sixth-round kicker Will Reichard of Alabama.

The Vikings also haven’t made big steps to address their needs along the interior offensive and defensive lines, as well as at the No. 3 wide receiver spot and cornerback, although they expressed optimism about adding 6-foot-4 cornerback Khyree Jackson in the fourth round.

Adofo-Mensah’s wheeling and dealing also leaves the Vikings with only three draft picks, including their first-rounder, in the 2025. (They are expected to get a compensatory pick in the third round because of free agent losses in 2024.)

Working under the assumption McCarthy is ready to hit the ground running in 2025, and the Vikings almost certainly are, the significant needs this team has remaining next year will be addressed in free agency. The projected cap for that season, according to Over The Cap, will be $260 million and right now the Vikings’ cap space is projected at $102.453 million, putting them fourth in the NFL.

The dead money from Cousins’ and Hunter’s contracts also will be gone.

That means the Vikings will go from carrying an NFL-high $57.4 million in dead money for 2024 to zero in 2025. It’s expected wide receiver Justin Jefferson will sign a contract in the coming weeks or months that will make him the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL, but Vikings still should be positioned to bid on a top defensive tackle or cornerback, if not both.

There’s also another possibility to add to the equation and it’s one Adofo-Mensah already has used. That would be the NFL trade deadline, which has gone from the dullest deadline in professional sports to a time when savvy teams now improve themselves. Two years ago, Adofo-Mensah made a deal with Detroit at the deadline for T.J. Hockenson and the tight end played a key role in the Vikings’ 13-4 finish.

This year the NFL has moved the deadline back to Nov. 5, creating even more opportunity for deals to be made in the coming years. A significant deadline deal, let’s say for a defensive tackle or cornerback, could be costly in 2025 but keep this in mind:

If the Vikings look to be in a spot to compete for the first Super Bowl championship in franchise history, is anyone going to complain about giving up picks?

I didn’t think so.

Zulgad: Drake Maye is a fit with Vikings due to their approach

Drake Maye is a fit within a lot of teams looking for a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft but the Vikings could be the perfect fit.

In a quarterback draft class that is considered one of the deepest in recent years, Drake Maye might be the most polarizing in the group. Once considered the second-best QB behind USC’s Caleb Williams, many have given that spot to LSU’s Jayden Daniels and have dropped Maye to third or, in some cases, behind Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy.

Listen to the concerns about Maye, about his foot work, about his mechanics, and it makes sense that if he’s thrown into a starting role on Day 1 for a team such as the nowhere-close-to-competing New England Patriots that the quarterback from North Carolina could be set up for failure.

The Carolina Panthers thought so highly of Bryce Young last year that they traded what turned out to be the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, and plenty more, to the Chicago Bears for the right to select him. The Panthers handed Young the keys to the car and little else. The result was a 2-15 finish and a rookie season that has many thinking he might be a bust. Is that all Young’s fault? No.

So how can Maye avoid the same fate?

By going to a team with a good infrastructure. A franchise that has a coaching staff in place that can develop him, be patient with him and, when they do play him, give him a supporting cast that puts him in a position to succeed.

That’s why bringing Maye to Minnesota makes a lot of sense. The only question is whether Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah can trade up high enough to take Maye and whether he is willing to pay the Patriots’ asking price.

It’s no secret the Vikings want to move up in the first round of next Thursday’s draft and Patriots director of scouting Eliot Wolf said his team is “open for business” to trade the No. 3 pick. Wolf also said he would be comfortable staying at three and taking a quarterback.

Wolf, 42, is the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame executive Ron Wolf and certainly understands the Patriots have many needs that could begin to be addressed by acquiring multiple picks, including a couple of first-rounders (the Vikings have picks 11 and 23).

Meanwhile, Maye appears to have many skills that Vikings coach and former NFL quarterback Kevin O’Connell would like to have from a young QB who is under team control at a reasonable rate on a five-year rookie contract.

O’Connell hired another former NFL quarterback, Josh McCown, as his coach for that position in February. McCown knows plenty about Maye’s plusses and minuses, having helped to coach him at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, N.C., and reuniting the two makes a lot of sense.

The Vikings certainly have pressure to win, but one has to think that O’Connell and McCown would also be well aware that forcing Maye to start as a rookie could be a mistake. O’Connell was a third-round pick of the Patriots in 2008, and although he never became a starter, he has firsthand knowledge of where mistakes were made in helping him develop.

McCown was in the NFL for 18 seasons and started 76 of the 102 games in which he appeared. He also got valuable experience serving as the quarterback coach for the Carolina Panthers last season. McCown was one of the assistants who was fired, along with coach Frank Reich, in late November and saw what Young went through starting for a terrible team.

The Vikings already have created a security plan by signing 2018 third-overall pick Sam Darnold to a one-year, $10 million deal to help replace Kirk Cousins. The New York Jets drafted Darnold- a franchise that has done little right in recent years- and started as a rookie. He lasted three seasons with the Jets before playing two years in Carolina and then serving as a backup with the San Francisco 49ers last season.

McCown was the backup to Darnold in 2018 and watched the rookie struggle in playing 13 games during a 4-12 season. If O’Connell, McCown, and, even Darnold agree on one thing, it likely would be the fact that it’s far better to develop a quarterback than rush him and risk ruining him

It will be worth it if that means a season of Darnold starting and Maye learning. It’s more important that if the Vikings do trade up and draft a quarterback, especially a guy like Maye, they get the pick right for the long term. Patience might not sit well with the fan base, but if the end result is postseason success for years to come, no one will be complaining.

Former Panthers assistant HC/RB coach Duce Staley joining Browns

Per CBS Sports, former Panthers assistant HC/RB coach Duce Staley is off to Cleveland.

The Duce is no longer on the loose.

As first reported by CBS Sports senior NFL insider Josina Anderson, former Carolina Panthers assistant head coach/running backs coach Duce Staley is set to join the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland.com Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot then seconded the report just minutes later.

The West Columbia, S.C. native was hired by the Panthers during the reconstruction of their coaching staff last offseason. But Staley wouldn’t last long—as he, head coach Frank Reich and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown were dismissed following the team’s Week 12 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

Before coming back home, Staley built up one heck of a reputation on the NFL sidelines. He served as the special teams quality control coach, running backs coach and assistant head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles between 2011 and 2020 and as the assistant head coach and running backs coach for the Detroit Lions between 2021 and 2022.

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Sons of NFL veterans Josh McCown and Chad Pennington faced off in Frisco Bowl

Want to feel old? Sons of NFL veterans Josh McCown and Chad Pennington faced off in Frisco Bowl

In news that will likely make older fans suddenly feel ancient, two sons of notable NFL quarterbacks faced off last week during the Frisco Bowl between UTSA and Marshall. Owen McCown and Cole Pennington represented their fathers’ position at quarterback for their respective teams.

Ultimately the McCown family saw their son guide UTSA to take home the victory 35-17 over Pennington and Marshall. Both quarterbacks had shaky stat lines with McCown looking slightly better both on the tape and in the box score with 251 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. Pennington did not turn the ball over in the game but also failed to find the end zone himself.

It’s far too early to tell if either quarterback will follow their fathers’ footsteps onto the next level given they are both just freshman signal callers, but if bloodlines tell us anything these two could be slinging it on Sunday just as well as any other Freshman in the country.

Former NFL QBs Josh McCown’s and Chad Pennington’s sons faced off at same position in Frisco Bowl

How time flies!

Time waits for no one, and we’ve already reached the point in the football timeline where the sons of former NFL quarterbacks Josh McCown and Chad Pennington are playing each other in a college bowl game.

In Tuesday night’s Frisco Bowl, UTSA and Marshall faced off with some very familiar last names attached to their starting quarterbacks.

UTSA is led by quarterback Owen McCown, son of Josh, while Marshall is led by quarterback Cole Pennington, son of Chad.

It’s just hard to fathom that the McCown and Pennington families already have college-age sons who are playing postseason football on ESPN.

We’ll see if either one of these legacy quarterbacks will get to follow in their dad’s footsteps to play in the pros one day.

For now, we’ll have the stark reality that Josh McCown and Chad Pennington have sons facing each other at quarterback in a bowl game. How time flies!

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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Chris Tabor asked about unflattering report of Panthers’ ‘Hunger Games’ culture

Panthers interim HC Chris Tabor was asked about The Athletic’s report of a dysfunctional culture within the organization.

Carolina Panthers interim head coach Chris Tabor did not volunteer any kind of tribute on Wednesday.

Tabor spoke with reporters this afternoon, just hours after a report from The Athletic painted an unflattering picture of a dysfunctional operation that has brewed in the organization. He simply said the following when asked about it:

“It’s been fine. I haven’t had a problem.”

Joe Person and Dianna Russini detailed the troubles within the building, including instances of harsh disagreements between staff members and micromanagement from owner David Tepper. Over 20 coaches, players and sources were interviewed for the report, with some describing it as a “Hunger Games” culture.

Person and Russini wrote that head coach Frank Reich’s staff, at least on offense, seemingly never got on the same page:

Tepper also encouraged Reich to go outside of his “circle” with some of the hires. As such, many of the offensive coaches had never worked together and brought different philosophies to an offense that would be led by a rookie quarterback from Week 1. Besides the disagreements in scheme, there were personality conflicts and factions formed on a staff that included two main holdovers from Rhule’s staff — offensive line coach James Campen and special teams coordinator Chris Tabor, both of whom were retained at Tepper’s urging.

After being named interim head coach following Reich’s firing, Tabor made the decision to dismiss assistant head coach/running backs coach Duce Staley and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown.

Nonetheless, Tabor also affirmed that the staff gets along great.

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Biggest storylines for Panthers vs. Buccaneers in Week 13

We have now entered the Chris Tabor era in Carolina.

It may be brief, but we have entered a new era of Carolina Panthers football.

The first chapter of this short tale will be written against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, starting with these three storylines: