What happens when Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer embeds himself with the Minnesota Vikings for a few days of training camp and preseason action? You get new intel about the quarterback situation involving Sam Darnold and rookie J.J. McCarthy.
According to Breer, who spent the last half of last week with the Vikings, head coach Kevin O’Connell says both Darnold and McCarthy “are further along than I probably thought they would be at this point” — but the key to winning the starting job may very well be how comfortable they make the other 10 guys in the huddle.
Darnold started Saturday’s preseason opener against the Raiders before McCarthy entered the game and overcame an interception on his third pass attempt to finish 11-of-18 for 188 yards and two touchdowns, helping Minnesota rally for a 24-23 win.
While both quarterbacks looked good — Darnold led one drive that stalled inside the Raiders 5-yard line — O’Connell explained to Breer that what fans are seeing in the stands or on the TV screen is different from what he sees on the sidelines.
“What we’ve got to avoid is the illusion of quarterback play,” O’Connell told Breer. “It might be something as simple as, That might have been your best throw of the day, but was it really real? You get a top-10 pass rush in this league, and you took the wrong drop. You started your eyes in the wrong spot, and you fell into a completion where somebody watching practice may say, This guy’s ready to go.”
In other words, there’s more than meets the eye and O’Connell and the coaching staff are the only ones who know if Darnold or McCarthy messed up on a play that otherwise generates a highlight.
“I know what I called,” O’Connell explained to Breer. “I know what you did, every single snap. I also know what was not exactly right, what was a little shaky. It might be little things. It might be calling plays in the huddle. It might be cadence at the line of scrimmage, remembering to send your motion. Every single time one of those things happens, that has nothing to do with your ability to play the position.
“That’s purely the comfort of making sure that 10 other guys in that huddle can break the huddle and run the play and be held accountable for the details of their job because I can do the baseline of mine, long before you have a ball leave your hands or make a check or an audible. That’s where I’ve seen the growth and development with J.J. He is getting better at that. Sam’s comfort of the system is growing on a minute-to-minute basis.”
O’Connell has made it clear that he hasn’t selected a starting quarterback for Minnesota’s regular-season opener Sept. 8 against the New York Giants. Darnold is certainly the favorite to win the job because Minnesota won’t rush the 21-year-old onto the field before he’s ready.
This week, the Vikings will host the annual night practice at TCO Stadium in Eagan on Monday and then fly to Cleveland on Tuesday before holding joint practices against the Browns in a lead up to Saturday’s second preseason game. The joint practices against Myles Garrett and one of the better defenses in the NFL could significantly shape Minnesota’s QB narrative.