It seems highly unlikely that J.J. McCarthy is going to start at quarterback when the Vikings play the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night at SoFi Stadium. The quick turnaround doesn’t exactly lend itself to him being ready.
After recently returning to practice as he works his way back from a high ankle sprain, McCarthy himself admitted he still isn’t 100 percent. He was a limited participant last week, and in under normal circumstances might have been a full participant this week. But there probably isn’t proper preparation time for the Vikings to feel comfortable throwing him out there.
So long as Carson Wentz can get his body turned over in time, he will in all likelihood be leading the Vikings in primetime. As soon as McCarthy is 100 percent, however, there needs to be an immediate change under center — and not necessarily because McCarthy gives the Vikings the best chance to win.
That distinction might still belong to Wentz, despite the fact his starts have resembled a trip to Valleyfair.
No, it has to be McCarthy, for better or for worse, because the Vikings must find out if he is who they think he is. They chose not to sign Sam Darnold this spring, or Aaron Rodgers this summer, because they believed McCarthy would hit the ground running this fall.
Even if the decision is looking more and more like a miscalculation, the sample size for McCarthy hasn’t been nearly big enough to make any sweeping declarations about the trajectory of his career. He deserves much more than a couple of starts to determine whether he’s worthy of being the face of the franchise.
The process of McCarthy gaining valuable experience can happen sooner rather than later with the Vikings no longer looking the part of a Super Bowl contender.
Although McCarthy occasionally looked overwhelmed in the season-opening win at Chicago, and a week later in a 22-6 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, his extended absence has proven issues holding the Vikings back go far beyond having a young signal caller at the helm.
The roster simply isn’t as good as everybody thought it would be, and while there’s a chance Darnold or Rodgers could’ve masked the problems in real time, Wentz hasn’t been capable of doing that.
There might have been a legitimate quarterback controversy had Wentz been lights-out while filling in. Instead, he has looked more like a journeyman backup, which has been his role for the past several years of his career.
In wins over Cincinnati and Cleveland, and losses to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Wentz has at times looked like a veteran in control, and at others like a guy who wasn’t in the team’s plans until September.
Those ups and downs make life easier for head coach Kevin O’Connell moving forward. It shouldn’t be a hard decision to go back to McCarthy whenever he’s ready to return. Not anymore.
There was an argument to be made, even last month, that winning should take precedence over McCarthy’s development. That logic no longer applies after the Vikings have shown themselves to be flawed in other areas.
Who cares if McCarthy might actually lower the floor in the present? The rest of this season should be rooted in figuring out if McCarthy can raise the ceiling in the future.
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