Who doesn’t love the look of an apparent maniac vociferously bobbing his head during his coach’s postgame locker room speech after a big win?
There’s a lot to like about J.J. McCarthy — he’s passionate, competitive and fierce. He’ll put his body on the line. His teammates rally around him.
Those are all traits any team would want in its franchise quarterback. But the ability to consistently complete the forward pass is helpful, as well.
McCarthy was 9 for 12 out of the gates in last week’s thrilling victory in Detroit, but he completed just five of his final 13 attempts in that contest. It was more of the same Sunday, as McCarthy completed 8 of his first 11 passes while leading Minnesota to a 10-3 lead at U.S. Bank Stadium.
He went 12 for 31 the rest of the way — 39%. For reference, in the Monday night fiasco in 2013, Josh Freeman completed 37% of his passes in the Meadowlands.
McCarthy’s accuracy, particularly as games unfold, has not been NFL-caliber to date. Through four starts, he’s completing 54% of his passes while throwing for 173 yards per game. The signal caller has five touchdown passes versus six interceptions.
Those are Josh Rosen numbers cloaked under Tim Tebow intangibles, all in an offense that traditionally delivers Matthew Stafford-like production with almost anyone under center.
Minnesota has played 62 games under coach Kevin O’Connell. Only 10 times in that span has the Vikings’ starting quarterback completed fewer than 57% of his passes. McCarthy is responsible for three of those outings through just four starts.
McCarthy has yet to finish with a total QBR in the top half of the league’s QBs in any week this season. Anything sub-50 is a bad number in that metric, which is produced by ESPN. McCarthy’s best Total QBR this season was a 54 posted against Detroit. On Sunday, it was a 19.
Pick any quarterback stat you’d like at the moment. There are very few charts and graphs circulating social media these days that have McCarthy positioned anywhere other than toward the bottom.
O’Connell said McCarthy “competed” on Sunday. That will be true every time he takes the field. There’s nothing apathetic about the way the 22-year-old approaches the game. You see the juice flowing through his veins when success occurs, as well as the frustration when things aren’t going well.
The latter look is becoming all too familiar.
Yes, he’s only 22. Yes, Sunday marked his fourth NFL start.
O’Connell is quick to remind everyone of as much. But the list of quarterbacks who’ve struggled to complete a high volume of passes early in their career and then went on to achieve great things is … Josh Allen and ?
Sunday certainly wasn’t all McCarthy’s fault. The Myles Price kick return fumble was costly. That wasn’t a sterling showing from Justin Jefferson, who continues to struggle with McCarthy under center. The pre-snap penalties were a major problem (though the quarterback surely owns a chunk of that blame).
It’s not as though Sunday’s performance alone is enough to sound alarms. But on the whole, there aren’t enough flashes to date to suggest McCarthy is a guy who can efficiently run a high-octane offense.
The easy stuff is not yet automatic.
“Every snap right now there’s major growth and learning and teaching going on for a guy that was really making his fourth start,” O’Connell said.
Fortunately for McCarthy, and Minnesota, this doesn’t look like a playoff team. So the heat to look for better options to start under center is, in the interim, set on “low.” This can be a developmental season in which things are learned and strides are made.
But strides do need to be made. Because seven more games of this lack of efficiency in the passing game would leave the Vikings with no choice but to look for alternative options for 2026. San Francisco cut the cord on Trey Lance when he was 22. Arizona moved on from Rosen after his age 21 season.
No, it doesn’t look *that* bad with McCarthy.
The problem is, it also doesn’t look that much better.
