While social media was on fire with fans begging the Vikings to bench J.J. McCarthy to give undrafted rookie Max Brosmer a chance to revive a lifeless offense, head coach Kevin O’Connell has no interest in discussing a possible QB change.
“I’m not going to get into any of that right now,” said O’Connell when asked what it would take for him to consider a change.
McCarthy’s play jump-started concerns that the 22-year-old isn’t going to make it as a starting quarterback in the NFL. He completed just 16 of 32 passes for 150 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, the latter of which had O’Connell frustrated on the sideline.
One could argue that McCarthy single-handedly cost the Vikings in a 19-17 loss on Sunday. It was a critical loss because Minnesota is now 4-6, while the Bears (7-3), Packers (6-3-1), and Lions (6-3 pending their result Sunday night at Philadelphia) are all three games ahead in the loss column.
“It felt like protection-wise, outside of a few plays I can think of, we tried to keep him clean,” O’Connell said. “Overall, just felt like we were one or two pitch-and-catches away from maybe having a little bit different dynamic to the game throughout. I don’t want to pinpoint one particular area, but yeah, there were some plays you think of as you roll through the game from start to finish. But I also thought there were some plays we could’ve made for him as well. We just gotta stay the course and continue to coach the principles that we believe in wholeheartedly.”
McCarthy missed badly on a bunch of throws, leaving no room for mistakes from anyone else. But his teammates weren’t perfect. In fact, they had five or six drops, including two big ones from Jordan Addison, one from Aaron Jones, and another from T.J. Hockenson.
O’Connell said he’s trying to make the offense as “quarterback-friendly” as he can, but McCarthy is simply learning the hard way.
“He was frustrated. I just kept telling him, ‘feet and eyes, feet and eyes,’ and the things that we saw throughout the week on the practice field. Make it about that,” O’Connell said. “With a young quarterback, there’s going to be a lot of things that we’ll pinpoint and continue to highlight and tie that preparation throughout the week and our plans to what he does well, and continue to coach the things where we feel the emphasis needs to be on. It’s part of the young QB journey, just results like today. Especially when you’re able to fight through it all, get the lead, you would love to be making a lot of those growth coaching points and development coaching points with a one-point win, but credit the Bears in the end.”
McCarthy did dazzle when the game was on the line. Trailing 16-10 late in the game, McCarthy completed all five of his passes, including a clutch 4th-and-4 for a first down, and a touchdown to Addison in the left side of the end zone. Unfortunately, a 56-yard kickoff return set the Bears up nicely, and Cairo Santos snuck a 48-yard kick inside the left upright for the win as time expired.
When asked what’s causing McCarthy to misfire by as much as he has through five career starts, O’Connell delivered a nuanced answer about fundamentals and technique.
“Whether it’s just the initial posture, where we’ve just learned that when he has great posture at the top of drops, he throws the ball really well. He did it Friday, he did it Thursday,” O’Connell began.
“It’s the consistency factor of navigating through four quarters of the game. When you maybe miss one, feel some push here somewhere in an NFL pocket, that’s what it is every single Sunday for every single player that plays the position in this league. And then on top of that, you start talking about pocket movement. And what is pocket movement? It’s continuing to try to exhaust your progression, or maintain, No. 1, if there’s a little bit of movement here and there, and how do I get and continue to have that posture while there is a place in the pocket to work through it? And then if you’re going to get moved off the spot, like what happens to many quarterbacks, you move off the spot, and find your checkdown elements or make a play with your legs. Make an off-schedule play.
“We’ve gotta continue to get better at the play as is, as called. We’ve certainly seen him use his athleticism to make some plays as well, but to me, it comes down to a lot of core principles of just consistently, every snap, whether it’s No. 1 all the way to however many we got today, 54, which isn’t enough, but one through 54, we control what we can from a standpoint of techniques and fundamentals and our decision-making.”
McCarthy wasn’t good most of the game. There’s nothing O’Connell can do about it once McCarthy has the ball in his hands, and it doesn’t sound like the coach is anywhere close to considering a change.
“What’s best for the quarterback, what’s best for our offense, what’s best for the team. That’s my job to manage all of those things, and I’ve gotta do a better job of that,” O’Connell said.
