After missing his rookie season because of a broken meniscus in its right knee, Minnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy is all systems that go for workouts this month, according to his coach.
Kevin O’Connell told reporters Monday that McCarthy has no restrictions this spring. He said that McCarthy is an advantage of learning the Viking system “in a classroom setting” up to this point.
“It’s the beauty we have had with him, albeit without the physical reps since the injury,” said O’Connell. “But there has been a lot of time on the task and just wants to credit JJ again for how he handled these last two, 2 1/2, three months or so where I think he is ready to hit the ground today.”
Now that McCarthy is healthy and without restrictions, the next step is to enter the more competitive environment for Otas and Minicamp, with live reps abundantly.
“Everything will be systematically planned for him,” said O’Connell, “and I think he’s ready to attack it.”
The Vikings continued from 2024 which started Quarterback Sam Darnold, who signed with the Seattle Seahawks in free agency after a surprise season in Minnesota.
The only other Quarterbacken besides 22-year-old McCarthy on the guard list is Brett Rypien, and although the Vikings had conversations with Aaron Rodgers, General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah told reporters at the end of March that the team is “on their way to” dubbing McCarthy QB1.
This does not mean that Minnesota will not add at least one quarterback to this season.
“We have been patience and really evaluated many different ways we can potentially do it,” said O’Connell. “There are potential business and free agencies and still the draft. We go through a process to just find out who the player is the player to solidify that room knowing that JJ and wide here works, start today, and eventually we will complete that room and still have a competition situation there, but you are looking at it.”
The Vikings prepared McCarthy 10th overall in the draft by 2024 after he won a national championship in Michigan. He underwent surgery for a broken meniscus in mid -August after paying in the Vikings Preseason opener.
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