Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy is opening up about how much it will take to win the starting job. McCarthy says he wants to just stay focused on getting better, and not putting too much pressure and expectations on himself.
“I feel like I'm not focused on the outcomes of each day,” McCarthy said Friday, per ESPN. “I'm just focused on learning to get better, and improve the weakness that I have with my game and learn my teammates' strengths and try to amplify them every chance I get. We're off to a great start so far.”
The quarterback who won a national championship in college at Michigan was the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. McCarthy is one of several quarterbacks taken in the first round. Minnesota is certainly hoping their rookie learns quickly, because the team may need him to play a lot of snaps this coming season. The Vikings and former quarterback Kirk Cousins parted ways this offseason.
Minnesota also has Sam Darnold in the mix at the position, who joined the team after playing last season with the San Francisco 49ers.
“My ultimate goal is to get the most out of every single day. When the time comes [to start], it comes. I'm just training every single day so that when that time does come, I'm going to be ready,” McCarthy added.
JJ McCarthy will get a chance to prove himself
McCarthy spent his college career playing for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. He won a slew of games, leading the Wolverines to three consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff. The run was capped with the CFP title in the 2023 campaign, defeating Washington in the final.
The quarterback finished his college career with more than 6,000 passing yards and 49 total touchdown passes. McCarthy was certainly very comfortable in the Harbaugh system, and must now adjust to a faster pace of play. He must also work on his overall management of the Vikings offense, he said.
“In OTAs it was very hard for me to get out a playcall,” McCarthy added. “Everyone thinks they can play quarterback, but try getting out of the huddle. That was my biggest goal going into this training camp, being able to hear it one time and execute it and regurgitate it to the guys with confidence, and I've been doing that so far. We'll see when we get down to third down and red zone, when they get really long, but they're going pretty well so far.”
Darnold seems to be the no. 1 quarterback in the summer, but McCarthy will certainly get a lot of chances to show that he can be starting play caller in the league.
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