Kevin O’Connell preparing JJ McCarthy for reps with Minnesota Vikings veterans

J.J. McCarthy had a lot thrown at him early in Vikings minicamp but it’s all in preparation, according to head coach Kevin O’Connell.

After Kirk Cousins departed in free agency this spring, the Vikings used the No. 10 pick on the former Michigan signal caller as their new franchise quarterback. Going from a national title-winning team to a Minnesota squad that’s loaded on offense is a nice transition.

But O’Connell wanted McCarthy to get his feet wet first.

“Yeah we were keeping it pretty tight for right now as a group, but JJ is getting a little bit extra here and there,” O’Connell said. “Stacking some things together for him. So when Monday comes around, that’s the way I’m kind of looking at this weekend. This weekend is really about preparing him to step in with the full group next week and then a week from there we start our first OTA with the whole group. He’s doing a great job of handling everything and just enjoying seeing the process.” 

Last season, McCarthy threw for 2,991 yards, 22 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 72.3% completion percentage (career-high).

O’Connell and the Vikings’ brass got very familiar with McCarthy leading up to the draft. While at Michigan, McCarthy was coached by Jim Harbaugh and got 

“Just continuing to build on you know, we spent a lot of time together pre draft and one of the real benefits of that is, in a lot of ways, a lot of things we’re talking about he’s not hearing for the first time now,” O’Connell said. “That’s what I liked so much about that part of the process we went through pre draft but it’ll feel like a lot at times to him and that’s okay. 

“We just kind of want to continue to stress him above the neck and then when we get out here on the grass, it’s techniques, fundamentals, rhythm, timing, all the things that go into playing quarterback in our offense. It’s just fun to be out here with them on the grass.”

O’Connell and the staff focus on the small details with McCarthy and other young players during this period. It’ll only serve them better moving forward.

“That’s what makes it this time of year so valuable not only for JJ but Dallas (Turner) on the other side,” O’Connell said. “A lot of our players that we’re asking to come in here and have an impact. I mean, I finished my team meeting today showing a clip of Ivan Pace, rookie minicamp last year and then (got) a game-winning interception against the Raiders.

“So each individual guy is going to have their football journey in the National Football League. I feel like our job is to make them feel very fortunate that happened to come in Minnesota with us as a staff and that we’re going to do everything we possibly can to help them.”