Did Kevin O’Connell really decline to commit to J.J. McCarthy as the Minnesota Vikings’ starting quarterback once he’s ready to return from a high ankle sprain?
Decided for yourself. Here’s what O’Connell said Monday when asked if he’s 100% committed to McCarthy starting once he’s healthy.
“Yeah, I think first and foremost, he’s got to get healthy. And then, throughout that process, I don’t think it’s one of those things where it’s, ‘Hey, the day he’s healthy.’ And if he’s healthy the night before a game, we’re going to just throw him out there and say, ‘Hey, go figure it out’ type of thing.
“I think we saw, as phenomenal as he was getting prepared for the Atlanta game, he did miss practice that week. And when you’re in the phase of building up the 10,000 reps and 10,000 hours of what it takes to play the position at a very high level, which we know J.J. McCarthy is going to do, you can’t cut corners on that.”
In other words, O’Connell had a roundabout way to explain McCarthy will probably need a full week of practice reps before returning to his starting role.
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Carson Wentz is going to start for the Vikings against the Steelers in London on Sunday. The question is if Wentz will be the guy again for Minnesota’s Week 5 game against the Browns in London. If he is, McCarthy will get the Week 6 bye to recover before a potential return in Week 7 against the Eagles.
During CBS’ broadcast of Sunday’s Vikings-Bengals game, sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson said Minnesota plans on getting McCarthy back after the bye. O’Connell didn’t confirm her report, but he did make it clear that McCarthy won’t be rushed back.
“I would not say that’s accurate,” O’Connell said. “I would just say that probably stems off the conversation of him making the trip with us. And I think what is accurate is the idea of no matter how much I believe J.J. would go out there and tough it out today, tomorrow if we asked him to, to me, at this point in a very young career, his mobility is one of his weapons that has clearly already shown to be something that’s a positive for him. We want to make sure he’s healthy and allow this to be something that we can put in the rear-view mirror and continue on with where he’s at in his young career here.”
The Steelers (2-1) are coming off a win over the Patriots in which they sacked Drake Maye five times. All-world linebacker T.J. Watt had two of those sacks, meaning mobility will be key for Wentz on Sunday as he plays behind an offensive line that should be fourth-fifths healthy, with center Ryan Kelly expected back from a concussion and left guard Donovan Jackson out the next two games after undergoing wrist surgery on Monday.
When McCarthy does return, the goal will be to have a fully healthy offensive line and a complement of weapons. Remember, McCarthy played Weeks 1 and 2 without start left tackle Christian Darrisaw and wide receiver Jordan Addison. The world is still waiting to find out how McCarthy plays with good protection and a full cast of skill position players.
“We’re going to take it a day at a time,” O’Connell concluded about McCarthy. “He responded well to treatment early on. He’s out of the boot, and now it just becomes the phase of high ankle kind of rehab that we’re going to hopefully be able to get him back up to speed pretty quickly.”
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