The Vikings held their annual night practice at TCO Stadium on Monday night, and a strong crowd of purple-clad fans filled the stands on a perfect weather evening in Eagan. There weren’t a ton of highlights over the course of a little more than an hour of competitive work, but we’ve still got plenty of takeaways and observations to dive into.
As always, all eyes were on J.J. McCarthy, the Vikings’ young starting quarterback in the red No. 9 practice jersey. After quite the impressive showing in Saturday’s practice, McCarthy was a bit more up and down in this one.
Once they got through warmups and position drills, the Vikings started out the night with a 7-on-7 period — and McCarthy was very sharp. He connected with Jalen Nailor several times early on, including a dart over the middle of the field for a solid chunk of yardage. Later, McCarthy went through his progression and rifled one to Jordan Addison at the right sideline for another impressive completion. His only incompletion of the entire period came on a Nailor drop.
When 11-on-11 action began, however, it was difficult for McCarthy and the offense to move the ball against the Vikings’ defense, which has been outstanding all training camp long. He did have a nice rep where he stepped up in the pocket and fit a ball into a tight window to Josh Oliver, but McCarthy and Addison couldn’t quite connect a couple times in the initial full-team period.
The theme of the night for McCarthy (and the Vikings’ other quarterbacks) was being under duress in the pocket. Even without Jonathan Allen, who got a veteran’s rest day, the Vikings’ top defensive front was very active against an offensive line missing Christian Darrisaw and Ryan Kelly. McCarthy was frequently forced to dance around in the pocket and either check the ball down or take off and scramble.
On the first play of a period where the offense was backed up near its own goal line, McCarthy stumbled in the end zone and then scrambled, though it may have been a safety in a real game. He was under pressure on the next snap and sailed a ball way high for Nailor (Byron Murphy Jr. got a hand on it but couldn’t haul it in). Then, after a false start, McCarthy and Oliver couldn’t connect on a short pass.
The next period was designed for the offense to move the ball in the middle of the field. McCarthy’s four dropback reps resulted in a couple checkdowns to Jordan Mason and a couple scrambles. And in a red zone period, he took a sack and threw incomplete to the end zone on the run before ending with a pair of positive reps. The first was a scramble that was nearly a touchdown. The second was a running completion to Addison for a TD.
It’s important to consider the context, which is that the Vikings were playing without two starting offensive linemen and two of their top three pass-catchers (Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson). Given the pressure he was under, it’s hard to know how much of the blame for the offense’s struggles falls on McCarthy, and how much falls on the offensive line or pass-catchers. He also is going against a very, very good Brian Flores defense. With all that said, you would’ve liked to see the first-team offense get more going through the air in this practice.
One last thing I’ll add on McCarthy is that he looks pretty quick and athletic when he decides to take off and run with the ball. He’s got some juice, and he clearly trusts his now-healthy knee to make cuts upfield. McCarthy ran for over 500 yards in his last two seasons at Michigan, and that’s in college, where sacks count as negative rushing yards. I wouldn’t be shocked at all if he becomes the first Vikings QB to run for more than 260 yards since Daunte Culpepper in 2004. It’s not gonna be on designed runs, but the scramble looks like it’ll be a weapon for him.
This weekend, we wrote about Will Reichard’s shaky start to camp after he missed a couple kicks from inside 40 yards at Saturday’s practice. He had no such problems on Monday night.
Reichard hit from 40 yards out to cap a successful situational drill for Max Brosmer and the third-team offense, then drilled five more kicks after that. He finished 6 for 6, connecting from 40, 33, 45, 46, 49, and 51 yards. It was the fourth time we’ve seen him kick in camp and the first time he hasn’t missed. He’s now 19 for 24, which looks better than 13 for 18.
The Vikings have an off day on Tuesday.
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