MINNEAPOLIS — How could you not ponder what life has been like for J.J. McCarthy?
In three months, the Minnesota Vikings’ second-year quarterback has been called many different things. The future of a franchise. The late-game hero on “Monday Night Football.” A first-time father. An oft-injured young player. Statistically one of the worst quarterbacks ever to play.
McCarthy has taken huge hits. His facial expression in the locker room following the Week 9 win over the Detroit Lions has become a meme. His Vikings team, which entered the season with high expectations, has transitioned to playing for pride.
After all of the starts and stops early in his career, and after all of the conversations about mechanics, could he maintain enough of a level head to respond? On Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium against the Washington Commanders, McCarthy responded with an unequivocal yes.
“It’s definitely reassuring,” he said afterward.
Minnesota’s 31-0 beatdown of the Commanders did not come with any guarantees or grand statements. The team is still 5-8 and headed toward an offseason with plenty of critical decisions looming. One 16-for-23, 163-yard, three-touchdown performance doesn’t change the concerns about McCarthy being injury-prone or eliminate the likelihood that the team is going to explore the quarterback market this spring.
It does, though, offer an encouraging data point at a time when one was desperately needed. Not only did McCarthy navigate the onslaught of negativity, but also he proved that he can play decisively and produce a turnover-free game. His 69.6 completion percentage and 129.2 passer rating were both the highest marks of his seven-game pro career.
“When J.J. is at his best, there’s conviction,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said. “You can feel it. His fundamentals and technique pair together because he’s got conviction on what he’s going to do with the ball.”
Throughout the week, the Vikings coaches stressed decision-making. The strategy was simple. Enough with the magnified focus on each aspect of his drop and throw. It’s hard enough to sit in the pocket and decipher a defense. Trying to do this while also thinking about his fundamentals made McCarthy’s brain go haywire.
The 22-year-old has never hidden from his tendency to overthink. It’s one of the reasons he’s been so open about his reliance on meditation. He admitted last week that the mental clutter may have played a role in his inability to keep his throws on target.
O’Connell and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown removed the step-by-step focus — originally introduced to foster a baseline level of throwing consistency — and allowed him to focus on the field-vision aspect. The goal? To execute a simplified game plan with an attentiveness to whether the receivers found voids in coverage.
The Vikings knew their pass catchers could create space. The Commanders allowed 7.8 yards per pass attempt before the game, the worst mark in the NFL. In many ways, they are a quarterback’s dream, rarely blitzing and playing a heavy amount of soft zone coverage. O’Connell, aware of both the possibilities and the drabness of a home crowd that was prepared to get angsty given the offensive duds of the last two games, asked his captains to take the ball in the coin toss.
“When you’re in the midst of struggle,” O’Connell said, “it’s very easy on the field or in the stands to let your mind wander to, ‘Here we go again.’ I didn’t want to allow it.”
O’Connell’s agency over that decision was going to go only as far as McCarthy could take it. The positive signs surfaced on his first pass. McCarthy eyed the two-receiver side to the right, identified that superstar receiver Justin Jefferson was being double-covered, and progressed to tight end Ben Sims for a 9-yard completion.
Two plays later, he connected with tight end T.J. Hockenson on an out-breaker toward the left sideline. Three plays after that, he hummed a throw to tight end Josh Oliver up the seam for an 18-yard touchdown.
Were any of these passes graduate level on the difficulty scale? No. McCarthy suggested that many of the Vikings’ passing-game concepts Sunday were installed early in the summer and fall.
But McCarthy’s ability to make them look easy showed some serious progress after his three previous games against the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. Even the advanced metrics speak to the growth. McCarthy averaged 2.56 seconds to throw Sunday, according to Next Gen Stats, his quickest in any game this season by more than a quarter of a second.
That this theme in his play style didn’t waver as the game continued was maybe as notable as anything else. He converted passes to receiver Jalen Nailor, peeling off routes toward the sideline. He drilled Jordan Addison on a corner route that required him to reset. He didn’t sail a throw to Jefferson on an over-the-middle screen attempt. He found Oliver on a backside read in the red zone. He lasered a pass into Hockenson’s hands to secure the final touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“That was a split-safety look,” O’Connell said. “Justin does an unbelievable job outside releasing. It opens up the window for T.J. J.J.’s got to trust that thing and locate that football. Accuracy. If we got the coverage we did, then we had answers within the play. Decisive.”
Much of the Vikings’ plan coincided with a script that, even from the beginning of the season, seemed most conducive to success. They generated an early lead. Brian Flores’ defense bothered Commanders quarterbacks Jayden Daniels and Marcus Mariota, creating three turnovers. And they committed to the run game.
Having all five starting offensive linemen — a rarity this season — helped. Running backs Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason combined for 128 yards on 25 carries. Because the Vikings were determined to run the ball, they knew they could find themselves in third-down situations. That was going to be OK, so long as McCarthy could make the proper reads and accurate throws in those instances.
For the most part, he did.
“He deserves this type of game,” Jefferson said. “Just the hard work that he’s been putting in, and the criticism. He’s a young quarterback. I don’t think people really understand that. They forget he didn’t really play last year. This is his first year really playing. There are going to be times when there’s adversity. Things might not look the greatest, but his keeping on and bouncing back was great.”
The sustainability of this showing will only reveal itself over time, but even that topic feels premature on a day like this one. Sunday served as a reprieve amid the frustrating, disappointing, head-scratching season that has been.
Sometimes, these are worth celebrating, especially when they inject a bit of belief into the young quarterback at the heart of this story.
