Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy To Start When Healthy; Week 9 Return Being Targeted

The Den
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McCarthy has been sidelined since suffering an ankle injury in Week 2. The 2024 first-rounder has dressed as the Vikings’ emergency No. 3 quarterback in each of the past two games, a further sign he is nearing a return to full health. That could be the case in time for Week 9. When McCarthy is back at full strength, he will return to QB1 duties.

“If J.J. is healthy, J.J. will play,” head coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed after yesterday’s game (via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert). “That’s been the case since the injury. That’s always been kind of my mindset, and I believe we’re right — hopefully — around the corner from seeing him be healthy, have a week of preparation and go compete.”

With Minnesota having played on a Thursday, the team now has an extended period to prepare for Week 9. The Vikings will take on the Lions in their next contest, and having McCarthy available would of course be a welcomed development for the team’s offense in the short term and his ability to continue developing over the remainder of the season. McCarthy, 22, missed his entire rookie campaign while recovering from meniscus surgery before his current stretch of absences due to a high ankle sprain.

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Lions will win by a lot no matter who is QB.

Hope JJ is healthy more than 1 game with all the hits he probably will take vs Lions.

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Glorious. A rookie who has played 2 whopping games and looked god awful in both. Good luck against our front 7. Yeah, the secondary is beat up and they have good WRs, but I like the match-up.

The health of Darrisaw and McNeil (their starting tackles) along with if VanTinkle returns on defense will be a bigger factor in how well Minnesota plays in my opinion.

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Amik can handle Jefferson. It’s his super power.

That leaves the others to TA, JKerb, and BB.

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Agreed on Amik and I think the secondary as a whole will be fine even if we continue to have guys out. I think the biggest factor in how our defense plays though is our front 7 and getting pressure.

I’m not confident TA or Kerby play against Minnesota. With Branch back, it might be best to continue to let Kerby get his knee right. Harper and Branch are more than adequate back there. Same for TA - give him the time needed to get his shoulder right as we will need him down the line.

And by getting right, I mean well/strong enough to last the remainder of the season.

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I know this is just dumb. But I would rest guys as much as possible since Minny is sucking bad right now.

He’ll put Decker back on the rack and rotate Skip and Manu

Wait can we rotate them run play verse pass play??? That would be epic

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Decker was grabbing at his shoulder quite a bit late in the Bucs game. But Manu isn’t possible, he’s on IR.

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I don’t think it’s dumb at all. If there are key guys that we can increase the chances of them being available for the long haul, we should. I feel better about our backups for TA and Kerby than I do about Decker though. We really need him healthy if we plan on making a deep run. But our options behind him are not ideal.

I would not rush TA, Joseph, or Decker back. Give Skip the help he needs, even if it limits our play calling a bit.

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Not for a division game, our only objective at this point should be to win the division.

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If I had to choose, I’d have Decker play in the Vikings game rather than the Commies because of the novelty defense Brian Flores runs. I think OCs have figured his defense out a bit as long as the QB experienced like Goff. Still, I don’t want free-runners steamrolling Goff. Our one-armed OT will at least get run over rather than be on the wrong assignment.

In any case, Dan is driving the bus, so I’ve got no worries. As Steve Smith says, JJ needs to see the open receiver before he throws. He’s gonna miss a lot of opportunities because of that, and does he really want to test that ankle against a defense that stopped Lamar from running?

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looked McCarthy’s ankle was healthy enough to play last night…

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Let’s see how much of that hand signaling first down bullshit he does when Hutch, McNeil, and company are hunting his squirrely ass down.

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With how bad Wentz was last night and clearly injured… The Vikes need to get JJ some experience. Hopefully he shows a couple flashes and throws 4 interceptions next week :grinning_face:

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A lot of people here, including myself, wanted to entertain the idea of Wentz as a backup.

I’d rather have Kyle Allen than Wentz.

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The Vikings o-line is so bad that not a lot of people are going to look good playing QB for them.

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I personally think they know JJ isn’t ready. They just don’t want the rest of the world to know.

They had to make some tough decisions, and I’m glad that I didn’t have to make them, but at this point it clearly looks like they fuked up.

One less team in our division to worry about…for now.

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JJ was so protected at Michigan. We’re going to do a run heavy offense and you just need to support it by limiting mistakes and making plays when the opportunity arises. Then he didn’t play at all in preseason games. Oh and here you go on a team that threw 35 TD passes last year and our best player is our WR. Oh, and our o-line is garbage. Good luck.

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Getting zero reps last year did not help JJ. Even if Darnold started all year, being able to practice all season would have helped. Now he’s in year 2… But basically still a rookie.

At some point he’s gonna need reps though. Vikes might just have to punt on the season and get JJ the experience in hopes he improves.

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He really needed a full year of practice, and standing on the sidelines holding a clipboard IMO. Because of the injury he wasn’t afforded that luxury.

Personally I think they should of franchised Darnold for a year, and let JJ play backup and learn.

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I was shocked how bad Minnesota’s defense looked last night. It’s the first time the Chargers have topped 30 points all season. Chargers have failed to top 20 points in 3 of their 8 games this season, then 37 against Vikings.

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