For a mailbag revealed on Friday, Alec Lewis of The Athletic shared that Minnesota Vikings followers “positively” shouldn’t count on rookie J.J. McCarthy to begin at quarterback over veteran Sam Darnold for the membership’s Week 1 recreation on the New York Giants on Sept. 8.
“In all probability not within the first quarter of the season,” Lewis wrote about when McCarthy could take the sector for a significant recreation. “Doubtlessly not even within the first half of the season. There’s even a state of affairs through which he shouldn’t be anticipated to begin in any respect this yr.”
Lewis’ replace should not be all that shocking for individuals who have adopted the state of affairs because the Vikings moved up a spot on this yr’s draft order to seize McCarthy on the night time of April 25.
Earlier this month, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell suggested that Darnold will open coaching camp atop the depth chart as McCarthy continues to develop. Final week, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports activities Illustrated said he thought there was a “lower than 10%” likelihood that McCarthy might win the beginning job by Week 1.
“When normal supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell talked about crew constructing years in the past, earlier than Minnesota employed them to guide its group, the 2 males mentioned quarterback improvement,” Lewis famous. “O’Connell expressed his perception that point sitting could be beneficial and might probably even assist result in success.”
Lewis talked about how Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets and Jordan Love of the Inexperienced Bay Packers discovered success after they sat early of their careers. With that mentioned, Lewis acknowledged that “it’ll be tough for O’Connell to quiet the noise for McCarthy” if Darnold struggles throughout Minnesota’s first 5 video games.
The Vikings have an early bye at Week 6 and theoretically might use that break to get McCarthy prepared to begin towards the division-rival Detroit Lions on Oct. 20. Barring an damage or Darnold falling flat on his face, it sounds just like the Vikings need to maintain McCarthy a spectator for so long as potential, no matter what followers assume.
