For a mailbag published on Friday, Alec Lewis of The Athletic shared that Minnesota Vikings fans “definitely” should not expect rookie J.J. McCarthy to start at quarterback over veteran Sam Darnold for the club’s Week 1 game at the New York Giants on Sept. 8.
“Probably not in the first quarter of the season,” Lewis wrote about when McCarthy may take the field for a meaningful game. “Potentially not even in the first half of the season. There is even a scenario in which he shouldn’t be expected to start at all this year.”
Lewis’ update shouldn’t be all that surprising for those who have followed the situation since the Vikings moved up a spot in this year’s draft order to grab McCarthy on the night of April 25.
Earlier this month, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell suggested that Darnold will open training camp atop the depth chart as McCarthy continues to develop. Last week, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated said he thought there was a “less than 10%” chance that McCarthy could win the starting job by Week 1.
“When general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell talked about team building years ago, before Minnesota hired them to lead its organization, the two men discussed quarterback development,” Lewis noted. “O’Connell expressed his belief that time sitting can be valuable and can potentially even help bring about success.”
Lewis mentioned how Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets and Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers found success after they sat early in their careers. With that said, Lewis acknowledged that “it’ll be difficult for O’Connell to quiet the noise for McCarthy” if Darnold struggles across Minnesota’s first five games.
The Vikings have an early bye at Week 6 and theoretically could use that break to get McCarthy ready to start against the division-rival Detroit Lions on Oct. 20. Barring an injury or Darnold falling flat on his face, it sounds like the Vikings want to keep McCarthy a spectator for as long as possible, regardless of what fans think.