Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How did JJ McCarthy look at OTAs?

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by the Pioneer Press' Dane Mizutani to react to what they saw of Vikings QB JJ McCarthy at Minnesota's OTAs on Wednesday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Kaller here inside TCO Performance Center with Dane Mizzetani, the Pioneer Press. And we just got finished watching JJ McCarthy's first inaugural OTA practice. But we do have thoughts on that OTA practice and we listened to him talk as well and Kevin O'Connell about JJ McCarthy. So there actually was a good amount of takeaways and look at this. Look at all these notes that I took from this practice So I did write down every throw of JJ McCarthy's along with some lineup notes some injury notes A lot to get into including right here at the top, who was taking punt return reps. So that's making the most of an OTA practice. But why don't we begin exactly

where everyone wants us to begin? Dane, the question of the decade, how'd JJ McCarthy look? I think he looked pretty good. No, honestly, I think I approached this OTA workout session and I will approach Monday's OTA workout session and mandatory mini camp in a couple of weeks with the guys of, okay, let's not make too much about this. But I can't help myself after watching him sling the ball around today. Look, I don't think we can pencil him in as future Hall of Fame or they're going to win the Super Bowl this year. But in terms of looking like he's picking up right where he left off last year when he suffered the torn meniscus,

I think we can confidently say yes, that's kind of where he's at in his progression. We always talk about the arm strength, the way the ball jumps out of his hand. It's crazy to me that it was ever a question, does this guy have the arm talent to succeed at the NFL level? Because watch him throw for five seconds and it's obvious. He was zipping it in there today. The layered walls that Kevin O'Connell talks about, those were there and present and can be seen. But you see all of these things kind of coming together. And I think it's a good reminder of just how far he's come

from last year to now, but also a good kind of indicator at where this thing could go, because I was really impressed with just how he looked today, how he commanded the offense. And it's day two of OTAs. So there's so much more kind of ramp way for this kid to take. But I think right now when you walk away from that practice, I would be surprised if anybody walks away thinking, I don't know, like it's there, you can see it. Now, consistency at the professional level is key. But will we see it on Monday when we come back here? Will we see it in mandatory mini camp? Will

we see it in training camp when everyone is there? The fans are there, the people in the stands are recording every single throw. Will he be able to attain that level of consistency that really is how quarterbacks succeed in the league, that remains to be seen. But from what we saw today, he looked good. And I can say that with full confidence. I've been thinking a lot about, and people have heard me sort of hemming and hawing over this on the show, like how do I evaluate an OTA practice? So before I arrived today, I came up with on the drive out here a way of how am I going to think about evaluating one single OTA practice. And even Kevin O'Connell started his press conference by saying, now guys, it is the learning phase. And we're

all like, sure, man, we're about to go do a whole podcast on this one practice. But one of the things is time. That is a major part of evaluating a practice is does it just look to your eye like it should look? Think about an offense when you watch on a weekly basis that's really ticking. The quarterback is hitting his back foot, the ball's coming out, or he's getting to a progression and then he's moving on to the next one quickly

and then going through it. And keep in mind that as far as full speed type of reps went, I mean, I can't say anything's truly full speed until it's in training camp with helmets and pads and all that sort of stuff. But did it look like the ball was coming out when it was supposed to during this drill? And I think the answer was very clearly yes, it was.

I only remember one rep where McCarthy could not find somewhere to go with the football and then sort of just fiddled around and then launched it down the field to Jordan Addison, which he threw the ball really far, but that was not what was supposed to happen. When we've watched, I have to use kind of bad quarterbacking that we've watched in the past to say, well, it's not that.

When we watched bad quarterbacking in the past at OTAs, it's often, where do I go with the ball? I don't really have a good sense for this. And then the receivers stop running and everyone kind of looks around and it would have been a sack. Very few of those types of reps. So it looked to me like he understood

where the ball was supposed to go. And even if he didn't see it come out, he was checking it down pretty quickly. Now you could say, well, it's not great if he's checking it down a bunch of times in OTAs, but actually it is, if he's getting to that spot where it's supposed to go. And we saw Aaron Jones catch a few footballs

out of the backfield or the ball go underneath to a Justin Jefferson. I know that's not a check down, but a quick pass. That's something that they're going to utilize, I think a lot this year. And it just felt like it should have this snappiness to it of all right, here, get the ball, drop back, throw, next rep, next rep.

There were not a lot of times where I saw Josh McCown or Kevin O'Connell saying, all right, stop, stop, everybody, let's look at the thing and let's go over this again and everything. I didn't see a whole lot of that. And then the other part was just how does JJ McCarthy purely throw the football like regardless of result, does the guy catch it? Does he not catch it? Is it coming out

fast, hard, like it did last year with the same level of velocity? I would check that box and say, yes. And did it look like receivers were getting led into the football or having to kind of stop and wait for it to get there. I felt like it was doing that. And he especially hit some 20, 25 yard throws breaking out, which was something that I think was questioned a little bit about him and throwing the football when he was coming out. One to Jordan Addison really stuck out to me where Addison was coming across the field. He hits him right near the sideline. He kind of goes up and grabs it. I thought that consistently throughout this practice,

he was accurate. And that is something from last year that he made gains after gains after gains. And I asked him about after practice, I said, like, how far do you think you've come or how do you make that progress? And he just said, really, that anticipation is such a big part of accuracy.

And I think that's totally true. The guy you think of that is like Philip Rivers or Drew Brees now They didn't have the pure arm strength of McCarthy, but maybe early Rivers, but not like throwing rockets But if you throw to the right spaces You can look very accurate even if you're just throwing to a spot and the receiver is arriving there that happened a lot today During this practice. And then I wanted to say to myself, physically speaking, like does he look like he's moving smoothly and comfortably like someone who's fully recovered

or because you can tell when someone's trying to protect something or maybe isn't quite as confident on a leg or a knee that's been surgically repaired. And I really felt like he was moving quite smoothly. This was about the best possible scenario of what JJ McCarthy was going to look like in his first OTA practice with all the caveats that comes along with, and I'm going to make them over and over again. Like, I think just judging each spot, one play at a time for us, one practice, one thing we see,

and then describing it and talking about it is the only way to approach this. But the biggest thing to me, even more than the accuracy, even more than the timing, is just, did he look to me like somebody who was a starting quarterback in the NFL? We've seen Sam Darnold come in OTAs, we saw many years of Kirk Cousins,

those are starting NFL quarterbacks, very good ones. I would say yes. I would say this was a very similar practice to what you would have expected from a Kirk Cousins or a Sam Darnold. And I know, I don't know all the details of what they're asking him. He said he missed some cadences or different things with play calls or looks, or he did throw an interception to Ivan Pace that maybe led Justin Jefferson too far. Maybe Jefferson didn't want to fight for it. But he looked like a starting NFL quarterback to me in this practice. And that's all I can really say. Like that's just the fact of what we saw without trying to make many other conclusions about

that. Yeah. And I think I'm glad you brought up the bad quarterback play that exists across the league. And sometimes we've seen it here in this building or in this with this organization. It did not look like that. And that is kind of the main takeaway. Yes, he looks like a starting quarterback in the league and he carries himself like a starting quarterback in the league on the field with how he's commanding the offense. One thing that stood out to me today is like he was constantly going up to teammates, dapping them up, you know, keeping them, you know, heads up if it was a bad play, giving them praise if it was a good play. That's just stuff that he

does inherently because you can tell this kid is a leader at heart. So he carries himself like a, like a starting quarterback on the heart. So he carries himself like a starting quarterback on the field. He looks the part of a starting quarterback on the field. Then we talked to him today for 15 minutes and man, he carries himself like a starting quarterback off the field as well. You mentioned the interception he threw to Ivan Pace.

That was the first throw of seven on seven. And I'm not gonna make a big deal out of the interception who cares is kind of how I would take away that interception yes I think in a real game Justin Jefferson probably goes over the middle makes the catch we think nothing of it instead it gets tipped up in the air Ivan pace intercepts the ball the defense goes crazy and and we move on but when we were talking to JJ McCarthy after he McCarthy after, he kind of, he didn't reference the interception itself, but he talked about the ability to move on quickly,

not have one play carry over to the next play. And I think when you hear him say those things, that sounds like a starting quarterback in the NFL. He's saying the right things. But he said that after really applying that over the course of an hour. After throwing that interception to Ivan Pace, he went out there and had what I would consider, what you would consider, what I hope everyone who watched today would consider, because if not, I think we're nitpicking, a very, very good practice. So the kind of conglomeration of what he said, what he did, and kind of how those two things worked in concert, it was as good as you could hope for out of, and let's really hammer It's also OTA too. And we want to pump the brakes and we're not crowning this guy as, like I said, a future hall of famer. But what we've seen today and what we have to kind of take away, the first time seeing him really throw since he suffered

that knee injury, is that he's on pace, he's on track, and then I think you can feel good about what J.J. McCarthy is to the Vikings moving forward. Something else that stood out to me from talking with J.J. McCarthy was he explained his process of breaking down each practice, and maybe he should email the clip over to Caleb Williams and he can see how to do this. But he talked about when he was doing his post-practice treatment, which every player does, you know, cold baths, stuff like that, for practice, that he would take a look and watch the film back, kind of get a 30,000 foot view of it, just a snapshot

of what the practice was like, and then go home later on and break down every single play where his eyes were, where his feet were, where he was supposed to go with the football. And there's just the type of maturity that comes along with JJ McCarthy that you don't know what someone's going to be like when they arrive in the NFL. Now we started to learn about this last year. We learned a lot about this last year. So I'm not breaking new ground. He didn't shock me with this like, Oh, McCarthy has a process every day for breaking down his own work and a schedule that he's sticking to and things like that But I think it really shows for someone who missed so much time last year to come out and look like they're operating an offense Where they know where to go with the football that he is studying if you do the studying and you do the work and you can see the field then you're going to have a lot of

success at the quarterback position and and see the field, then you're going to have a lot of success at the quarterback position. And his process for studying is what you would hear from a starting quarterback in the NFL. And also why I was so perplexed about Caleb Williams and how he said no one told him how to watch films. Like, well, it's, you know, this is in brain surgery, my friend.

I don't think anyone has to teach you how to go home and watch your practice and see if you threw the ball where you were supposed to throw it. But these little things sort of add up. And another part of it is with McCarthy that came to mind as he was talking because he has a humility about him that's clear that I think the definition of arrogance is thinking that you don't have to do what other people have to do to get to the same places. So the opposite of that, like understanding that this

is a process that he has to put in all the work that he has to do all the homework to get to that same spot. You just know that after you listen to JJ McCarthy talk. So there's no arrogance to him, which is I think really important for him. But there's also a, I thought an appreciation of what he went through and we didn't talk about it a lot with him today Physically, you know, he said hey, you know, it's feeling good He said bigger faster stronger an athlete in OTA is in the best shape of their life I thought we didn't get to that until training camp But and you know

He does look a little bigger than he did last year and we were concerned when he lost the amount of weight that he lost If it would come back on I guess I forgot that 21 22 year olds work differently than old people like us but I think the point just being that he seems to get it like he really understands how this has to work in order for him to get from point A to point B and we see that from him. We, we see both what he's doing and then now the results of it for him to come back to looking close to where he was last year in training camp. Yeah.

And I always bring up last year in training camp and really last year at this time, when I talk about this kid, rookie mini camp last year, maybe let's say a year and a week ago. That's probably when Rookie Minicamp was last year. I was like, what is going on? The ball's sailing all over the place. He can't complete a pass. He's just trying to throw it as hard as he possibly can. And then OTAs, he looks better. And then training camp, he looks better. And then preseason, he looks better. So you can see that process you talk about really apply in real time last year before he gets hurt. And the fact that we are going to stand here today and after watching that say he looks like

he's still on that pathway doesn't seem like there was regression. It's not a guarantee that if you lose an entire year, and by the way, don't play in a game the entire time, don't seem like there was regression. It's not a guarantee that if you lose an entire year and by the way, don't play in a game the entire time, don't get to practice, that you're just going to pick back right where you left off in August. But he has, it really seems like he has and talking to even Kevin O'Connell today, like it seems like he has. And then I think if O'Connell had worries about where he was at in his progression, now I don't think he'd stand up at the lectern and say, like, I'm worried, but I don't think he would be as effusive in his praise as he was about McCarthy today, too. So you're seeing that process

from last year and how much he improved before he was injured. And now you're seeing it again from when he was injured to how he is just right where he was at that point in time with a lot of room to improve still yet. So the process is a big thing. And I think we can sometimes use the process as like a cliche, but when he really digs in and says, this is what I do. And then you see his improvements, you can understand how that can come to fruition. So it really is high marks for him right now. I think another thing he mentioned after practice was just where he feels the biggest difference

from this moment in time last year to this moment in time this year. I think that was an opportunity to kind of get flowery and say, oh, this, this, this, and this. And no, he was very meticulous. He said, I think I asked him the question, it was where's the biggest difference? He said, I know the offense. He said, I can reference it and I can go out there and I can apply it. And it was a very to the point answer of here's the biggest difference, here's where I feel comfortable. Just yet another example of he's really not about talking about it, he's about that action of just showing it on the field. And so far his words and his actions have been in sync pretty much

every step of the way since we've talked to him. And I'm always trying to just observe everybody's little interactions and reactions and try to pick up on a vibe and things like that because, you know, what else are we doing out here? And with Kevin O'Connell, yes, he did remind us about, you know, completions and incompletions, which I wrote down, everyone, but I didn't really look because he completed almost every pass because it's seven on seven and the corners can't be physical with the wide receivers, so you really should complete almost every pass. But, you know, O'Connell talked about how there

are some things that he's brought up in the offense where McCarthy remembers it from whatever game last year, whatever study they did last year, and then there are other things where he's still having to remind him and teach him and things like that. But I thought that O'Connell's just body language answering questions and how he did it. It had more confidence than hedging to me. Sometimes with a player that might be struggling or something, you'll hear like, well, you know, it's early and we're working through it or something. But there wasn't any miscues that were obvious to our eyes that we were even asking about with JJ McCarthy. So I thought that O'Connell seemed like he came to the podium to talk with us,

like someone who had just watched a practice that he liked. And that's probably the best we can do for our complete JJ McCarthy breakdown of this practice. And we'll do it again next week when we talk about what he looks like then. But there's a lot of other stuff that I wanted to bring up. The punt returning I can save for later, down of this practice and we'll do it again next week when we talk about what he looks like then. But there's a lot of other stuff that I wanted to bring up. The punt returning I can save for later.

But I think the most notable, well, is that Justin Jefferson is here. I didn't have any doubts that Jefferson would be here. He was negotiating his contract last year. It would have been insane for him to step on the field while negotiating a contract for an OTA practice. And in previous years, I think it's been hit or miss, but he also knew the offense and Kirk Cousins and there was no reason really for him to attend if he had something else going on like the Met Gala or whatever he had going on.

It doesn't matter. It's an OTA practice. But you know, he was here and he and McCarthy hooked up a few times during this thing. And he talked about Jefferson's leadership and so forth. I think you can tell they're feeling each other out and that's going to take a while with that process. But he was the most notable, like, this person is here. There were other people that weren't, didn't see Josh Mattelis possibly jailed after his actions. I'm joking.

At the Timberwolves game, if you saw that virally, he got a warning for maybe being too verbally aggressive at the sideline of the Timberwolves game, but with Josh Metellus, didn't see him out here. So that was interesting to see some of the rotation. And I also didn't see Isaiah Rogers on the field, which meant that Jeff Okuda was getting a lot of run, and that was interesting. And he talked about his need after practice, he talked about his need for consistency and growing as a player,

but he felt like Brian Flores could lean into his physicality a little bit, so that might help him. But he was sort of the next man up. We saw a lot of McKay Blackman. Obviously Byron Murphy Jr. was out there. And players that stuck out to me that rotated in, I'm just going to go with the defense when we talk about the offensive line. Levi Drake Rodriguez got a lot of work today and he's really going to be on my radar for this year because the opportunity exists for Levi Drake Rodriguez to take that big next step and be a rotational guy. Also just noticed a lot of Dallas Turner on the edge and a lot of Andrew Van Ginkle moving around. That's not any sort of

breaking news. I am not breaking the OTA practice rules for reporting by saying that Van Ginkle was moving around a lot, but Dallas Turner Van Ginkle on the field at the same time. I think we're probably going to see a lot of that this season. And just from a, how big does, I know you guys wanna know, does Dallas Turner look bigger? Yes, I think Dallas Turner does look bigger, but the, this guy looks bigger winner of OTAs is Jalen Naylor.

Clearly, clearly put on some beef during the off season. But just from a defensive perspective, that really stood out to me that Levi Drake Rodriguez was out there quite a bit and Jeff Okuda when Isaiah Rogers wasn't there. Yeah. I noticed Levi Jake Rodriguez for sure getting those rotational reps and that stood out I think even more than Jalen Redmond reps wise. Now again, OTA2 does not mean Levi Drake Rodriguez is necessarily ahead of Jalen Redmond, could just be the coaching staff wanting to see more of him. But the fact that he was on the field with the first team with the guys that you would

consider starters or rotational players in the defense did seem notable. Another notable Javon Hargrave was there. I think there was a little bit of a question, is he going to be ready for the spring? And so Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen, both mixing in with Harrison Phillips up front. You kind of got to see what this defense could look like. No, Mattelis, he wasn't there. So Theo Jackson got a lot

of run. We saw a lot of Jay Ward. Harrison Smith, another guy, like you talked about Justin Jefferson being there. Well, Harrison Smith is going on year 100 in the NFL. He doesn't have to come to OTAs if he doesn't want to. But I think that speaks to kind of, one, who these guys are as players and two, the culture that really has been established. The guys wanna be back here, they wanna get ready and they understand that if they come to these voluntary workouts in a few weeks here, they can go do whatever they want until training camp.

So the participation, I don't know if it was 100% but it was pretty darn close to 100%. And the only reason I don't know if it was 100 is but it was pretty darn close to 100%. And the only reason I don't know if it was 100% is because we didn't see guys like Josh Mattel, that's Isaiah Rodgers. Maybe they're in the building. We don't know. We didn't see them on the field. So we can't say 100% full participation.

But the point being everyone that was notable kind of was there. And you kind of got the feel of a real practice because everyone is so bought in the defense as a whole when you kind of Widen out and look at who's not or who's getting reps. I'm just kind of how it feels We're gonna feel this even more in training camp But the defense always is gonna look better than offense, and especially once training camp rolls around. But I think even today at times, it's crazy. The guys are shifting around, guys are moving,

pre-snap, post-snap looks way different. Think that makes it really tough on guys like JJ McCarthy processing, but I think that can also be a good thing. But I did like to see, or did like to keep an eye on who was working in because with how much this defense moves pre and post snap, the reps that guys are getting, where they're getting them is notable because if you're going to contribute on the defensive side

of the ball, you're going to need to be in those rotations. So the fact that Levi Drake Rodriguez in there matters. The fact fact that Levi Drake Rodriguez is in there matters. The fact that Jalen Redmond is in there matters. I saw Kobe King today. That matters because he's a guy who I think at times they could find spots for. So across the board on the defense, there was what you expected as far as reps, but also a couple of guys that we've already mentioned kind of getting looks that maybe I didn't expect here in OTA 2. Yeah two more to mention Tyreon Ingram Dawkins was out there a handful of times in some different spots and then Jay Ward

I don't know sometimes with first team second team They mix and match so much with Brian Flores with Mike Zimmer it used to be the very clear first team, second team, third team stand over there and watch. And that is not really how it's done with Brian Flores, because a lot of guys get opportunities to mix in with different starters. But Jay Ward made a couple plays today and was out there moving around. And another guy who looked a little bit beefed up, a little bit bigger. I mean, you're trying to judge this from the sideline. It's hard to really say, but I think that Jay Ward has an opportunity with this team to carve out some type of role. And maybe some of that could have been that

Metellus was not out there today, but I think that he is a guy who is following that similar path to special teams and then getting opportunities, but Theo Jackson, clearly the guy as the other safety to go along with Harrison Smith. Now on the offensive side, I had wondered how much of a quarterback competition there was going to be for the backup spot. Like, oh, is this Brett Rippon versus Sam Howell? Is it gonna be those guys split reps? It is not.

It was Sam Howell the whole way. I think I saw Brett Rippon throw a pass at some point late in the practice. No, I mean there was almost nothing for Brett Rippon. It was entirely Sam Howell, which tells us it is Sam Howell's job to lose as the backup quarterback of this team. And I know again, it's very, very, very early. But when a guy takes all the reps and the other guy takes almost none of the reps, it's pretty clear where the starting point is. And we'll watch if that changes at any point. But Sam Howell is QB2 until Aaron Rodgers. No, I was joking, but no, I mean, and I thought from

Sam Howell's perspective, it was a very uneven practice. There were balls flying over guys' heads and things like that. He does not have any time in this offense, like JJ McCarthy, but there was no question about that. Now, as far as the offensive line goes, it was a rag tag bunch of the offensive line because Christian Derrissau clearly not ready for OTAs. And then Will Fries was curious about Will Fries. Now, after practice, Kevin O'Connell said,

we might not see Will Fries at any point during OTAs and mini camp, but training camp he feels confident about. So there's the update there on him. I would not expect anything from Darasaw until some point into training camp. But the offensive line was just in school. We saw a lot of Donovan Jackson at starting left guard, which actually is a shade unusual

because even high draft pick linemen don't always get the first team reps in this phase. Like a lot of times it's not until training camp. I don't even know if Ed Ingram was getting them at this phase or Ezra Cleveland in the past or Pat Elfline or Garrett Bradbury. Like usually they're second teamers. So we did see Donovan Jackson out there and then Blake Brandle was the one who was playing right guard. He played a little left guard as well. And then as you'd expect Ryan Kelly and Brian O'Neal. But I think what it tells you though is actually I was thinking like this offensive line is pretty

good depth because if this was the starting line knowing Justin School has played before that wouldn't be too bad, but that's just kind of like where everybody's playing and as far as wide receivers just Shawn Jones season baby just Shawn Jones has stood out in this phase two years in a row now and was good in training camp so he's a guy that we're going to keep an eye on he made a bunch of plays today and Tim Jones might be a name that you have to learn at some point because he was a special team or with Jacksonville and then he was the wide receiver For today, I think Right. We just yeah him and Felton. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah five four. Yeah. Yeah ish

Okay, so there's all the offensive things. Did you have offensive takeaways other than that? Jordan Mason's big. Yeah. No, I, that's actually where I was going to go is that while we can't tell with reps and rep counts and it's, it's pointless to say like this percentage of the carries are going to go to Aaron Jones and this percentage of the carriers are going to go to Jordan Mason. What I think we can say is that it's going to be a pretty split backfield. I think the goal for the Vikings heading into this off season after Aaron Jones had 306 touches, which was a career high last year, was let's make sure he doesn't have to have that workload again and let's not have to rely on Ty Chandler or Trading for Cam

Acres for the third time in a row to do it. So they went out and got Jordan Mason who yes is huge. It's not surprising that that guy is good after contact because who the hell wants to tackle him? He looks like a fullback out there and I mean that in a good way. He is a tank and he is someone who I think is going to take a lot of the pressure off of Aaron Jones and probably make both of them better. This, I mean, he was pretty dominant for the 49ers at times last year before maybe he wore down a little bit because of the workload that he's not used to.

So I think together those two in the backfield, it's going to work. I can't say it stood out today because there's no contact and they hand the ball to Aaron Jones. Well, it's going to work. I can't say it stood out today because there's no contact and they hand the ball to Aaron Jones. Well, he's going to score a touchdown every time. They hand the ball to Jordan Mason. He's going to score a touchdown every time. They can't bring them down. But I did kind of want to see how they were splitting up the carries and it does seem to be pretty, pretty 50-50. We'll see if that continues. The Sam Howell thing did interest me because it's not even to the point where I think it's a competition his to lose with

anybody that's in the building. I don't think Brett Rippon is a part of that conversation now. And I don't think if Sam Howell loses the competition, it will be because Brett Rippon has passed him. What I'm saying is if Sam Howell is not the backup quarterback of this team, I think the backup quarterback of this team is not on the roster right now. But it is clearly his job to take and run with. Another thing that stood out about Sam Howell is his arm strength was very indicative of how strong JJ McCarthy's arm is because the way this was set up because they were indoors today it rained a little so they didn't want to put him outside which fair OTA

is the last thing you want is someone slipping on the grass and getting hurt but the starters were on one side of the field the let's call backups reserves were on the other side of the field so all of jj mccarthy's reps were going on at the same time as all of sam howell's reps and what you noticed is the velocity jj mccarthy's ball zipped in there sam howell's ball sometimes fluttered in there so it's a clear well one guy is much more talented than the other, but I do think Sam Howell, the amount of reps he got, he's the backup quarterback until he's not. And then I think that is probably as far as his big takeaways from the day.

Outside of McCarthy looking good, outside of certain guys being here, certain guys not being here, it's that right after McCarthy on the depth chart, right now it's Sam Howell. Sam Howell versus himself. I think is a way to put it because you might also just knowing that Brett Rippon knows the offense and has been here want Sam Howell operating a lot more. That could be an explanation, but I don't think that they're going to go with Brett Rippon as QB2 or it just doesn't seem like from the first day we see him in practice that there's any even thought of getting Brett Rip in Actual work so Sam Howell v. Sam Howell

But the last thing we do have to go over from the notes from practice is the first thing I wrote down which is the punt returners because that was the first thing we saw when we got out there Let me tell you about a little funny moment so Silas Bolden is back returning a punt. And they're indoors cause there's a little sprinkle. Can't get JJ McCarthy wet. It's his one weakness. No, I'm just kidding.

But JJ McCarthy was throwing warmup passes, facing one way. Ryan Wright kicked the ever loving bleep out of the football and it went like 70 yards. And Bolden went back and back and back and grabbed it as he was kind of stumbling a little and almost ran into JJ McCarthy and my brain just explode. Like, can you imagine?

Let's not even go there. What would happen after that? But I was taking note of the punt returners and Ryan Wright looked clearly better than the other punter but I don't know, that's inside and who knows. So here's who was part returning. Very exciting. Uh, miles price.

You can Google them. Uh, Dante Fleming. You can Google them. Now this guy, you know, Jalen Naylor, uh, Silas Bolden. You can Google him and Jordan Addison were the ones returning punts. Now, don't get too excited about Jordan Addison because he's done this before, and I've never seen him return a punt. It might be just a situation where, let's say they were down seven points with four

seconds to go. And they're like, ah, let's put out our best player and see if he returns a punt. And Addison was a great punt returner in college, but there's no way in hell that's happening. Bolden is interesting to me because he had a part return for touchdown in the college football playoff and he's got some juice to him. Fleming, I just am not, and Price, I'm not familiar enough, but Jalen Naylor might have that chance to be the guy to be the part returner and all he has to learn is if it's up over his head, don't reach for it. But that group is uninspiring and makes me think that maybe Rondale Moore, once he gets here, could be the guy to return punts.

But that is as deep as we wanna go on the show. So let me throw something out at you. Now that we've seen the Minnesota Vikings put on their uniforms and walk onto a practice field for maybe 45 minutes or so, I was looking at ESPN and their projections and their football power index, which, you know, take it for what it's worth because it is May.

People get very upset about lists and I always suggest maybe don't do that because life is too short to be mad at a list of football teams and their football power indexes. But the power index was not that high on this Viking squad and put their playoff percentage at just 43% chance to make the postseason. Dane, after seeing one OTA practice, where would you put their percentage chance? You want me to give you an actual percentage?

Yes, I do. I think it's higher than 43. Let's just, let's make up 57%. Okay. And I, I say that a little tongue in cheek, but I say it's over 50% because I think they are more likely than not to make the playoffs with what I've seen. But I don't think it's like a guaranteed this team that just won 14 games is going to be back in the playoffs because have you seen the schedule? Pretty hard. Have you seen the quarterbacks they're going to have to go up against this year? Like it's cool for fans that Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and Jaden Daniels are all coming to US Bank Stadium. That sucks for the Vikings. So I don't know if they win any of those games and I'm sure at some point on a porch Maybe somewhere in Richfield, Minnesota We will do a porch pod where I will pick the schedule you haven't asked me to do that yet

So I'm not gonna go down that road, but I say 57% because I do think if JJ McCarthy Who I think we've made it very clear, looked good today, looked like a starting quarterback in the league, if he continues to progress and he reaches the level of above average, I think that's all they need to make the playoffs. I don't think he has to be a superhero. I don't think he has to be as good as Sam Darnold was last year for this

team to be a playoff team because I think the way it's been constructed and this was very intentional, I think by the front office, by Kevin O'Connell, even by Brian Flores on the defensive side is let's just get a bunch of horses in here. Let's get a bunch of dudes in here that can make this kid's life easier in the interim He's on a rookie contract. We have the ability to do that flexibility to do that And I think the team is just so good around him that if he is just above average they will be a playoff team now 57% like that that's where I'm at because I don't know that that's a big ask He hasn't played a

game. He can look really good on May 28th, which is when we're recording this. It does not mean he'll look good on September, whatever the date of the opener on Monday night against Chicago is. And even if he looks good in prime time on Monday night, you have three months of a grind of an NFL season to get through as a rookie quarterback in this league. Basically. I know he's in year two and he's not, he's not eligible to win rookie of the year, technically not right. I don't know. I don't think so. Not in the NFL. I think that's happened to basketball. I think in the basketball you can do it either way. He can look great and I'm sure there will type, there will be times where he'll look great. There will be times where he'll look young.

But if he can just somehow attain above average and shoot, he could look great at times too. And maybe that's just his baseline. Maybe he comes in, lights the world on fire, and you're like, this team has a Super Bowl window for the first time in a long time. That remains to be seen. But I think the team, the roster, it's good enough. If he is what they think he can be. And it's clear there's a belief in JJ McCarthy in this building. I think they can make the playoffs this year. We'll take your chances once you're there. I'm going to go 71%. Wow. Let's go. The reason I'm going to go 71% is what a practice. No, I'm

just kidding. Is because when I watch them practice and I go through, all right, where are they weak? What could undo this team? Well, we know injuries. At this time of year, forget it. I'm not talking about injuries and trying to project, because you just never know. The Vikings have had old teams before that have had every starter stay healthy, and they've had young teams before that got banged up. I don't know what to tell you. But at a full strength, this team is one of the five best rosters in the NFL. And I think that the overall success of teams these days,

unless you have Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, but even Lamar Jackson is a great team around him, is usually going to be driven. And we've seen it from the 49ers. We've seen it from the Philadelphia Eagles. We certainly saw it, I think, from the Rams at times last year as they turned around their season, that the strength overall of their roster drove them. Cause if you go back and look at Matthew Stafford's statistics, I mean, they're good

enough, but they're not mind blowing. And that team still was one drive away from being in the NFC championship. Roster strength is going to get you there. And this to me is the quality of roster strength that would put you in the playoffs 70 or more percent of the time. If you had a proven quarterback, you might bump that even up higher that, uh, but no one's ever a guarantee for the playoffs. There's a lot of close games, one score games and things like that. But the other part is that McCarthy looking like he did today would increase my confidence because we want to see him look like he's going to be able to start from a very strong baseline to continue to make progress. And this was about as good my confidence because we want to see him look like he's going to be able to start

from a very strong baseline to continue to make progress. And this was about as good of a baseline that we could see from him. So I am going higher on that. I know it's a tough division. I know it's a tough schedule. I also wrote about how predicting schedules is basically impossible. And the people who put them out there with no warnings that it's not predictive, when they say strength of schedule, they should really do that. But I guess that's bad for content.

It's true though. I mean, I looked at all of, through a couple of different lenses, all the different strength of schedule rankings in the past, they just weren't very predictive. So you never really know how that's going to play out. The whole point just being that this team is built to this moment. And when we look at them out on that field and I go, all right, well, okay, let's assume a well fries and there's all come back.

Where, where am I looking at a weakness? I don't know what the O Jackson's going to be a safety next to Harrison Smith. I feel pretty okay about that. I don't love the idea that they get down to Jeff Okuda if one guy goes down. We did see a lot of McKay Blackman today too. Okay, the secondary is still a little bit out there, but last year at this time, we had the same sort of questions.

There's a really good roster and really good roster should make the postseason. So that's where I'm putting it. Now I'm not criticizing the data and the way that they win about it, because when you have an unproven quarterback you just can't project them to throw 30 touchdowns, 4,200 yards and make a Pro Bowl.

But if the team is good enough and the sporting guests is good enough then a good quarterback can take his team there. So that's where I am putting them after this day. Any final thoughts as we walk away from TCO Performance Center? Other than I hope the weather is better next week and we can be outside because being inside, it's just, it's a vibe killer.

It's just not the same. Yeah, it was, I was looking forward to sunny spring day in Minnesota, no mosquitoes yet because it's still not hot and muggy. It's the best time of the year outside of two weeks in the fall. So I would like Monday, fingers crossed that the weather is nice that we can watch Jajan McCarthy whip it around outdoors. But no, I mean, this like I think we've covered it at length at this point. Jajan McCarthy, how's he looking? And we'll update you every time we see him. Day two of OTAs, looks pretty damn good. Take that for what you will. I'm sure a lot of you will take that and run with it all the way to, I don't know where the Super Bowl is this year, but we'll look that up. He looks good. And I think that is all you can hope for at this point. If

you're looking at this team and trying to project where they're going to go, how is their quarterback play going to position them to be a team that is fighting for playoff positioning come December and January? If right now is the baseline, I think you're going to be in a pretty good spot. And we'll follow it all the way, no matter where it goes, as we always do. So a great way to follow with us would be to subscribe to this and also check out my newsletter, purpleinsider.football is a great place to get the written version of this show. Five years, huh?

Five years. Five years, baby. Wow. Yeah, five years in May of 2020 is when Purple Insider launched, and here we are finally at the point where the Vikings have the thing I was asking for back in 2020. So it's exciting. All right. Thanks very much, Dane Mizzetani.

Read the Pioneer Press, and we'll catch y'all later. Football. Football.