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Hall of Fame game is Thursday! Unbelievable! We are 9 days away from seeing some action! I am loving seeing the defense give it to the offense and making it very hard for JJ. He needs to see as much of that as possible in preparation for the real games. There are going to be some ups and downs but I expect there will be more ups.
Minnesota Vikings News and Links
Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy chasing ‘constant improvement’ during rough patches in training camp
“Honestly, constant improvement,” McCarthy said Wednesday, via The Minnesota Star Tribune. “Learning every single day and when the periods don’t go your way, you’re always asking why. It’s never a loss. You’re always learning from it. … Those periods where they really get you, I feel like that’s where we learn the most about ourselves and our offense.”
The Vikings defense, which can make veteran quarterbacks wet themselves at times, has reportedly been in McCarthy’s face quite a bit the past several practices. In Tuesday’s red-zone session, the QB struggled, completing a reported 3 of 11 attempts in the restricted area.
“Missing by inches,” McCarthy said of the red-zone drill. “That’s what happens when you’re down in the red zone. You got to be detail-oriented and really specific with where you’re putting the ball. But there were a lot of good things on tape … just more great reps to put under my belt.”
It must be noted that we’re just over a week into training camp, Justin Jefferson isn’t practicing, and star left tackle Christian Darrisaw is just returning from an ACL tear. Overreacting to a few practices is a fool’s errand. This is the time of year for growing and learning, particularly for a player who missed all of last season.
“Not having those reps last year, that’s something you miss out on when you take a substantial amount of time off from throwing the football,” McCarthy said. “You got to find that touch again. There were a lot of throws in OTAs where I felt I could’ve had a better outcome if I had that touch. Just learning from failures and trying to get better.”
Vikings training camp recap, Day 7: Defense keeps cooking, Darrisaw back
Should we be concerned about the offense? Or is this defense so good that most offenses would look like this?
I lean toward the latter. I don’t think it’s worth overreacting to the Vikings’ offense — not with some new offensive linemen and a young quarterback and injuries to their two best players. I think the takeaway continues to be that Brian Flores’ defense is going to be a major problem for just about everybody on the schedule in 2025.
In one period later in practice that was best on best, the Vikings’ offense went nowhere. Byron Murphy Jr. raced off the edge and swatted down an attempted screen pass. J.J. McCarthy was under pressure on the following play and had to tuck the ball down and try to scramble. The pocket completely collapsed on him on the ensuing play for a sack, leading to a synced-up celebration from Jonathan Greenard and Dallas Turner. Blake Cashman stuffed a run. McCarthy finally got a pass completed to T.J. Hockenson after escaping pressure, but that one may have been a sack too.
Despite the defense’s strong play, it wasn’t as rough of a day for McCarthy as Tuesday was. He bounced back early in practice with some nice throws to his top three targets: Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, and Jalen Nailor. One particular throw to Nailor, on the backside of a progression, stood out. McCarthy and the first-team offense won their situational period at the end of practice when McCarthy hit Nailor twice and then handed it off to Jordan Mason for a big run. Overall, there were ups and downs for the Vikings’ young quarterback.
Darrisaw takes big step
Vikings left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who is in the final stages of recovering from a major knee injury, took his first 11-on-11 reps of camp on Wednesday. He participated in a couple periods, then stepped aside for Justin Skule, who had gotten all of the first-team work up to this point. It’s a big step for Darrisaw to be back out there in team drills. For the first time, we saw the Vikings’ full starting offensive line, with both Darrisaw and Will Fries participating. Will we see it in Week 1?
Vikings training camp recap, Day 6: J.J. McCarthy struggles, other notes
Through the first handful of practices in camp, there had been a lot more good than bad from McCarthy. Saturday’s practice, in particular, saw him put on a show for the fans in attendance with numerous impressive throws.
With that said, Tuesday’s practice was more bad than good. McCarthy’s completion percentage — while I didn’t track it down to the throw — was well below 50 percent in team periods. There were some that were narrow misses, some that were blatant misses or miscommunications, and a couple balls that were arguably drops by his targets. But the overall theme was that far too many balls hit the grass instead of being completed.
Here are a few other things I saw on Tuesday:
Will Fries pancaked backup defensive tackle Jonathan Harris on a screen pass to T.J. Hockenson, which drew some high fives from teammates. One of the things that shows up on Fries’ Colts tape is his tenacity when it comes to finishing blocks.
Dwight McGlothern just keeps making plays. After he had an interception on Monday and broke up a pass that created another pick, the second-year cornerback jumped a route and picked off Sam Howell on Tuesday. There are a lot of guys competing for roster spots in the Vikings’ CB room, but it feels like “Nudie” (McGlothern’s nickname) is going to be on the 53.
‘Two percent better every day’: J.J. McCarthy focused on constant improvement
Asked to sum up his progress six days into Vikings training camp, McCarthy says he’s getting “more and more comfortable in this system.”
“Just attacking the process of the pre snap, the cadences, knowing where everyone’s at. And you know, something I really wanted to work on was just those layer balls and being able to find my touch again and I feel like I made some significant strides with that part of my game. And you know at the end of the day, I feel like we’re getting, you know, two percent better every single day and that’s all that matters,” continued McCarthy.
3 Observations: Vikings Defense Stacks INTs, Christian Darrisaw Takes Some Team Reps with 1s
1. Sacks aplenty
The best defenses are the ones that understand the importance of having pass rush and pass coverage positively impact each other.
It’s early, but it appears the 2025 Vikings are there.
In addition to the successes and celebrations enjoyed on the back end of the defense, the front 7 also had itself a day.
The group rushed well together at multiple times, pushing the pocket up the middle, or sending an outside linebacker screaming around the edge.
Ahead of practice, starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy was asked about the defense throwing the “kitchen sink” at him, and his answer translated not just to practice on Monday, but also Wednesday when the defense had a tremendous afternoon.
“What I learned from that is in those situations, they’re so impeccable to get early on, especially in this camp like setting, because there’s no consequences to it. There’s so much learning involved. And with those front seven guys and that rush, it’s tremendous to feel that early on and be able to make quicker decisions, get to my back, maybe find an escape lane here or there when they’re playing man on the back end. But, yeah, it was just another great example for me to see and, you know, experience.
“I mean, the rush and being able to not sit in the pocket and hold the ball. You’ve got to make quick, decisive decisions, and you really have to a plan and a process going up to each and every play. And once that ball hits your fingertips, you know they’re gonna be firing off.”
Head coach Kevin O’Connell elaborated on the defense’s performance during Tuesday’s press conference and how it impacted McCarthy.
“First play of the drill, you’re always trying to get the drill off to a good start in that two-minute setting. But end of half, we capture the momentum of the drill by making a play on the first play and then, being able to play it out from there on our terms. Not just hope for a field goal, but maybe we go down and try to score,” said O’Connell when talking about the two-minute drill. “We’ve had some success over the last three years in that middle-eight, end-of-half phase. That was not always against the likes of [Jonathan] Greenard, [Andrew Van] Ginkel, [Javon] Hargrave, [Jonathan] Allen. I think Cash [Blake Cashman] or IP [Ivan Pace Jr.] might have been in there as well. Flo [Brian Flores] brought a simple pressure, playing man coverage, real tight, sticky coverage on the outside. They were able to run a game up front and get home almost at the top of JJ McCarthy’s drop on the first one. . .”
“I think another time where there was a chance to change the whole drill down the field with a with our secondary or primary, however you look at a progression, and JG [Jonathan Greenard], that’s why he’s here. We call him the closer. How many times have we seen him win a one-on-one, or even help from the back or the tight end, and he just wins and ends the drill? We’re not at full capacity with that O-line group right now, but there is zero excuse from a standpoint of not being able to have the time to throw and compete That’s what that drill is, known passing. I thought the O-line showed some great physicality throughout the day in the run game, play action, pass protections, our different phases of our offense. Some games, as you guys know, many of ours, coincidentally or not, come down to those one-score games. We’re going to have to be great as a team, situationally. But the defense clearly won that two minute [drill], ones and twos, yesterday.
Brian Flores, Vikings could have a special defense brewing in 2025
“I think this defense is gonna do special things,” Metellus said. “It’s still very early, but with the guys we’ve got, the depth we’ve got, I think the sky’s the limit.”
Through one week of training camp, the upside of the defense has been on full display. The first-team unit has caused all kinds of problems for both the first and second-team offenses, particularly with the pass rush up front. Everyone seems to be on the same page, including the newcomers.
“To think it’s not even August yet and we’re getting that type of cohesiveness among that first group defensively…” Kevin O’Connell said. “My expectations are very, very high for our defense.”
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“We’ve got a really deep team,” Metellus said. “I was looking at the depth chart today and I’m like ‘golly, how is this guy last on the depth chart? He’s a good player!’ It’s gonna be a fun year and I’m excited to see what we can figure out. We can throw out 11 guys any which way we want.”
Kevin O’Connell provides update on Justin Jefferson injury
Superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson remains out of Vikings training camp due to a ‘mild’ hamstring strain. Head coach Kevin O’Connell reiterated on Tuesday that it’s not anything serious, but he did provide an update on how the team will approach the injury.
“(There’s a) finite amount of time we’re talking about to get him right and get him totally ready to roll for the grind. The guy plays 70-plus snaps a week, and what we ask him to do is just flat-out remarkable, but he’s able to consistently do that,” O’Connell said about Jefferson. “But you still want to have him back sooner rather than later. Like I said, zero worry about the opener, but there’s a lot of time in between now and then. What that looks like, we’re gonna be smart, but at the same time, he wants to get back out there. He does not want to stay wearing what I wear to practice for much longer.”
When the Vikings added Dwight McGlothern as an undrafted free agent after the 2024 NFL Draft, he was one of two players they signed who was a top 200 player on Arif Hasan’s consensus board. The former Arkansas Razorback had transferred from LSU and showed flashes at both schools. One of the biggest reasons why he was undrafted was due to his size and issues with concussions.
Despite being on the active roster all of last season, he didn’t play very much, but thrived against the Chicago Bears the first time he got extensive run.
Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy on Max Brosmer’s whiskey song: ‘He can sing’
Vikings quarterback Max Brosmer doesn’t just have an exceptional throwing arm, one good enough to get him to the NFL. As revealed by Vikings starter J.J. McCarthy, Brosmer also has an ability to sing a tune.
Talking to the media on Wednesday from the team’s training camp, McCarthy praised the former Gophers QB as “super detail oriented” and an “awesome human being,” adding, “He can sing pretty well too.”
“He’s got a song out there Old Jack Daniels, check it out,” continued McCarthy.
Fantasy Football: 3 quarterbacks who could finish No. 1 overall
J.J. McCarthy, Minnesota Vikings (ADP: 13.08)
J.J. McCarthy spent three years as a quarterback at Michigan, initially as a backup to Cade McNamara, but then he beat out McNamara for the starting job in 2022. He was never a high-volume quarterback due to Michigan’s run-first offense and constantly playing with a lead, but he was great on a per-play basis. He was in the 90th percentile or better in each situation. He improved significantly from his first year as a starter to his second. His dropbacks per game decreased, but his stats still increased thanks to a much higher accuracy rate.
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McCarthy joins the Minnesota Vikings offense led by Kevin O’Connell. His offenses have been great for quarterbacks. The Vikings typically run an average-to-high number of plays and are consistently passing the ball at a high rate. Sam Darnold was a top-10 fantasy quarterback last season, Kirk Cousins was in 2022, and in 2023, he was top 10 in points per game. In 2023, after Cousins’ injury, Dobbs was a top-12 fantasy quarterback in three of four games he played 100% of his team’s offensive snaps, while Nick Mullens was a top-14 fantasy quarterback when he played 100% of the snaps. Both Dobbs and Mullens had weeks as a top-five fantasy quarterback.
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