Beating the Cowboys is always good! Our young QB is slowly beginning to show the things that KOC has confidence in. I posted this link the other day but it is still relevant and kind of prescient.
A very good article here that says “NFL quarterbacks do not take any semblance of final shape, on average, until 250-300 drop backs”. It includes a lot of super nerd stats and a comparison to Jared Goff and Josh Allen to support the theory that by the Giants game we should be seeing the real version of JJ.
So far, in his career, JJ has completed 117 out of 206 passes. He might not get to the 250 mark until Christmas when they play the Lions. It is unfortunate for him, the team, and the fans that he was hurt earlier this year and missed those 7 games. He’d probably have at least another 100 attempts by now. He really needs all the reps he can get as we look towards the 2026 season.
There is a lot of talk about bringing in a “veteran” to compete with some folks even suggesting a trade might be in order. I think it is going to be very hard to do though. The number of “competent” QBs that will be available is very small. Daniel Jones, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Marcus Mariota, Tyrod Taylor, Joe Flacco, and Jimmy Garoppolo are some. I do not see other teams not trying to keep most of these players though. Those teams need either a starter or a viable backup as well. Maybe some QB will want to come to Minnesota but why not stay where you are (Mariota, Taylor, and Garoppolo). Then, you have a situation in KC where Mahomes might miss the first couple of months of the season. Will they get someone new or re-sign Minshew? Zach Wilson may stick with Miami in case they do something with Tua or he unfortunately gets hurt again. I think Jimmy G sticks with the Rams next year. I’m thinking it could and should be Carson Wentz again. This time they should sign him in March so he is able to continue to pick up the offense. It’s not pretty but what can you do?
After the Dallas game, the future looks bright!
Minnesota Vikings News and Links
JJ McCarthy Sends Defiant Message on Future After Vikings Defeat Cowboys
JJ McCarthy Sends Defiant Message on Future After Vikings Defeat Cowboys
McCarthy missed all of his rookie year with a knee injury. He has sat out six games in 2025 due to a high-ankle sprain that cost him five contests and a concussion that robbed him of another. So while the former No. 10 pick is just three weeks away from the end of his second NFL campaign, he has less than a half-season of starting experience under his belt.
McCarthy made an Instagram post following his performance on “Sunday Night Football” in a win over the Dallas Cowboys, during which the QB completed 15-of-24 passes for 250 yards, two scores and one INT, while also adding a rushing TD. The final photograph in a series of them was as much a message to McCarthy’s doubters as it was a reminder to himself of where he is and where he hopes to go.
“You are not behind,” the message said. “You are on your own timeline.”
The more you know: Analytics website Pro Football Focus defines a “Big Time Throw” as a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown farther down the field and/or into a tighter window.
The more you know: J.J. McCarthy has the best big-time throw percentage among starting quarterbacks.
No hyperbole. McCarthy’s 7.2 BTT% sits atop PFF’s chart and is tied with MVP candidate Matthew Stafford of the L.A. Rams for the highest mark. Stafford owns 36 BTTs on 493 dropbacks, and McCarthy 16 on 246.
It’s a stat that illustrates accuracy, arm strength and a fearlessness in attacking defenses.
Nick Akridge of PFF on Tuesday explored McCarthy’s tantalizing skill set, which has really come into focus in his past two starts, an efficient 31-point win against Washington and a dynamic 34-26 victory at Dallas.
The latter performance earned McCarthy his top single-game grade (89.7) so far and ranked him third for his position in Week 15. With a 78.4 mark the game prior, McCarthy is the No. 4 graded QB in that span.
Akridge wrote the following:
Even when things weren’t clicking earlier in the season, McCarthy never shied away from pushing the ball downfield. Entering Week 14, he ranked fourth among all quarterbacks in big-time throw rate at 6.6%. …
There’s no denying the pressure on McCarthy. The Vikings went all-in on him as their franchise quarterback this offseason, and the early returns were uneven. But development was always going to take time, and over the past few weeks, the confidence and decisiveness have clearly shown up on tape.
Early in the second quarter at “Jerry World,” the 22-year-old took a shotgun snap, drifted away from quick pressure applied by Cowboys DE Jadeveon Clowney off the right side of the offensive line, and dialed up a 58-yard strike to Jordan Addison. The pass traveled 52.5 yards in the air per Next Gen Stats.
Last but definitely not least, McCarthy lasered a pass to T.J. Hockenson up the seam for a 29-yard gain late in the third frame. The connection sparked the possession Minnesota used to go ahead 24-23 with about 16 minutes remaining in the game. Head Coach Kevin O’Connell addressed it unprompted afterward, labeling it “a spectacular throw,” and McCarthy identified it as his favorite one of the evening.
“It was a tight Cover 2 coverage, kind of pseudo-quarters,” McCarthy said. “But just playing on time, in rhythm, trusting what I see, being decisive and seeing the ball come out exactly the way I wanted to — that was pretty cool. But he made a tremendous catch, like, if you ask him and have him walk you through what that ball was looking like in those lights, it’s pretty cool.” (T.J. told J.J. that it was flickering.)
In a follow-up response, O’Connell noted McCarthy’s placement was “surgical” and the revolutions on the pass created a “runner’s ball” for Hockenson that allowed him to dive forward for a few extra yards.
The former first-round pick earned an 89.7 PFF overall grade, the highest single-game mark of his career and the third-highest among all quarterbacks in Week 15. It marked back-to-back strong outings for McCarthy, who now ranks as the fourth-highest graded quarterback over the past two weeks.
With Sunday’s film fresh in his mind, Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell told Twin Cities media members Monday that McCarthy is locked into a one-play mentality that’s taken his play to new heights.
“And even when we don’t hit them all,” the coach said after applying serious credit to McCarthy’s past two performances, “he’s making some really high-level throws, and I thought that was on full display.”
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“I was really, really proud of the way he threw the football last night,” O’Connell commented. “As a whole, he played at a winning, winning level, and he now has for the last eight quarters. And pair that with guys doing some good things around him, and we’re starting to function a little bit on offense.”
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No 1. Pass game success
“I thought we ran it just well enough to kind of weather the snap-to-snap storm and not have to be totally off balance, one way or the other, run or pass, and then I thought there were some great, great examples of just decision making from J.J. trying to activate some play-passes down the field,” O’Connell assessed. “That allowed us to continue to kind of use some of those completions as extensions of our run game in a lot of ways, and doing it out of different groupings.
“And then finding some space maybe on the edges at times, either on some design kind of throws or some unique run concepts that give us a chance to find some space because it was hard to come by against that front with those three guys in there (Cowboys DL Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark and Osa Odighizuwa) … We knew it was going to be a different kind of game than maybe some of the others, where we’ve been able to lean on the run game a little bit, but we wanted to try to stay balanced enough to allow those explosives to come our way.”
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No 2. Getting ‘Jets’ open
The most elusive part of McCarthy’s maturation is his chemistry with Justin Jefferson.
“Jets,” the All-Everything receiver, was targeted more by McCarthy than anyone else (8) but for the third straight game managed two catches (for 22 yards). Honestly, it should have been a lot more, though. At one point, with a defender barreling down on him, McCarthy missed Jefferson on a deep crossing route; and in the low red zone, late in the third quarter, prior to C.J. Ham’s 1-yard TD, Jefferson failed to bring in a ball in the back-left corner that O’Connell said “had some sauce on it” but was placed in the right spot.
“I did think we had some good ops,” O’Connell explained, before diving into the incomplete crosser. “Those have been kind of plays, that when we get that one chance, that sometimes can be the chance for Justin for a sequence of 20-25 plays where there’s not a safety leaning into him, there’s not a double team, there’s not a cloud coverage rolling to him. So when those aren’t — when you’re second-and-10 after those plays, it does feel a little bit more significant than just standard get-back-on-track play.
“But like I said, Justin is still doing all the things required for us to win, and nobody wants to make those plays more than Justin, and nobody wants to make those throws more than J.J. And we just got to continue to try to find ways to allow Justin to impact the game,” O’Connell continued. “We created 4×1 one time and got him a look in the red zone (his second of two slants, which netted 10 yards). … We’re just going to always try to find ways where we’re not going to mess it up.
“And I think he got an ample amount of targets for the kind of game that it was, considering the total number of pass attempts we had. But we absolutely are on the hunt to have our best players involved as much as we possibly can.”
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No 3. Game within the game
The Vikings are one of two NFL defenses since 2009 to not let a team score through the air in five games in a row. Yup, Minnesota has not given up a passing touchdown since Lamar Jackson took advantage of a coverage breakdown in Week 10. Since then, five opposing players have gone 79-for-142 (55.6 percent) with 160 yards per game and two interceptions (h/t Washington). Oh, and Minnesota has 11 total sacks.
What’s been working for the Vikings in that area? The full gamut.
“I think there’s been a really, really good combination of the marriage of our pressure packages, coverages, and then getting the quarterback off the spot — even on plays where we’re maybe not in a full send-it mode,” O’Connell detailed. “That’s the interior guys. That’s J.G. (Jonathan Greenard), Dallas [Turner], “Gink’ ” (Andrew Van Ginkel), whether it’s one of the ‘backers going on a simulated pressure where we’re only bringing four, but we’re bringing one of those guys and dropping somebody out.
“It’s been a really good combination of all those things,” O’Connell said. “And then, specifically, speaking to Harrison Smith last night, it felt like it during the game — just listening to the calls and then kind of how things played out — but the game within the game that Harrison was playing was as special as maybe any game since I’ve been here, as far as against a quarterback [of Dak Prescott’s caliber], and an offense and what weapons that they have, and he’s really in total control and command of what the final (defensive) call kind of is there based upon his assessment of what Dak is trying to get to. And there’s some back and forth going on there. As a self-proclaimed football nerd, it was pretty fun to watch.”
Smith posted six tackles, a QB hit and two passes defensed. The Hitman has four of those since Week 13.
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No 4. Respect for Paul Wiggin
The late, great former player, coach and scout was a football lifer and the ultimate representative of what it means to be a Minnesota Viking — talented but modest; cerebral, committed and passionate.
O’Connell began his press conference by reflecting on Wiggin and his appreciation for the College Football Hall of Famer and Pro Bowler who was involved in the careers of so many legendary players.
“I just remember when I was having my weekly lunches with Bud, with Coach Grant back in ‘22,” O’Connell said with a smile. “There’d be times where Coach Grant would say some things to me and I didn’t want to be the young, annoying, first-year head coach, and fire a question back at him, so I would log it away and make sure I went and found ‘Wigs’ and asked him, ‘What exactly did [Bud] mean by that?’
“But just even being around him in draft meetings, when he would talk about pass rushers and how he saw it — and he had evaluated everybody — and you’re listening to him and how his eye saw the game, and just the wealth of knowledge and experience. … He had an unbelievable way about him of kind of picking his spots, but at the same time, you found yourself wanting to hear more and more from him,” O’Connell added. “It’s been a really cool part of this job. Not only the time I got to spend with Coach Grant before he passed away, but just having Wigs in the building and being around him, I know, made us all better.”
One of the difficult aspects about the Minnesota Vikings’ developing quarterback J.J. McCarthy has been the injuries.
In the first eight games that McCarthy played in the NFL, including preseason games, McCarthy suffered four confirmed injuries.
Torn meniscus
High ankle sprain
Injured throwing hand
Concussion
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Wes Phillips explains why J.J. McCarthy dives instead of slides
One thing that McCarthy doesn’t do is slide, but rather dives forward. It’s a different strategy, and one that goes against conventional wisdom. Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips talked about the strategy on Tuesday, shedding light on why he does it.
“I think each situation is a little bit different, and things happen really fast. If you have potentially more open grass, and you’re sliding down early, but what you see is a lot of late slides and guys getting hit, just kind of naturally,” said Phillips.
There is merit to what Phillips is saying. The late slides don’t give much time for the defense to think about what they are doing. Less time to react often ends up with late hits to the head.
“I think you know these quarterbacks are getting hit. I don’t think there’s intent there by guys, but these late slides, you end up naturally getting hit in the head and neck area, and that’s where you’re seeing some of these big shots that guys get fined for,” said Phillips. “But a lot of times, I don’t really blame some of the guys with how late some of these things happen.”
“They’ve changed [the ball being spotted] where it’s not where you’re sliding into. So, J.J. [McCarthy] had one where he dives forward and he’s past the sticks there, and you got a fresh set of downs. And sometimes I think you can even avoid some of the hits and see out in front of you a little bit better,” said Phillips.
Top 5 PFF grades on offense (min. 20 snaps)
- McCarthy — 89.7
- Nailor — 86.0
- Hockenson — 82.4
- O’Neill — 74.3
- Kelly — 70.6
Top 5 PFF grades on defense (min. 20 snaps)
- Greenard — 90.5
- Moreau — 79.6
- Wilson — 78.7
- Redmond — 72.5
- Rodgers — 68.3
How real is McCarthy’s improvement?
McCarthy is the youngest of the three quarterbacks discussed in this article and has the most to work on. His issues with accuracy, particularly throwing to his left, cannot really be corrected during the season. He’s going to have to rebuild his mechanics and footwork during the offseason. Last week, he had the lowest rate of off-target passes (4.3 percent), but against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, he was scatter-shot again (16.7 percent off-target passes).
One way or another, the 6-8 Vikings are currently slotted to pick 13th in the 2026 NFL Draft, with room to move up or down depending on how the last three games go.
The odds of Minnesota landing a pick higher than No. 10 are pretty low, because the teams currently picking 7-9 are the Saints, Commanders, and Bengals, who are all 4-10. The Vikings beat the Commanders and Bengals, so the only way they moved ahead of one or both is by finishing 6-11 while they win out to finish 7-10. No chance, right?
On the flip side, the Vikings, Dolphins, and Chiefs are tied at 6-8. Right now, the Dolphins have the 11th pick, the Chiefs are at No. 12, and the Vikings are 13th because they have a higher strength of schedule. Slipping down to 14th, 15th, 16th, or even 17th isn’t out of the question since the Cowboys (6-7-1), Ravens (7-7), and Panthers/Bucs (7-7) are nearby.
C.J. Ham & Vikings Host Annunciation Students on North Pole Express
C.J. Ham, the Vikings Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Club Winner, and his family joined Verizon Tuesday to host children from Annunciation Catholic School and their parents for a night highlighted by the North Pole Express, a holiday-themed train ride from St. Paul Union Depot to … well, you know, Santa Claus’ headquarters.
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C.J. was introduced to the group as the Vikings WPMOY Club Winner for the second straight season and presented with a trophy, as well as a custom-painted Vikings helmet.
He took time to connect with families, signing autographs for the kids and shaking hands with parents, looking them in the eyes to encourage them. Less than four months after their lives were violently disrupted by the mass shooting at Annunciation, many of the guests wore navy blue sweatshirts bearing the school’s logo and the words “Move Your Feet,” referencing the “When you pray, move your feet” motto they’ve adopted in response to tragedy. On the sleeves were two white hearts with the initials of 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, who were killed in the shooting.
“I know you all have been through a lot,” C.J. told the group. “I can already tell the reason you are able to make it through is by leaning on your faith, and also community.”
As C.J. spoke, a mother sitting near the front of the room nodded in affirmation, her eyes welling with tears.
“The way you kids and the parents have interacted with each other just in this short amount of time, I can see there’s so much love,” he continued. “There’s so much compassion, and I love to see that. I’m honored to share this night with you all and have fun with you. Thank you for being here.”
Vikings Director of Community Relations Logan Johnson and C.J. both emphasized the desire to honor the Annunciation community in whatever way possible.
“We know nothing the Vikings or anybody else does can change anything these families have had to go through,” Johnson said. “But if we can do something as simple as providing them with a new memory for tonight, that’s really important to us.
“We will have more touchpoints with them moving forward, because we understand how important it is for them to continue to create those new memories,” Johnson noted. “That’s something that we’re going to take very seriously as an organization.”
C.J. later reflected on the evening and expressed gratitude for being able to spend time with parents and young people.
“I can’t even imagine what they’ve been through,” he said. “But they’re leaning on each other, leaning on their faith, doing things together.
“Right before we got on the train, one of the moms came up to me and said, ‘Thank you,’ ” continued C.J., who paused for a moment to gather his emotions. “It’s hard for me to even put into words. Because she said, ‘It’s nice not to be forgotten.’ And it just hit me right in the heart, just to know what some of these young children had to see, had to endure.
“I’m just grateful I was able to share this night with them, celebrate with them, hopefully bring them some hope,” C.J. added. “Because honestly? It’s them who gave me a lot of hope.”
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