J.J. McCarthy can't stay protected by Kevin O'Connell forever

One step forward, two steps back. That's what it's felt like for J.J. McCarthy during his delayed debut season for the Minnesota Vikings.

His first NFL start featured a fourth-quarter comeback for the ages, only for an ankle injury in Week 2 to put him on the shelf for a month and a half. He appeared to be back and ready to save Minnesota's season, leading a rousing road win over the Detroit Lions last Sunday, only to come crashing back to Earth in an ugly loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 10.

McCarthy delivered a dime for a 62-yard completion to Jalen Nailor, but overall it was an ugly day for the former first-round pick. That deep ball aside, he was 19-of-41 for 186 yards (just 4.5 yards per attempt) with no touchdowns at two interceptions. And somehow, that wasn't even the worst part: The Vikings committed eight false starts, in a home game no less — one shy of matching the high since 2000.

After the game, Kevin O'Connell tried his hardest to avoid throwing his quarterback under the bus. But eight false starts makes at least some blame inevitable.

McCarthy has had plenty of excuses made for him so far in his NFL career, and plenty of them have merit. He missed the entirety of his rookie season with a serious knee injury, then got banged up again two starts into year two, all while his offensive line disintegrated in front of him. At a certain point, though, as we watch some of his peers excel and elevate the talent around them, those excuses fall away. O'Connell is the most QB-friendly coach in the league, but even he can't hide from the urgency of this moment, and how far away his young passer is from where he needs to be.

It's about time for the training wheels to come off J.J. McCarthy

To McCarthy's credit, he's doing and saying all the right things. His teammates by all accounts love him, and he understands the stakes and the responsibility he has as a leader of an erstwhile Super Bowl contender.

But it bears repeating that the Vikings are, in fact, an erstwhile Super Bowl contender. This team's build has culminated in a roster that most pegged as one of the deepest in football at the start of the season, with plenty of weapons around McCarthy, a revamped interior of the offensive line and an elite defensive coordinator in Brian Flores. It was a division winner in need of a quarterback, and they just so happened to have one of those waiting in the wings.

But McCarthy hasn't lived up to those expectations so far. Yes, the highs have been awfully high; McCarthy has charisma for days, and when O'Connell makes things simple for him and he has his first read, he can stand there and rip it in the way you'd expect from someone of his draft pedigree. But those highs have been painfully few and far between: one quarter in the Chicago game, and then in fits and starts since. Even in last weeks' win over Detroit, that was less some mastery from McCarthy than it was a favorable game script and the team around him putting him in ideal positions pretty much all day.

It's not going to be that easy on a weekly basis, as we saw on Sunday against Baltimore. Eventually, the Vikings are going to need McCarthy to consistently make plays in the way that Drake Maye, Caleb Williams and other young quarterbacks are asked to do. But we have precious little evidence that he can actually be that guy; he's simply too raw as a passer right now, with skittish feet when his first read isn't there and an arm that's too ordinary to compensate for it.

Maybe McCarthy gets there in time. It's certainly too early to write off the career of someone this young, especially someone who's won as much as he has. But the Vikings cannot afford to wait through the normal rookie growing pains. Eventually, the bill is going to come due, and McCarthy will either be ready to lead a playoff team or he'll squander what should have been by all accounts the peak of this competitive window for Minnesota.