There is a reasonable argument to be made that teams ruin quarterbacks more often than they draft bad quarterbacks.
There is a right way and wrong way to introduce a rookie quarterback to the professional level. Far too often, dysfunctional and impatient teams throw young passers to the wolves right away. If a quarterback's confidence, health, and fundamentals crumple early on, it can be hard for them to ever recover.
Many of the league's best quarterbacks all share one commonality: They spent the early days of their career at a backup, holding a clipboard for a veteran starter. Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, and countless others spent at least one season on the bench before being named the starter.
The Minnesota Vikings are planning to take a similar approach to patiently integrating rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy into their offense, according to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer.
The Vikings selected the former Michigan quarterback with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. McCarthy led the Wolverines to a NCAA national championship in a run-heavy scheme with coach Jim Harbaugh, but he'll likely begin his NFL career on the sidelines.
Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell plans to be patient with J.J. McCarthy
McCarthy will need to tighten up his football acumen to succeed as a quarterback in the NFL. In the meantime, Breer believes the Vikings will start veteran quarterback Sam Darnold, who signed with the team this offseason. Minnesota head coach Kevin O'Connell has a "detailed, tiered plan to break McCarthy in and get him ready to play," according to Breer.
"Now, history tells us that McCarthy will get in the lineup sooner rather than later," Breer wrote on Thursday. "But the Vikings do have one thing that traditionally has allowed for a team to take a patient approach, and that's a team capable of contending. When the Packers redshirted Jordan Love in 2020, they had a contender led by an accomplished veteran quarterback. Ditto for the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes in '17 and Titans with Jake Locker in '11."
While the slow, patient approach is certainly the right way to go, the comparisons aren't necessarily apples-to-apples. When the Packers made Love sit on the bench, they had a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Aaron Rodgers on the field. With Kansas City, the expectations for Patrick Mahomes weren't as high, and veteran starter Alex Smith was having a MVP-caliber season in an explosive offense that featured wide receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce.
Both Rodgers and Smith had proven to be quality players who were incumbent starters. For Minnesota, the dynamics are a bit different. The former quarterback, Kirk Cousins, is now with the Atlanta Falcons. Unlike Rodgers and Smith, Darnold is new to Minnesota, just like McCarthy. That wasn't the case for Rodgers with Love or Smith with Mahomes.
If Rodgers threw an interception, nobody was asking for Love to be inserted into the game. If Smith threw an interception, it was forgivable since he had proven his value to the Chiefs in the past several seasons. Is Darnold capable of playing at the level that Smith did in 2017? It's unlikely — he hasn't shown the ability to do so. He doesn't have the weapons either, even with wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
When Darnold has a bad game, the pressure to insert McCarthy will slowly begin to mount. O'Connell will have to withstand that pressure and stick to his plan.
"I think O'Connell will be disciplined with all of this," Breer wrote.
Whenever McCarthy does take over the starting role, he'll have the benefit of throwing the ball to wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who just signed a record-setting contract extension with Minnesota.
The 24-year-old has proven to be one of the best wide receivers in the league through his four years in the NFL, and having a perimeter weapon like Jefferson could be instrumental for McCarthy's development. Josh Allen struggled before he had Stefon Diggs, Tua Tagovailoa didn't play well until he was paired with Tyreek Hill, Joe Burrow didn't excel until he had Ja'Marr Chase, and Jalen Hurts didn't take a massive leap until he connected with A.J. Green.
Minnesota is hoping that the J.J.-to-J.J. connection proves to be just a fruitful as other quarterback-receiver tandems in the league.