J.J. McCarthy's rookie season has gone to hell in a hand basket before it even began

It will be Sam Darnold or bust for the Minnesota Vikings. While the former USC star and first-round bust was slated to be the team's starting quarterback for most of, if not all, of the 2024 NFL season, this year was all about seeing J.J. McCarthy grow and mature in his rookie year out of Michigan. Now he may be going on the injured reserve for the foreseeable future with a meniscus injury in his knee.

Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of The NFL Network reported on Tuesday afternoon that McCarthy not only missed Vikings practice on Monday, but tests showed that he had a meniscus problem that will require surgery. Meniscus injuries are not as serious as tearing a ligament, but the last thing you want to see your rookie quarterback do is go under the knife before he plays in a game that counts.

The Vikings have been as cautious as possible every step of the way with McCarthy and still somehow ended up with the short end of the stick here. McCarthy's extended absence will put even more pressure the whoopsy daisy king himself in Darnold, as well as head coach Kevin O'Connell to win with the players general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has given him to work with this season.

It may be a tad premature, but I am this close to crossing the Vikings off as a playoff team entirely.

The bad luck with injuries to the most critical position has damaged the Vikings' upside considerably.

J.J. McCarthy to have knee surgery after his first NFL preseason game

For as much as this sucks for everyone involved and as a fan of the league at large, it just goes to show that the brutal and physical nature of the NFL really does not care about your plans. How you adapt and handle adversity shows your true character. Those who are the most mentally tough survive. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they may not have the roster to overcome such a huge loss.

Yes, McCarthy was not expected to start or play very much this year, or at least early in the season. However, the fact he is not only going to miss the rest of the preseason, as well as a significant amount of time during the regular season, stunts his growth as a potential NFL starting quarterback. Once again, he was the rawest of the six first-round quarterbacks selected in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Ultimately, we have to try and look at this as a positive as best as we can. This is a tremendous opportunity for Darnold to prove us wrong once and for all for crossing him off entirely as an NFL starting quarterback after how poorly things went for him in New York and Carolina. If the Vikings can at least tread water until McCarthy is ready to play, then they have a total rockstar at head coach, too.

All the while, I look at the mess Adofo-Mensah has created and wonder who is going to clean it up.