J.J. McCarthy’s knee could take away huge opportunity for Vikings

Although J.J. McCarthy played quite well in his Minnesota Vikings' preseason debut over the weekend, it is up in the air if he will play in their next preseason game this week. McCarthy was ruled out of Monday night's practice by head coach Kevin O'Connell out of an abundance of caution. Obviously, you want to keep a close watch on things like this, but there is much more to the equation.

See, Minnesota has to travel to play the Cleveland Browns this week, as they are hosting the Vikings for joint practices. This is critical because McCarthy was slated to take some more first-team reps in practice this week. Now, those will be divvied up among starter Sam Darnold, veteran backup Nick Mullens, and I guess second-year pro Jaren Hall. This injury may delay McCarthy's starting timeline.

Here is what O'Connell told ESPN's Kevin Seifert about what is going on with McCarthy's knee injury.

"Out of precaution, we're going to continue an evaluation on him and get some more testing done. [He is a] very important player, obviously, so we want to make sure we're smart before he participates, making sure we have a good understanding of where he's at."

Seifert added that O'Connell followed up his initial comment with this injury being "some kind of routine soreness that a lot of guys after their first preseason game sometimes come in with, and it was something we wanted to be smart about." I understand the need to be careful here, but this feels like yet another thing that will prevent McCarthy from overtaking Darnold sooner rather than later.

Let's discuss the magnitude of the situation at hand involving this transitioning NFC North franchise.

J.J. McCarthy could miss joint practices vs. Cleveland Browns this week

Look. McCarthy is simply too talented to be riding pine for the better part of this season. It is not that Darnold is devoid of talent, but he has proven to be too inherently reckless as an NFL player for me to trust him as a long-term starter anywhere in the league. McCarthy is raw coming out of Michigan, but he has the necessary arm strength and poise to be an effective player in the NFL for years to come.

Overall, I think this minor injury that is being handled with an abundance of caution is not the end of the world, but it will keep McCarthy out of the starting lineup in Minnesota a few weeks longer than initially expected. At this point, I would not be shocked if Darnold was the one who started 10 or more games for this team, and not the other way around. Also, this injury will help the other quarterbacks.

Ultimately, the last thing the Vikings will want to do is to put a physically limited McCarthy out there against the vaunted Browns defense. Whether that be in practice or on the Vikings' second preseason game of the summer, it does not matter. The only thing that matters is for McCarthy to mature as a football player, going from a project to a prospect. These things take time. Be patient.

Minnesota must be thankful McCarthy is not thrust into a situation where he has to start immediately.