Vikings aren’t even trying to hide the obvious with J.J. McCarthy

J.J. McCarthy is quite a talented quarterback and it's really hard for anybody to deny that fact at this point. The Minnesota Vikings took him at the 10th pick in the first round of last year's NFL Draft for a reason. They believe in his talent and the ability for him to become their franchise guy after losing Kirk Cousins.

I understand that McCarthy had one of the easier quarterback jobs in all of college football last year. He had an elite run game with an outstanding offensive line and one of the most dominant defenses in the country. The coaching staff put together tremendous game plans and scouting that made his job much easier.

But you can't deny the raw tools and ability to win that he has. The Vikings saw this and used their first-round pick on him for a reason.

Vikings name Sam Darnold early starter over J.J. McCarthy

But when the initial Vikings depth chart came out, McCarthy wasn't at the top of the quarterback position. This should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody.

Despite all that McCarthy is good at, he's still a tremendously raw talent. His arm strength and mobility are impressive, but he needs to be polished up before he can go out and lead a team against NFL defenses. The last thing that the Vikings want to do is send him out, unprepared, against some of the top defenses in the league, crushing his confidence and development.

It's the same game that the Carolina Panthers played with Bryce Young last season. They set the young quarterback up for failure with a horrible team around him and they could have crushed his confidence and development by doing this. The same thing was done with Justin Fields in Chicago.

So the Vikings are playing it slow with their top pick. They opted to name veteran Sam Darnold the starter for now. This won't stick forever though -- don't worry. McCarthy just isn't ready for the job yet. He will be before the season is up, but he's not ready right now. The more time he gets under his belt before he takes over, the better.

Even Patrick Mahomes sat behind Alex Smith for a year before being named the starter in Kansas City. It's really nothing to worry about. The Vikings have all the faith in the world in McCarthy and given his tools and the weapons he will have around him, he's set up to be quite a successful quarterback in the near future.