Vikings are terrible at turning down the heat on J.J. McCarthy, my goodness

With everything I keep seeing coming out of Minnesota Vikings camp, I am beginning to question if they really were the best landing spot for any first-round quarterback. They moved up a spot to take former Michigan star J.J. McCarthy No. 10 overall. He is by far and away the least pro-ready of any of the six quarterbacks taken inside of the top 12 last spring. This next little bit has me fuming big time...

Apparently, the Vikings thought it was a good idea to have McCarthy quarterbacking the twos vs. the No. 1 defense in practice. This is supposedly a rep that best emulates a real life game, other than McCarthy not getting tackled to the turf. As expected, he looked like a lost puppy out there, but it did not seem to be the end of the world for Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips in the slightest.

Phillips, son of Wade Phillips and grandson of the late Bum Phillips, reiterated this was a good idea.

“I think it puts you in some situations where you play like you play really in the NFL against some muddy pockets, sometimes where you might have to escape, sometimes where you might have to find the check-down maybe not in rhythm of the read because you’re trying to go through your read and sometimes the pocket collapses," said Phillips, h/t Sports Illustrated.

All I can think is the Vikings are feeding McCarthy to the fire way before he is ready to be thrust into it.

“The processing might have to speed up a little bit and hopefully when you are in there with the first group then things slow down a little bit for you and you’re used to going up against a picked-up pace and a little more pressure at times," said Phillips.

The fact that Phillips wants noted quarterback hater Brian Flores to dial up something good is awful.

“Flo might not make all of his calls with the twos that he may call with the ones. So you’re seeing some challenging looks as well," said Phillips.

I don't know if this is the equivalent of having a bunch of 10 year olds do the Oklahoma drill, play bull in the ring or some variation of smear the weird, but I am really starting to lose faith in the idea that the Vikings know what they are doing with McCarthy. The fact that they are trusting Sam Darnold to start all 17 games for them this season while McCarthy gets ready is something I cannot get behind.

Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison will get a lot of yards in this offense, but not a lot of victories.

Minnesota Vikings seem to be making it up as they go with J.J. McCarthy

This is a franchise I used to have a lot of respect for. Not any more. They can earn my respect back by playing within themselves and trying to do the right thing every day and twice on Sunday. The Vikings do not have to be a playoff team for me to think highly of them this season. They are in a transitional year. I get it. These sort of things happen, but don't destroy your new toy like a dog after PetSmart.

For a guy that has as long of a way to go as McCarthy seems to have, you need to breed confidence in him, not rip it away from him all willy nilly. Again, if the plan all along is for him not to play games in his redshirt NFL season so to speak, then that is fine. Let's just not do something stupid that could conceivably stunt his growth. There is a reason don't take three year olds to go see Jurassic Park...

I am sure this is all part of the grandiose plan the Vikings have for McCarthy. Then again, they could just be making it up along as they go for all we know. Surely, there is someone you have worked with before who lied through their teeth during the interview process. Not to say McCarthy did, but I am still trying to see why Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was the right man to take over for Rick Spielman as GM.

You don't want people making fun of your team in the preseason, but that's what's happening now.