Kevin O’Connell Tells All: Who Would’ve Began if J.J. McCarthy Did not Get Harm?

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Sam Darnold would’ve began the season for the 2024 Minnesota Vikings, nearly it doesn’t matter what.

Kevin O’Connell Tells All: Who Would’ve Began if J.J. McCarthy Didn’t Get Harm?

Kevin O’Connell joined The Dan Patrick Present this week, and Patrick requested the younger coach what would’ve occurred at quarterback if J.J. McCarthy by no means tore his meniscus.

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O’Connell made positive to go with McCarthy’s summer time growth however in the end mentioned Darnold would’ve taken the QB1 baton into September. “I would probably say Sam Darnold would’ve been our starting quarterback just out of the experience and knowing that I am constantly aware of the minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day development of quarterbacks,” O’Connell informed Patrick.

Minnesota added two new quarterbacks final offseason after saying goodbye to Kirk Cousins — Darnold from free company and McCarthy from the draft. Each competed at coaching camp and within the first preseason recreation, whereas followers weren’t fairly positive who would win the QB1 title. Most determined “probably Darnold” as a result of there was no rush to toss McCarthy into the lineup instantly at age 21.

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O’Connell added about McCarthy, “We had just seen J.J. play in his first preseason game. There was a lot of positive things on that tape that led us as a coaching staff to say, ‘We absolutely need to see this thing through to the end of training camp.’ At that same time, and rightly so, everyone was talking about J.J. as the 1st-Round pick, an exciting young player we were fired up to have in our organization.”

Darnold, certainly, emerged because the clear QB1 when McCarthy tore his meniscus, and the remainder was bittersweet historical past. The veteran passer led Minnesota to a 14-3 season, adopted by a one-and-done within the postseason. Darnold truly performed miserably within the season’s remaining two video games.

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Quick ahead to the 2025 offseason — like, now — and it’s a dialog of “Darnold or McCarthy?” once more. Darnold is scheduled to hit free company in 3.5 weeks, the place he can land a contract close to $40 million per season. McCarthy, in the meantime, simply desires an opportunity to start out for the crew that drafted him.

“There’s a lot of things that are certainly above my pay grade and some things above his pay grade,” McCarthy replied final week when requested about his teammate Darnold’s impending free company.

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Photos.

McCarthy informed Eisen, “All I could ask for is a fair opportunity. That’s the one thing I feel like everybody’s given and it’s fundamental. When money gets involved, things get complicated and reps get skewed and there’s different things that come into the whole political world that everyone talks about. I really just have to focus on controlling what I can control.”

However as a matter of revisionist historical past, Darnold, not McCarthy, would have began Week 1 final September on the New York Giants.

Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the College of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his every day YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The present options visitors, evaluation, and opinion on all issues associated to the purple crew, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates again to 1996. Listed responsible pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doorways (the band). He follows the NBA as intently because the NFL. 

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