Did MN Vikings DC Brian Flores Ruin JJ McCarthy?

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JJ McCarthy and Brian Flores - Minnesota Vikings mini camp
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings have a lot of problems, even beyond their rash of early-season injuries, as they enter a make-or-break week 12 matchup in Lambeau, against their hated NFC North rival, the Green Bay Packers.

The secondary is prone to big plays, and they lack depth at cornerback. All the money they spent on both the offensive and defensive lines has mostly gone to waste, whether due to injury or lackluster play.

Minnesota Vikings’ have 99 problems and QB is No 1…

Even Kevin O’Connell — who was crowned and compensated as the NFL’s next GOAT head coach last offseason — deserves his fair share of blame for the MN Vikings’ 4-6 failures in 2025. It can’t be healthy to have an offensive play-caller who’s allergic to the run section of his play sheet.

But let’s be real, every team in the league has its issues. Those of us who strap into the front carts of this wild and dangerous purple and gold rollercoaster year after year, week after week, all know the Minnesota Vikings’ REAL problem in 2025.

It’s at quarterback. Redshirt rookie JJ McCarthy is aesthetically and statistically — 52.9% completion | 842 yards | 6 touchdowns | 8 interceptions | 61 QB rating | 26.6 QBR — the ugliest starting quarterback in the NFL.

There are obviously a lot of variables plaguing the start to McCarthy’s NFL career, most of which are based on injuries and completely out of his control. But local insider Ben Goessling (Star Tribune) has another one in mind that nobody was really talking about, until he brought it up on the latest episode of the Vikings Access Podcast.

Did Brian Flores screw up JJ McCarthy during Vikings training camp?

Maybe Brian Flores is part of the problem. We heard all training camp about how fast his defense was playing and how they were pulling no punches for a young JJ McCarthy, as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator developed somewhat of a fetish for rattling his own team’s young, struggling quarterback.

Could those training camp practice sessions have played into what now has the kid QB looking “sped up”, leading to all sorts of mechanical issues from head to toe? It certainly seems plausible.

“This is probably either revisionist history or something worth revisiting into 2026. But when we’ve seen [JJ McCarthy’s] clock a little bit sped up on the field, I do wonder how much the unfiltered Brian Flores experience in training camp maybe led into that.”

“There weren’t very many reps — [other than a] dealer’s choice period at times where the offense could say, ‘Hey, we want you to kind of run a basic cover two here and we want to see what it looks like against this.’ Or, you know, the defense could say the same thing –…but overall, there was not a lot held back [from the Vikings defense during camp], at least from what we saw.“

Ben Goessling – Access Vikings Podcast (Star Tribune)

Related: Vikings Starter Unlikely to Play vs Packers

Somehow, JJ McCarthy has been even worse than the NDSU QB who made a handful of starts in his place, earlier this season. All of those other Vikings’ problems can be overcome, but if their kid quarterback doesn’t play significantly better in Green Bay, and for the rest of the season, winning will be next to impossible.

MN Vikings need McCarthy to play better vs Green Bay and beyond

To any Vikings fan with an internet connection or free over-the-air television channels near the Twin Cities , it should be no surprise to see the Vikings as near touchdown underdogs Sunday afternoon.

Even with the Packers’ recent struggles, combined with their many injury issues, they still have one thing the Minnesota Vikings do not — a competent QB. That’s not to say McCarthy won’t some day be what Jordan Love is now, but it’s just a fact that JJ is not an NFL-worthy QB, six games into his NFL career.

But if he isn’t ready to face the other defenses spread across the NFL, it’s impossible McCarthy and the rest of the Vikings offense was capable of growth against a veteran Brian Flores defense that was not giving an inch during training camp.

“I mean, that defense was fired up [at training camp]. That defense wanted to make its presence felt. That defense was loud after plays. I do wonder at times uh how much the trial by fire [for JJ McCarthy], you know, maybe there was a way to uh dial that back just a little, sand off a couple of the rough edges.

But that has come to my mind a little bit when we talk about, hey, he’s playing a little fast. How much of that may have been influenced by the thing he imprinted on which was playing against Brian Flores’s defense?”

Ben Goessling – Access Vikings Podcast (Star Tribune)

Related: Vikings Pro Bowl Lineman Returns, Practice Squad Shuffle

If someone as plugged in as Ben Goessling is asking these questions out loud, then I think they are 100% worth keeping in mind. JJ McCarthy is sped up and could have used some time to get back up to speed this summer.

Not only was he stripped of any real preseason experience, being the Minnesota Vikings refuse to play anyone of significance during exhibition games, but now looking back, he probably could have used some more vanilla looks back then against his own defense too.

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