J.J. McCarthy is Already Climbing the Vikings’ Depth Chart

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Minnesota Vikings, JJ McCarthy
Credit: Photo courtesy of Andy Kenutis via Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings’ are two days into training camp and it looks like rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy is already climbing the depth chart. Although we are only a couple days into camp, McCarthy put together his strongest day, and quite possibly, the strongest day of the entire offseason. We are still several weeks away from the Minnesota Vikings releasing their official depth chart going into the regular season, but it seems like the early reports of McCarthy starting the season as QB3 is just completely false.

J.J. McCarthy taking QB2 reps at Minnesota Vikings’ Training Camp

According to Dane Mizutani (Pioneer Press), in his takeaways from day two of Minnesota Vikings’ training camp, he noted that McCarthy was consistently the next quarterback getting work behind Sam Darnold. Before training camp, McCarthy was only get reps as QB3. So what changed between the last organized team activity practice and day two of training camp?

J.J. McCarthy is consistently the next quarterback getting work.

Dane Mizutani (Pioneer Press)

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Not only was Mizutani the only one to note this, but Judd Zulgad (Skor North) mentioned this as well. It’s clear that Darnold is QB1, at this current moment, but Zulgad noted that McCarthy was getting a lot of the snaps as QB2 with Nick Mullens mixing in. 2023 fifth-round draft pick Jaren Hall was getting very limited work.

Darnold has gotten the work with the first-teamers, while McCarthy takes snaps with the second team and veteran Nick Mullens mixes in at times. Jaren Hall, the 2023 fifth-round pick who saw action last season after Cousins was injured, is getting almost no work.

Judd Zulgad (Skor North)

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Zulgad elaborated further on the snap distribution between Darnold and McCarthy at day two of Minnesota Vikings’ Training Camp. Zulgad noted that Darnold got 14 snaps in two sessions of 11-on-11 and eight in 7-on-7. McCarthy got 15 snaps in 11-on-11 and four in 7-on-7, while Mullens had 10 snaps in 11-on-11 and Hall had two. That’s quite the volume for both Darnold and McCarthy compared to Mullens and Hall.

Future outlook of Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback J.J. McCarthy

Darnold is still the odds on favorite to win the starting quarterback position for week one. Although this may be the case, you can’t rule McCarthy out this early. It’s only day two of training camp, and it seems he’s already surpassed Mullens on the depth chart.

McCarthy will need to continue to stack days like today throughout camp if he want’s a shot at the starting quarterback position heading into week one. McCarthy is a winner, he’s determined, and he’s smart. Ruling him out this early would be foolish, but then again, you have to earn it. The quarterback competition will be fun to watch over these next few weeks.

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