Vikings' Kevin O'Connell Shares His Feelings About J.J. McCarthy Concerns Ahead of 2025 NFL Season

Vikings' Kevin O'Connell Shares His Feelings About J.J. McCarthy Concerns Ahead of 2025 NFL Season originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

J.J. McCarthy entered the NFL Draft after a historic 15-0 season with the Michigan Wolverines, throwing 2,991 yards for 240 catches and 22 touchdowns. The fairytale continued as he was picked as the No. 10 overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2024 NFL Draft.

However, things took a drastic turn in McCarthy's first outing as a Viking. He tore his right knee meniscus before throwing two touchdowns against the Las Vegas Raiders in the preseason opener. The young quarterback missed his entire rookie season due to the injury.

The Vikings' head coach, Kevin O’Connell, didn't let the injury hinder the rookie quarterback's growth. He worked with McCarthy to prepare him for the 2025 NFL season. The 22-year-old was not allowed to practice as per the NFL's rules, but that didn't stop O'Connell.

The 2024 NFL Coach of the Year spent a generous amount of time with the first-round pick. He spent an hour having a one-on-one conversation with McCarthy.

"I just wanted to give him a platform with me. Maybe it was football one day. Maybe it was no football. My time is very hard to find during the season, but I just wanted to make sure that we got together," he told ESPN.

O'Connell revealed his learnings from those meetings with the Vikings quarterback and how it'd help McCarthy in the upcoming season.

"The one thing I learned about him in those meetings is he had great questions, and that validated that he was receiving and getting something out of that time," he said.

"And as I've told him, it doesn't really guarantee you anything, but once you're fighting the fight on a daily basis of growing within the system, he would be able to rely on some of what we did together."

Sam Darnold took the Vikings' QB mantle last season, and O'Connell ensured that McCarthy took notes from it. The former Wolverines QB was allowed to access the Vikings' facilities after some time, and he watched Darnold's films from the game week.

"That way, when he watched the tape of that practice that night, and later when he was eventually able to start coming out to watch practice, he's seeing an extension of that meeting if we handled it the right way," O'Connell said.

The Vikings HC added that he also focused on McCarthy's mentality while recovering from the season-ending injury.

"This was a guy that had success at every level he's ever played and had something taken away from him for a whole season. And he's still very young, age-wise and NFL-experience wise," he said.

"So you felt like you had to sometimes say, 'Let's not talk protection blitzes or progressions or fundamentals and technique.' It's, 'How are you doing?' And try to just make sure he knows that we're building our own relationship as well. And that I've got his back."

McCarthy is gearing up for his first regular season with Minnesota. Expectations are sky-high for the youngster after the Vikings' 14-win season with Darnold last year. The Vikings' quarterback needs to step up and show the NFL world that he was worth the wait.

More from J.J. McCarthy, Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, Max Brosmer, Blake Cashman, and more today at Woodbury High School 🔥

pic.twitter.com/oAug7s3Fuc

— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) July 18, 2025

Minnesota passed on an opportunity to land Aaron Rodgers, who went on to join the Pittsburgh Steelers. They also let Sam Darnold, Nick Mullens, and Daniel Jones walk out the door. The Vikings have gone all in on McCarthy and are praying to hit a jackpot.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 20, 2025, where it first appeared.