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Retired NFL Vet Cannot Get Enough of Vikings QB
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- Retired NFL Vet Cannot Get Enough of Vikings QB
Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
J.J. McCarthy has yet to make a start for the Minnesota Vikings during the regular season. That will change in a week when he is under center on Monday Night Football against the Chicago Bears .
The expectations span the gambit when considering how the Vikings will ultimately fare this season. There isn't much room to improve from 14-wins last season.
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Minnesota doesn't need to generate additional tallies during the regular season to have a better outcome . Former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky sees them being as good or better, and it's because of J.J.
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Dan Orlovsky has lofty expectations for J.J. McCarthy
Former NFL veteran Dan Orlovsky knows a thing or two about evaluating the quarterback position. He played seven seasons in the league, and has been analyzing the game for ESPN since. He talked J.J. McCarthy with local insider Darren "Doogie" Wolfson , and he's not slowing down the hype train any time soon.
Initially Wolfson questioned whether McCarthy could live up to the production Bo Nix generated for the Denver Broncos last season. The swiftness with which Orlovsky laughed that suggestion off as a low bar was notable.
"Yeah, I would have higher expectations, candidly. No offense to Bo [Nix], but if we just took the offenses and went, 'who's got better players?' You know, Minnesota. They have Justin [Jefferson]. Hockenson, big time player. I think that yes, you want that lateral comparison that this is the style of football played. I've said this, I get asked it often on TV, is it fair? J.J. was a ridiculously highly recruited kid coming out of high school. He went to Michigan. He won the National Championship and was the 12th pick in the draft. It's totally ok for us to have unrealistically high expectations of how he is going to play on this team. If he was the quarterback of a significantly depleted roster, different conversation. This was a team that was in the 1-seed all the way up into the final weeks of the season last year. J.J. has a track record, it's not like it came out of nowhere. I really believe he should have, production wise, numbers wise, very much so rival what Sam [Darnold] did last year."
When discounting McCarthy as a running back merchant, people continue to overlook and discredit the part that Orlovsky hammers the table for. Sure, he didn't run the Air Raid offense at Michigan, but he didn't need to. Kevin O'Connell isn't the type of quarterback that kills the clock, but the Minnesota Vikings have the best running back room they have in decades.
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In his National Championship winning season, McCarthy led the Big Ten with a ridiculous 72.3% completion rate . He threw 22 touchdowns and was picked off just four times. In fact, across 40 collegiate games, he owned a 49/11 TD/INT rate. McCarthy did that with lesser weapons than he'll have on the Vikings, and he's got the best offensive line Minnesota has constructed in years as well.
Related: QB Expert Would Take JJ McCarthy Over Everyone
Sam Darnold was a third overall pick that flamed out in the NFL and O'Connell got 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns out of him. McCarthy has had a full year to learn the expectations of his head coach, comes in with the same or better pedigree, and has better talent around him.
If you're going to doubt him at this point, that's a personal choice. Maybe McCarthy will show he's raw and needs more time to develop. The amount of prominent figures clamoring for you to notice the new Vikings signal caller though has become deafening.
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