McCarthy's poor showing 'feels like same story'
Chris Simms unpacks J.J. McCarthy's underwhelming preseason performance against the Baltimore Ravens, emphasizing that his lack of improvement "feels like the same story."
Video Transcript
Speaking of young quarterbacks- Yeah I know you had some plays from J.J. McCarthy getting some extended look against the Ravens.
I know it wasn't J.J.'s best day- No, it was not Chris, and this is kind of now It was almost the weekend of backup quarterbacks.
We got to see Bo Nix and Jordan Love and Geno Smith.
But a lot of teams used weeks, preseason week two as, let's get a look at our number two and number three, or maybe try to answer who is our number two- Yes and who is our number three.
And for the r- the Vikings in this scenario, they used this as a little bit of a, really just a ramp up for J.J.
If he's even ready, I think, to be the number two.
Well, I, I mean he, he's, he's opened the door again for something you've brought up of like, is Carson Wentz gonna be the backup?
Yeah.
What's gonna happen there?
I was kinda wondering.
Well, he's gonna be probably smoother and more dependable.
And of course, he's played so much football that he's, he knows how to play the game and, and, and the position really well.
But yeah, the, the J.J. Game is, was everything we've talked about negatively and what we question about him.
The lack of diversity of throws.
The, every throw is a fireball.
Every throw's the same throw.
Is there talent there?
Yeah, sure.
You know?
Also, looks like he probably hurt his ankle when he got sacked from behind there by Mike Green the one time.
Which is always a fear now.
Which is always a fear of him, right.
When he did it at first I was like, "Oh no, he's gonna be hurt."
Like, that's what I was worried about.
But you know, we're gonna g- look at some of these throws, but it started right with the first throw of the game, right?
An- and then that, that to me is where it was like, what?
And, and, and I think we're gonna show that first to where he's got a deep out route to the right side.
He's got Price there, I believe, number four.
And, and within that, you know, the defender falls down, and it's one of those throws where, yeah, there's times where you gotta see it and then fireballing it- Right but usually, like, it's one of those throws where as they're coming out of their break you can see the position of the receiver and where the DB is at, and go, "Hey, I'm just gonna, you know, throw a ball about 85% somewhere close to the sideline and drop it in."
So you'll see here, he drops back, they got play action pass.
Price is on the bottom of the screen, he's got him in a good spot.
And J.J. Is still with the ball in his hand at this point.
Right.
So at this point, the ba- if the ball's in your hand it should be like at the top point of the release to go like it's just leaving.
So he's now r- even reacting late in my opinion, and now he's gonna He's got no choice other than to, "I have to throw the ball as hard as I can," or he's gonna be out of bounds before the ball- Right gets there, right?
So he's breaking out, but you would already like to see the ball somewhat in the air if you was a really high-end quality quarterback on this type of play here.
So now here, let's go to the next screen.
And you can see too, with, you know, that, the wind-up in which he throws it.
But now it's a little late and he's, he's s- feeling, "I gotta get it out, I gotta go."
And he throws the ball so hard, and because he throws so hard and he winds up so much, that he loses control of the ball at times.
And that's what you see from J.J. McCarthy.
And so yeah, from that standpoint it was kind of an underwhelming performance by him that certainly not gonna help his case, and the people that are haters on him are gonna It's gonna open up the door again for the us conversation, and we're gonna be talking is, is he the backup?
Can he really ever start in this league?
Because as we know, that's not the most egregious throw he had, of the day.
No, it wasn't, but I'm glad you started with that one because it, it did kind of feel like a, here we go, when the ones that are there.
Yes.
Right?
Like, you don't wanna call it a layup 'cause it's, it's a deeper throw- Yeah but it's, it's a throw an NFL quarterback needs- It's a, pretty much a layup for an NFL starting quarterback- Right, for an NFL quarterback like you're saying.
Especially with the talent that he has- Yes as a first-round pick.
But, but here just too, like, you know, that throw, hey, drop back, boom, huh.
Just r- all in rhythm.
Instead it's drop back, it's sit there.
Oh, he's breaking out now, and now it's ugh.
And e- Yeah like every body part, his head's moving, both arms are moving.
And I wanna go, at times you go, how can you even focus on the target with the way your head moves as you're throwing the ball?
It's cr- it's crazy that way.
And then the, leads to it being completely errant.
Instead of like, if you watched, you know, top quarterbacks, Burrow, Mahomes, they'd have dropped back and, oh, I see him coming out of the break, and they would've patted it and it just would've been nice one.
I didn't throw my 100 mile per hour fastball, I threw the 92.
Right.
But I had great control and there's just a hair touch on it.
And that's to me what we're missing with J.J. McCarthy, and we've talked about that a lot, in the NFL career.
I- is there anything to pre-snap?
He sees he's a young quarterback.
He sees the corner literally sitting 10 yards off.
Is he worried that the corner i- it, like, and this is me asking if he's in his own head at this point- Yeah that the corner's sitting on this throw?
Well- Because he, he basically waited for the corner to fall.
I know.
And so, so to me it's, that's where the, when we talk about feel.
Like, when you saw his body positioning and the sideline was here and he's like this, and you see the guy making the break, you, you right then as a quarterback go, "Oh, he's not gonna be able to turn around completely and break on the ball."
Right.
Right?
So that's when you can go, "Ooh, I feel good.
He, he's, he's in a spot where he's not gonna be able to make a play here.
Let me just boom and throw it out there."
And of course, that's not what he did.
And, yeah, I do think he's a little late in recognizing things sometimes coverage-wise as compared to starting quarterbacks in the NFL.
So the misses didn't stop there.
I know the next play you were looking at was the second in goal in completion.
It was to the left side of the field.
The, it kind of felt like something you talked about with me all last year of just throwing the fastball.
He throw, it's the same throw every, every throw of the game was the same throw.
And, and again, th- this one, he's getting a lot of heat about this.
It's gonna be a crosser by the receiver down here in the bottom of the screen going all the way back towards the end zone there.
But within that, you know, again, he sees it.
It's not as egregious as the, the one we just showed or the one we're gonna show after this, but I think there is again, the appropriate ball.
The receiver could've caught this ball, but he threw it so hard- Again, that it caught the receiver, I think, by surprise, and it was high, and I think it went through his hands.
I think you could see- It did on TV and all that.
All 22, it, it But I mean- But again, it's a laser.
It is thrown- It's beyond a laser so fast.
He's throwing it from the seven-yard line.
Yeah.
And it's in the back of the end zone.
And the point is, again, as we play this, and go ahead, Pete, and play this, you'll see it.
Play action.
Okay, you see the guy in the back of the end zone.
He's just releasing the ball here, McCarthy.
The, the big thing again to me is yeah, it could've been caught, but yes, it did not need to be as hard as you can absolutely throw it.
And again, with throwing it as hard as you possibly can and the wind-up and all the moving parts, that's why the ball is up here instead of, like, right here, and that's where you want it.
And so again, I'm not gonna kill this throw, because the guy could've, and I think the receiver coach in the room is gonna go, "Hey, we'd like you to come down with that."
But the quarterback coach is gonna go, "Did you have to throw it- Yeah that hard that late?
And if you're gonna throw it that hard, to throw it high like that is gonna make it hard on a receiver."
So he's not gonna get a positive grade from his quarterback coach, Josh McCown on that one either.
And that was to Ty Felton who, he's 6.1, 6.1 and a half.
Exactly right.
It's not like, I mean- Yeah, he's not small he's not a 5'8" receiver out there- No, it's not Zay Flowers- that he overthrew over there or something.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's one of those ones where, like, he threw it high.
There's no way around it.
Yeah.
All right.
One more.
Yeah.
This was the fourth down and goal, and I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here, Chris, it feels like it's the same story over and over again when he misses.
It's the same thing.
It's the s- I mean, this is a slam dunk.
I, I, you know, you just talked about, like, you know, layups for a starting quarterback.
This should be a layup for a second or third stringer.
And the way they, they have a stack release you see here on the, on the bottom of the screen.
And they're just gonna run a little out route, and he's gonna threaten the receiver behind there, which is Price again.
He's gonna threaten like, "Hey, I might go inside, so you gotta run in there and cover me."
And then he breaks out and he's wide open.
And one, J.J.'s a hair late, and then two, again, watch the wind-up, the throw is just way too hard.
I mean, this does not get any more wide open than this right here.
And these are the things that are not gonna instill confidence in a Kevin O'Connell or your teammates when you miss these type of slam dunk opportunities.
Yeah, everybody's gonna go, "Good thing we got Kyler Murray starting, and good thing we got Carson Wentz on the roster too."
Coach Cam in the comments said- Yeah "Also mechanically, look at his finish ex- that right foot always comes through so, so far for no reason.
Not sure how that hasn't been fixed yet."
Well, I, I, I- Do you see something with the footwork?
Do that too.
And now listen, I like that foot getting through, but at times for that kind of throw right there, does it need to be that aggressive?
Right.
And then even with how the arm finishes, it's like down.
You know, I said this to Pete as we were picking these plays out.
I go, "Look, he's kinda smooth, and then at the last second he goes, 'I gotta throw it as hard as I can.'"
Right.
And you just go, well, that's why you missed the target by four yards.
And that's just the polish and the calmness and, you know, more reps, but he's gotta figure out how to tighten and smoothen out that throwing motion.
It is still hurting him here into year three.
It's still an issue, and within that motion, it only lends you to be able to throw the ball kinda hard.
It's hard to throw touch that, touch that way and anticipate that way all the time.
Do you have any feel of where this is going right now?
Because all we did with the Vikings was- Yeah they won nine games last year.
Yeah.
How the hell did they win nine games?
Yes.
And they basically put it all on the quarterback.
So they get Kyler Murray, who Kyler should give them a bump- Yep but he's also a small quarterback that's been hurt before, which means your backup's very important.
Yep.
And all we've seen this summer is there's tools with J.J. McCarthy still- Yes but he doesn't have the skill set or readiness of a backup.
Now you're in a really weird place.
I know.
Because I can't imagine he has a lot of trade value, so you don't wanna give him away.
Oh, totally, no.
He's stuck there.
But what if Kyler Murray sprains his ankle week two?
Yeah.
Do you go to J.J. McCarthy after what we just went through?
I think it's- I don't know.
No, I don't know either.
I, next week, the preseason game three will be another chance for him to- You think it's a big one I do.
I think it's a big one for him.
I wouldn't be shocked if he's the de facto backup on paper- And then they have to have a talk and if Kyler does something happen, they're gonna sit down as an organization and go, "Do we really wanna play J.J.?
Do we really, do we think he can do this?"
Or if he does come in as the backup, it'll be a quick leash.
Yeah.
And they'll be like, "Hey, we got Carson back here, and if you can't move the ball and do the right things with the ball and make the appropriate throws, we will throw him in in a hurry."
And that's what J.J. McCarthy's gotta worry about, you're right, is whether he can even hang on to this backup job.
Because if we go another week where he misses throws like that and doesn't look the part, and then Carson Wentz is Johnny Smooth again, you're gonna have a lot of those type of questions in Minnesota and across the NFL
