Analysis: What Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy can learn from watching Carson Wentz

Carson Wentz emerged from the U.S. Bank Stadium tunnel to cheers Sunday morning, wearing the purple uniform of his favorite childhood team as he prepared to start his first game for it. He saw his wife, Madison, and the couple’s three daughters waiting for him, an oasis in a moment that felt almost surreal.

“We’ve been doing that in a couple different uniforms,” Wentz said. “That moment as a family is pretty special. For me to come out and just get that breath of fresh air with just my family, remind me to put my brain and my mind in that perspective. There’s so much more to life than just this football game. That kind of helps me have comfort, when I go out and play with a little sense of peace that’s a little different.”

Wentz became the seventh different quarterback to start for coach Kevin O’Connell in four years; the Vikings became the sixth team for which Wentz had started in six years. O’Connell said Sunday that Wentz will get “another opportunity” to start for the Vikings on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Ireland.

While J.J. McCarthy’s recovery from a high ankle sprain could mean Wentz starts against the Cleveland Browns in London as well, McCarthy could be healthy by the time the Vikings return to U.S. Bank Stadium on Oct. 19 to face the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.

If the Vikings feel good about McCarthy’s health and readiness to start coming out of the bye, it could mean that Wentz’s time as the starter concludes before he gets another opportunity at U.S. Bank Stadium like he had Sunday (though O’Connell said Monday that he felt no need to make long-term QB pronouncements).

“First and foremost, he’s got to get healthy,” O’Connell said of McCarthy. “And then, I don’t think it’s one of those things where, if he’s healthy the night before a game, we’re gonna throw him out there and say, ‘Hey, go figure it out.’

“When building up the 10,000 reps and 10,000 hours of what it takes to play the position at a very high level, which we know J.J. McCarthy is going to do, you can’t cut corners on that.”

According to Pro Football Focus, McCarthy bore some responsibility for 22.7% of the pressures against him in the Vikings’ first two games, the seventh-highest rate in the NFL. He was holding the ball for an average of 2.79 seconds even when he had a clean pocket — the longest in the NFL — and kept it for 3.52 seconds under pressure, while being sacked nine times on 22 pressures.

Wentz’s time to throw under pressure was 3.44 seconds Sunday, and he was sacked three times, fleeing the pocket on the first one before holding the ball on longer-developing concepts on the second and third sacks. But on the 16 dropbacks in which he was kept clean, he took just 1.99 seconds to throw, completing 10 of his 14 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown.

On Monday, O’Connell pointed out the instructive value Wentz’s game had for McCarthy.

Experience is ”what allows players to play with poise and conviction,” O’Connell said. “And when you couple that with firm and repeatable fundamentals, normally within the lower half of the quarterback’s mechanics, then you have a system, then you have rhythm. It’s very difficult for a defense to take away all five eligible [receivers]. Because we were able to have some body blows by running the ball, I thought our protection was solid for the most part. We got loose there on a couple internal [stunts] here and there, but many of the times, we stayed efficient with the chains. So it’s, it’s a combination of the individual player and all 11 individual players doing their job.”

“Sometimes,” he added, “it’s the reactionary ability to still consistently play with the rhythm and the poise and the decision making, and all that becomes much easier when you’re taking the right footwork and you’re balanced throughout the drop and reading with your feet. That can be an incredible weapon for a quarterback, whether they’ve played 20 years or they’ve played two games. And I think there’s value in J.J. seeing that.”

“Josh was pretty jacked up about that — and then J.J. just saying how, by Carson playing in rhythm and progressing quickly on some things, just how much of a point guard feel it had at times,“ O’Connell said. ”All of that is real positive.”

Vikings quarterbacks hear O’Connell talk frequently about “base, balance and body position,” and his analysis of Wentz’s game certainly included some pointers for McCarthy. The young quarterback’s delivery time is also likely tied to how quickly he reads coverages, and it’s there where Wentz’s experience likely helps him play a little faster.

It helped the Vikings get back above .500 on Sunday, and it might have provided a teaching tool for McCarthy in the process. Even if Wentz’s time as the starter is short, his impact on the Vikings’ 2025 season could last longer than his stint in the lineup.