The Draw Play

Excuse me, NINE gets concussed.

JJ McCarthy has entered the concussion protocol after the Packers game. The concussion is probably real, but people can’t quite pinpoint when it might have happened. This leaves Max Brosmer as the starter: a late-round rookie. Normally, this would make people unhappy. For the Vikings, things have gotten so bad at QB that the potential of Brosmer is actually kind of interesting.

A lot of people assumed McCarthy was “soft benched’ with his high ankle sprain earlier this year when they left Carson Wentz out there to die for a couple weeks. After watching McCarthy since he came back, I find the theory more plausible. McCarthy hasn’t just been bad. He’s been historic. JJ has been playing such bad football that he is being compared to legends like JaMarcus Russell.

Before the draft, I did not want the Giants to draft JJ McCarthy. At least not at #6. I could see the warning signs. He was part of the Bortles effect, a guy who was projected as a mid-round talent who suddenly shot up draft boards for no reason as draft pundits got bored about writing about Maye, Caleb, and Daniels. He even looked like Zach Wilson. He won a championship handing the ball off 40 times per game on the back of the best defense in college football (and also sign-stealing!). I barely study prospects and even I could tell this kid was going to be overdrafted. One of my personal favorite football channels (Thinking Football), put out a video before the draft that called out a lot of his warning signs. This is the same channel that correctly called the Eagles defense sending Mahomes to hell in the Super Bowl. I trust their analysis.

McCarthy being bad is one thing. I think many expected that. He’s essentially a rookie this year. Rookie-esque struggles would be one thing. He’s not playing like a normal struggling rookie QB. He’s putting up some of the worst QB performances you’ll watch. Cam Ward, a rookie who is struggling, is playing better football on a much worse team with much less support to back him up. That’s the other thing about this. This Vikings team is not bad. McCarthy has possibly the second-best WR corp in football right now to work with in Addison and Jefferson. The Vikings defense is solid. The coaching is good. The offensive line, while problematic, has stabilized during his most recent string of games. JJ just can’t throw a football accurately to save his life.

Is it too early to give up on JJ? I dunno. It still seems like a mechanics issue more than anything. The Jitters are rookie stuff. I would have said no to giving up but he’s putting up such putrid performances that the Vikings might need to instantly rip the bandaid off and be done with it, Rosen style. I cannot see McCarthy improving much by season’s end. He probably needs an entire offseason of his mechanics being broken down and rebuilt to stand a chance. That kind of thing can take years. Josh Allen took three seasons to start having good mechanics, but he was able to help the team in other ways in the meantime. Nine is an active detriment to the team whenever he doesn’t hand it off.

Brosmer is being given a golden chance right now. There’s no expectations on him, so all he has to do is play mediocre football and make the offense watchable. If he does that, the Vikings are going to have issues putting McCarthy back out there because fans would riot. I personally would love it if the Vikings lucked themselves into their own version of the Trey Lance/Brock Purdy dynamic. It would be hilarious.