Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell Addresses Report That J.J. McCarthy Wasn’t ‘His Guy’

Former Vikings WR Cris Carter said on the Fully Loaded podcast that, from what he hears talking to people in and around the team, former Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was a bigger advocate of drafting QB J.J. McCarthy than HC Kevin O’Connell. 

“Internally, you know what we hear and from the people I talk to, he was the general manager’s guy,” Carter said. Asked, “not the coach’s guy?” Carter added, “The general manager first.”

O’Connell had a chance to respond to that in an interview with KFAN’s Dan Barreiro. 

“I can’t really speak to [Carter’s] sources. I will just say this, Dan, it was a time and place in this organization where there was a lot of momentum, from me included, to draft a quarterback,” O’Connell said. “And to try to go get a quarterback that we felt like we can hopefully develop and build around under the premier development of what we thought we can do with time on task and having a guy like Sam [Darnold] that I had a ton of confidence would go out there and have a great year, and we would figure it out after that…”

“In regards to that, I would just say that we were always going to, in that moment of time in this organization, once Kirk [Cousins] had moved on, feel like the right time and place for a lot of people was that we needed to add a young quarterback,” he added. “Then you go into it: it’s a draft, Dan. And we still feel so strongly about who JJ is and what he’s made of and where his upside can get to, all while having lost an entire calendar year of development where we tried, we tried virtual reality, we tried [everything], you know. But nothing quite can mimic what you go through when you go through the ebbs and flows of playing quarterback in the NFL.”

O’Connell’s full answer is worth listening to, as he details why the Vikings wanted to make sure they added competition for McCarthy this offseason in the form of signing veteran QB Kyler Murray. The coach has insisted it’s an open competition between the two. 

“I would just say that I feel really, really good about what we’re trying to do right now with the best of intentions for the players on our team,” O’Connell concluded. “That’s what we attack every single day. I tried to say the other day I wanted to be transparent with all this, outside of showing people the practice scripts every day, I’m not sure anymore what I can do to prove that, but I feel good about where it is right now.”

McCarthy, 23, led Michigan to a national championship in 2023 and was named first-team All-Big Ten. The Vikings used the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 draft on McCarthy. 

He signed a four-year, $21,854,796 contract that included a $12,714,396 signing bonus and a fifth-year option for the team to pick up in 2028. 

In 2025, McCarthy appeared in 10 games for the Vikings and completed 57.6 percent of his passes for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also rushed for 181 yards and four touchdowns.

We’ll have more on the Vikings’ plans at quarterback as the news is available.