Kevin O’Connell Responds to Cris Carter’s QB Quip

J.J. McCarthy was a Kwesi Adofo-Mensah pick. Now gone, Adofo-Mensah can no longer insist on rolling with the young fella. So says Cris Carter, at least in the retelling from within a recent interview.

A few days ago, Kevin O’Connell chatted for about half an hour with Dan Barreiro of KFAN. Berreiro really does a nice job as an interlocutor, asking reasonably tough questions but doing so in a manner that’s curious rather than accusative. At one point, he passed along the Carter comment to ask for O’Connell’s response.

Carter’s “sources indicate to him,” the interviewer suggests, that Adofo-Mensah was the main person behind the McCarthy selection.

O’Connell’s response: “Yeah, I can’t really speak to his 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 […] I wanted the same thing happening now, then. I wanted a competitive daily situation.” In O’Connell’s retelling, there would have been a battle between McCarthy and Sam Darnold.

At the risk of misinterpreting, O’Connell appears to be saying that the issue isn’t rolling with McCarthy but, rather, that McCarthy has been hurt so often. O’Connell then clarified that what has changed is “10 football games in three years.”

Kevin O’Connell, Cris Carter, & The Status of J.J. McCarthy

What’s O’Connell supposed to say?

In theory, the skipper could have shifted all of the blame to his former colleague, but that would have been remarkably stupid. After all, O’Connell has done quite a lot of talking about the young passer since McCarthy was scooped up at No. 10 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Over on Sports Illustrated, Will Ragatz has passed along a lot of the coach’s enthusiasm following the brutal injury in the summer of 2024.

Consider one bold claim: “As excited as I was to draft him, he’s confirmed everything that I hoped to see. Our fan base and everyone should be excited about the fact that we’ve got our young franchise quarterback in the building.”

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Calling Mr. McCarthy a franchise quarterback is bold. Hard to walk that one back, right? Note, as well, that the comment confirming McCarthy as the franchise passer came after expressing enthusiasm about drafting him. A couple of years later, O’Connell is being pressed on his desire to have added McCarthy in the first place.

Consider, as well, the comments that O’Connell made about the role that franchises play in a young arm’s development. Jordan Dajani of CBS Sports helpfully passes along that quote: “I just think as a whole, there’s not enough emphasis put on the organization’s role in the development of the position, meaning I believe that organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations.”

Maybe unsurprisingly, a lot has been said on the matter. Some of that can be brought back to Kevin O’Connell as an individual but then there’s plenty of broader chatter.

Per Carter (but via the KFAN interview), the former GM wanted J.J. McCarthy. Let’s assume that’s true. After all, there’s been no shortage of chatter about Kevin O’Connell really wanting Drake Maye.

Since then, O’Connell has said quite a lot.

Calling McCarthy the franchise quarterback before then taking aim at the NFL’s franchises more broadly for failing young fellas means that O’Connell is invested in this thing. He is, after all, the quarterback whisperer, the one who is supposed to get it since he was an NFL passer before turning into a quarterback coach (and then rising up from there).

What’s odd, as well, is that Minnesota didn’t have a true quarterback competition last year. Sam Howell got brought to town to throw the pigskin alongside Brett Rypien and Max Brosmer. None of these three got anywhere close to threatening the top quarterback job.

In fairness, the Vikings did want Daniel Jones, as Adofo-Mensah later admitted to the media. But then there was the refusal to add anybody in free agency. Most notably, Aaron Rodgers wanted to come to the Twin Cities but the team decided not to do so.

Did Kevin O’Connell sign off on all of these decisions and indecisions?

Later today, the Vikings will continue working through a quarterback competition. Most expect that Kyler Murray will become the QB1 before long. J.J. McCarthy, regardless of who was the main person pushing for him, will look to overcome tough odds.

Senior Editor for Vikings Territory & PurplePTSD . Twitter & Bluesky: @VikingsGazette. Email: k.joudry[at]vikingsterritory[dot]com. Canadian. Jude 1:24-25.

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