Zulgad: J.J. McCarthy will be the center of attention at rookie minicamp
The Minnesota Vikings are certain to preach patience when developing first-round pick J.J. McCarthy, but that doesn’t mean anyone outside of TCO Performance Center will listen. McCarthy’s every on-the-field move, both good or bad, is certain to be well-documented.
That process will start this weekend as the Vikings hold a three-day rookie camp including one day of media access. The 21-year-old McCarthy, who many fans hope will go from being the Vikings’ quarterback of the future to the present in short order, is only the fifth QB in franchise history to be selected in the opening round.
The list includes Rice’s Tommy Kramer, who went 27th in 1977; Central Florida’s Daunte Culpepper, 11th in 1999; Florida State’s Christian Ponder, 12th in 2011; and Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater, 32nd in 2014.
Of that group, the most intense spotlight will be on McCarthy.
Kramer and Culpepper were drafted before social media enabled the public to pass near-immediate judgment on players. Kramer, in fact, was selected three years before the event was televised for the first time.
Culpepper was a surprise pick by a team that had Randall Cunningham returning as its starter and had gone 15-1. Even when Cunningham struggled in the early going, he was replaced by another veteran, Jeff George, as Culpepper sat on the bench.
There was more pressure on Ponder and Bridgewater, but the reviews on Ponder upon being drafted weren’t nearly what they have been on McCarthy. Ponder, like McCarthy, had a veteran in front of him (Donovan McNabb), but he ended up being thrust into action far too early as the Vikings struggled and turned out to be a forced pick by a panicked front office.
Bridgewater remains among the great “what ifs” in Vikings history, given that he suffered a career-altering knee injury just before the 2016 season opened. There were expectations for Bridgewater and plenty of differing views on his abilities, but he also arrived as the final pick of the first round.
The Vikings’ first season was in 1961, and yet they had never selected a quarterback in the Top 10 until taking McCarthy at 10 after moving up one spot in a draft-night trade with the Jets.
It will be coach Kevin O’Connell’s job to develop McCarthy and shield him from as much pressure as possible. In free agency, Sam Darnold was signed to a one-year, $10 million contract, so the Vikings would have the luxury of being patient with any young quarterback.
But that doesn’t mean that McCarthy will be able to avoid attention nationally and locally. The Vikings will have limited media access to their upcoming Organized Team Activities workouts, but their three-day minicamp in June (likely to be cut down to two days) can be covered from wire-to-wire and there will be plenty of folks charting McCarthy’s passes.
Training camp will open in late July, and many of its sessions are open to the public. McCarthy, who played college football at Michigan and led that program to a national championship last season, shouldn’t find the attention daunting.
One of the reasons the Vikings took McCarthy was the feeling he could handle the spotlight that comes with the starting job. It remains to be determined when he will move into that starting spot, but the spotlight part will start Friday.
