Kevin O'Connell Has One Final Message To Deliver To J.J. McCarthy

The Minnesota Vikings had a chip on their shoulder coming into last season. Vegas oddsmakers projected the Vikings' win total at 6.5, and many were uninspired by their decision to run with Sam Darnold as their starting quarterback. After Kirk Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons, the Vikings appeared destined to tank for a high draft pick and potentially fall short of their low expectations.

Kevin O'Connell wisely turned this into a rally cry, and the Vikings started winning games. A 14-win season followed, and many on a national level couldn’t believe that the team with Darnold at QB and one of the best defenses in the league was legitimately a Super Bowl contender.

The final two games removed some of the luster, but it still showed how O’Connell can motivate his team with a simple message. With the Vikings facing much higher expectations, it’s hard for O’Connell to say that “No one believes in you” ahead of Monday’s opener against the Chicago Bears. But it's a message he can use to motivate J.J. McCarthy and prove the doubters wrong.

McCarthy is the biggest uncertainty on a team with hopes of winning big. The 10th-overall pick in the 2024 draft was starting to build momentum after a strong performance in the first preseason game, but spent his rookie season rehabbing a torn meniscus. Some would argue that the injury helped McCarthy have a full year of onboarding, but it also deprived him of critical reps that would have furthered his development.

That's why many believed the Vikings should have signed Aaron Rodgers when he reportedly expressed interest in Minnesota last April. But the Vikings maintained their confidence in McCarthy, and it seems to have perplexed every beat writer on a national level.

The Athletic’s Michael Silver and Dianna Russini, and ESPN analyst Chase Daniel, started the chorus of “Are you sure about that?” shortly after they turned down Rodgers. Daniel and Russini took it to another level on

“It just sounded like it was almost rehearsed in his head a little, but I do believe he feels that,” Daniel said when McCarthy declared himself “110% ready to start” in Week 1. “I think it’s just mainly – we’re making too big a deal about this – he’s just nervous to talk in front of the media, and look, he’s a first-time starter… I’m excited to see what he can do on the field, just looks a little green there. He needs to work on that a little.”

The tour continued when Colin Cowherd put McCarthy in his crosshairs this summer. He began by claiming that McCarthy didn’t have a “wow” trait coming out of Michigan and clinging to a scouting report by The 33rd Team’s Greg Cosell that said McCarthy didn’t “have a naturally strong arm” and “labored to drive the ball when on the move.”

Right before training camp, Cowherd returned to the top rope, claiming that McCarthy was “a C-level quarterback” and that his fourth-quarter stats for the Wolverines were “terrible.” SI’s Joe Nelson noted two games during Michigan’s undefeated national championship campaign in 2023, where McCarthy trailed in the fourth quarter, and they happened to be against Ohio State and Alabama in the national semifinals. The result? He completed 10 of 14 passes, led three scoring drives, and Michigan won both games.

But some still hold McCarthy’s role in a run-first offense against him. ESPN’s Michael Wilbon

With the founding fathers of screaming hot takes coming at him, there’s a lot of noise surrounding McCarthy’s debut. But O’Connell would be best served to take all of this and turn it into a positive.

Hey, these guys don’t believe in you? What are you going to do about it?

It would be surreal to see McCarthy come out guns blazing and lead the Vikings to a victory with 300 yards passing and five touchdowns. But the best way for McCarthy to win over the critics is to start winning football games.

In his first meaningful game since the 2023 National Championship, that’s an overwhelming task. But O’Connell has proven himself capable of pushing the right buttons and could find the right one when McCarthy takes the field on Monday night.