January 17, 2025 • 13 mins
The conversation focuses on the Minnesota Vikings' front office updates, particularly regarding quarterback JJ McCarthy and Sam Darnold. Minnesota Tim discusses the insights shared by Kwesi Adofo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell about McCarthy's recovery and future potential, as well as the implications of Darnold's role as QB1. The discussion highlights the Vikings' strategic decisions as they navigate the offseason and consider their quarterback situation moving forward.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
The Minnesota Vikings' front office, Quesci Daufo Mensa and Kevin
O'Connell took to the podium yesterday and gave their review,
their season finale update. I answered some questions, and they
do this every year. Actually, as they were preparing to speak,
(00:30):
I sent out a tweet on X saying, remember last year,
at this time, Quesci Adopho Mensa mentioned that the Minnesota
Vikings intend on bringing Kirk Cousins back. So you need
(00:50):
to take everything that these guys say with.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
A grain of salt.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Don't take anything they say too seriously, because these guys
are podium assassins. They say they should, They say what
they feel like they need to say to keep reporters
off their back, to keep truth from escaping the insides
of t CEO Performance Center. And there was no update
(01:15):
that was more fascinating than the update that they gave
on JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Each one talked about him, each one gave an update
on him.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
They each kind of echoed each other's sentiments and statements
about and JJ McCarthy. And let's just get right to it.
Here'sofo Mensa on McCarthy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Again. We don't know what was going to happen in
this you know, obviously in the in the finish of
the training camp, but you know, he got a great
mental year, you know as a retro year, but mentally
on the process that they had just you know, in
our exit meetings with him, just talking about how much
he learned this year as appeared as compared to other
(01:58):
years in his football life, just exponential, which you would
expect for a young player in this building. And so
I think we're really confident in him, his work ethic
and his preparation. But I can't sit here and tell
you I know anything for certain.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I know that I'm willing to believe in.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
The person that we have on that position is about
talent and preparation, and he's got those things in spades.
And so if that's the course of action we decide,
we'll go there confidently.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So that was a question about McCarthy, and Sam Darnoldy
also gave an update, saying that he's on the field
practicing and doing some drills and moving around. They showed
a short video of him on NBC versus the Detroit
Lions of him without a brace on that knee, but
more of a sleeve.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So that's that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
The first thing that he said, we don't know how
training camp was going to end, and I think a
lot of people are thinking, well, maybe he could have
been QB want to start the year, and that was
never going to be a possibility. Even Paul Allen, the
voice of the Vikings, came on this podcast and said
Sam Donald was going to be QB one regardless of
(03:04):
how the second and third preseason games finished out. Paul
aland said that he's within that Minnesota Vikings locker room
all the time. So I believe him, and that's what
I've been saying for the entire offseason last year, the
entire training camp. Yeah, McCarthy's nice, He's stepping in nice,
(03:25):
But Donald's gonna start the year as QB one, especially
because the Minnesota Vikings bye week was at a perfect
time to make that switch if Sam Donald struggled. So
that was QUESSI. Here's Kevin O'Connell on j J.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, I'm very excited about where JJ's at. I mean,
I wanted to give you guys an update on him
and a few of our players here from a medical standpoint,
but you know, he's he's returned on field training, He's
returned to be able to be right where we hoped
he would be at this point, to have the type
of off season to be able to answer that question.
(04:07):
I think he maximized what this year was for him.
I think he's got a level of comfort in our
offensive system and getting to, you know, really have a
front row seat for every aspect of what Sam went
through from being in the first year in our system
and watching it kind of morph and grow and adapt
as the season went on. Why we do things, Hey,
(04:29):
we're being defended like this, here's the next you know,
alliteration of as our offense kind of continues to take
shape to try to do the things we feel like
we need to do to win every single game.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So I think him being.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Able to absorb a lot of that and now have
a really positive offseason from start to finish here we'll
be able to give us, you know, I think the
answer to that question as well as you know what
that quarterback room looks like as a whole the way
I look at it, But very excited about the opportunity
(05:04):
to be there with JJ as he continues to you know,
move through this wonderful thing we call the quarterback world,
so it's it's I'm very excited about that.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
The Minnesota Vikings loved Drake May and would have preferred
Jaden Daniels over JJ McCarthy, but JJ McCarthy was also
their handpicked guy over Bo Nicks. They liked him better
than Michael Pennicks Junior, even though Pennicks junior went ahead
of him. McCarthy was probably number three on their big
(05:37):
board in the NFL Draft last year, so they love
him and McCarthy is the future of the Minnesota Vikings
quarterback position. And Kevin O'Connell just mentioned right there that
he's back to on field activities, and what is also
mentioning is that there's a lot of good mental work
(05:59):
this season. And because O'Connell and McCarthy they did do
one on one sessions every single week, and they had
the whole little camera on Sam donald's helmet with all
of these different technological updates, McCarthy could pretend that he
was playing quarterback and make reads himself.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So all of those things are good.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
It's not on the you know, you're not on the
football field, so it's not quite the same. But for
a guy that couldn't play all year because of a
devastating knee injury in preseason, and for a situation to
happen mid season that we heard about a procedure, well
that's scary. I mean, nobody wants to hear that. That's
never a good thing. We didn't really know how bad
(06:43):
it was to have a second cleanup, a second procedure,
but it's never a good thing. And now the Minnesota
Vikings need to make the decision of how valuable or
how far.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Is jjon McCarthy in this process.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And do you trust him to be QB one by
the start of fall, because that's the decision that they
need to make on Sam Donald. Sam Donald is not
the future quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. He's not gonna
be here in two or three years. But is he
potentially QB one to start the regular season comes September?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Maybe?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
But what they do know is that this situation is
not the Arizona Cardinals situation of several years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
They drafted Josh Rosen.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I think, what the tenth overall pick, and of course,
if you're gonna draft a QB that high, you love him.
But he struggles his rookie season so bad that the
Arizona Cardinals got the number one overall pick that next year,
and Cliff Kingsbury comes in and he drafts his guy,
Kyler Murray.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
This is not that situation.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
The Minnesota Vikings do not love Sam Donald so much
that they are willing to trade JJ McCarthy another franchise.
So some of the national media members like Mike Greenberg
mentioned that he thinks the Vikings are gonna trade JJ
McCarthy this offseason.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It's not true.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's not happening because the Minnesota Vikings love him. Sam
Donald is not Kyler Murray, and especially after the final
two weeks of the year, JJ McCarthy is not going anywhere,
and he's on a rookie contract, And even though McDonald
had a sensational year one, he is still Sam Donald
(08:33):
and could revert back quickly to the Jets and Panthers
Sam Darnald at any given moment, and he did it
in the most pressured eyes moments of the season this year,
the final two weeks against the Lions and Rams. So
the Minnesota Vikings love JJ McCarthy and it is a
(08:54):
fascinating development that he is now doing on field work
this is all great news if you're the Minnesota Vikings organization,
if you're a Minnesota Vikings fan, and if you're JJ McCarthy,
because now the question of well, is he going to
be ready by OTAs, Is he going to be ready
by rookie Mini camps? Is he going to be ready
(09:16):
by this and that? Well, it seems like the question too,
that is answered. It seems like we now have some
evidence that this knee thing is not going to be
too long term and that he will be back on
the field sometime shortly. Jordan Schultz is an NFL insider,
(09:40):
and he went on the Herd with Colin Coward and
he mentioned and talked about the same situation we said
last week.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
If Darnold struggled again, you said it, yeah, that his
runway with the Vikings was probably up.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
I would say most likely he's played his final game
in Minnesota because the tag is going to be right
around forty. There's no reason for Quacy to say, in
KOC we're going to tag you now and pay forty
when his contract's not going.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
To come into that number. The Baker Mayfield one hundred
million over three.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Is probably about right for Sam Darnold. He played so
well the second half of the season, but what happened
in the last two games nine sacks, a record against
the Rams, he's awful, two picks, was really bad against Detroit.
And then you have Minnesota thinking, not only did we
draft JJ McCarthy, but he was excellent in the preseason.
(10:33):
Someone there told me before the as the season was
getting going, that we have our like, there's no question
JJ McCarthy's the guy. Then he has the meniscus surgery
and he has to miss the season. They really believe
in him. They also brought in Daniel Jones in a
very small number cup, So I wonder if Minnesota just
decides to let Sam walk, which I think is more
likely at this point, then they have McCarthy healthy and
(10:56):
Daniel Jones go out and battle out for next year.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's intriguing because Tom Pelasaro just went on Kfan the
other day and said that, and if you're making bets,
the money would still be on Sam Donald returning to
the Minnesota Vikings. But a lot of this depends on
what kind of feelers Sam Donald's agency puts out. Obviously,
it comes down to the Minnesota Vikings putting the franchise
(11:21):
take on Sam Donald, but it does seem likely now
that the Vikings will not do that based on the
final few weeks of the year. And if they can
bring back Daniel Jones, if they feel certain that they
can bring him back for another year and be the
backup slash competitor with j Jon McCarthy, well, then Sam
Donald's gone. If they feel they can bring back Daniel Jones,
(11:44):
there is no room for Sam Donald on the Minnesota
Vikings roster because they probably feel that they could do
the same thing with Daniel Jones as they did with
Sam Donald if necessary, And hopefully they don't even have
to think about that situation because Jaj McCarthy will be
healthy for the entire season. So it seems like Sam
(12:06):
Donald is as good as gone and the Minnesota Vikings
are going to move on from him, and it's probably
best for the Minnesota Vikings and Sam Donald. Donald can
then receive a three year contract from some bottom feeder
in the league and hoping to try to make a
playoff run and hoping to continue his sensational regular season
(12:27):
play through sixteen games, and the Minnesota Vikings then have
all that salary cap space to bring in free agents
and to bring in guys that they want to bring in.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
So fascinating development.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
It will continue to be intriguing as the offseason goes on.
I'm sure more and more stories will come out about
this situation. But that's it for today. Thank you for watching,
Thank you for subscribing. If you have not yet, hit
that subscribe it and hit that subscribe by to wherever
you are watching or listening to this podcast. Everyone, take care,
have a great day, and thank you for making this
podcast ever your day.
The Minnesota Vikings' front office, Quesci Daufo Mensa and Kevin
O'Connell took to the podium yesterday and gave their review,
their season finale update. I answered some questions, and they
do this every year. Actually, as they were preparing to speak,
(00:30):
I sent out a tweet on X saying, remember last year,
at this time, Quesci Adopho Mensa mentioned that the Minnesota
Vikings intend on bringing Kirk Cousins back. So you need
(00:50):
to take everything that these guys say with.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
A grain of salt.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Don't take anything they say too seriously, because these guys
are podium assassins. They say they should, They say what
they feel like they need to say to keep reporters
off their back, to keep truth from escaping the insides
of t CEO Performance Center. And there was no update
(01:15):
that was more fascinating than the update that they gave
on JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Each one talked about him, each one gave an update
on him.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
They each kind of echoed each other's sentiments and statements
about and JJ McCarthy. And let's just get right to it.
Here'sofo Mensa on McCarthy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Again. We don't know what was going to happen in
this you know, obviously in the in the finish of
the training camp, but you know, he got a great
mental year, you know as a retro year, but mentally
on the process that they had just you know, in
our exit meetings with him, just talking about how much
he learned this year as appeared as compared to other
(01:58):
years in his football life, just exponential, which you would
expect for a young player in this building. And so
I think we're really confident in him, his work ethic
and his preparation. But I can't sit here and tell
you I know anything for certain.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I know that I'm willing to believe in.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
The person that we have on that position is about
talent and preparation, and he's got those things in spades.
And so if that's the course of action we decide,
we'll go there confidently.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So that was a question about McCarthy, and Sam Darnoldy
also gave an update, saying that he's on the field
practicing and doing some drills and moving around. They showed
a short video of him on NBC versus the Detroit
Lions of him without a brace on that knee, but
more of a sleeve.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So that's that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
The first thing that he said, we don't know how
training camp was going to end, and I think a
lot of people are thinking, well, maybe he could have
been QB want to start the year, and that was
never going to be a possibility. Even Paul Allen, the
voice of the Vikings, came on this podcast and said
Sam Donald was going to be QB one regardless of
(03:04):
how the second and third preseason games finished out. Paul
aland said that he's within that Minnesota Vikings locker room
all the time. So I believe him, and that's what
I've been saying for the entire offseason last year, the
entire training camp. Yeah, McCarthy's nice, He's stepping in nice,
(03:25):
But Donald's gonna start the year as QB one, especially
because the Minnesota Vikings bye week was at a perfect
time to make that switch if Sam Donald struggled. So
that was QUESSI. Here's Kevin O'Connell on j J.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, I'm very excited about where JJ's at. I mean,
I wanted to give you guys an update on him
and a few of our players here from a medical standpoint,
but you know, he's he's returned on field training, He's
returned to be able to be right where we hoped
he would be at this point, to have the type
of off season to be able to answer that question.
(04:07):
I think he maximized what this year was for him.
I think he's got a level of comfort in our
offensive system and getting to, you know, really have a
front row seat for every aspect of what Sam went
through from being in the first year in our system
and watching it kind of morph and grow and adapt
as the season went on. Why we do things, Hey,
(04:29):
we're being defended like this, here's the next you know,
alliteration of as our offense kind of continues to take
shape to try to do the things we feel like
we need to do to win every single game.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So I think him being.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Able to absorb a lot of that and now have
a really positive offseason from start to finish here we'll
be able to give us, you know, I think the
answer to that question as well as you know what
that quarterback room looks like as a whole the way
I look at it, But very excited about the opportunity
(05:04):
to be there with JJ as he continues to you know,
move through this wonderful thing we call the quarterback world,
so it's it's I'm very excited about that.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
The Minnesota Vikings loved Drake May and would have preferred
Jaden Daniels over JJ McCarthy, but JJ McCarthy was also
their handpicked guy over Bo Nicks. They liked him better
than Michael Pennicks Junior, even though Pennicks junior went ahead
of him. McCarthy was probably number three on their big
(05:37):
board in the NFL Draft last year, so they love
him and McCarthy is the future of the Minnesota Vikings
quarterback position. And Kevin O'Connell just mentioned right there that
he's back to on field activities, and what is also
mentioning is that there's a lot of good mental work
(05:59):
this season. And because O'Connell and McCarthy they did do
one on one sessions every single week, and they had
the whole little camera on Sam donald's helmet with all
of these different technological updates, McCarthy could pretend that he
was playing quarterback and make reads himself.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So all of those things are good.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
It's not on the you know, you're not on the
football field, so it's not quite the same. But for
a guy that couldn't play all year because of a
devastating knee injury in preseason, and for a situation to
happen mid season that we heard about a procedure, well
that's scary. I mean, nobody wants to hear that. That's
never a good thing. We didn't really know how bad
(06:43):
it was to have a second cleanup, a second procedure,
but it's never a good thing. And now the Minnesota
Vikings need to make the decision of how valuable or
how far.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Is jjon McCarthy in this process.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And do you trust him to be QB one by
the start of fall, because that's the decision that they
need to make on Sam Donald. Sam Donald is not
the future quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. He's not gonna
be here in two or three years. But is he
potentially QB one to start the regular season comes September?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Maybe?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
But what they do know is that this situation is
not the Arizona Cardinals situation of several years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
They drafted Josh Rosen.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I think, what the tenth overall pick, and of course,
if you're gonna draft a QB that high, you love him.
But he struggles his rookie season so bad that the
Arizona Cardinals got the number one overall pick that next year,
and Cliff Kingsbury comes in and he drafts his guy,
Kyler Murray.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
This is not that situation.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
The Minnesota Vikings do not love Sam Donald so much
that they are willing to trade JJ McCarthy another franchise.
So some of the national media members like Mike Greenberg
mentioned that he thinks the Vikings are gonna trade JJ
McCarthy this offseason.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It's not true.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's not happening because the Minnesota Vikings love him. Sam
Donald is not Kyler Murray, and especially after the final
two weeks of the year, JJ McCarthy is not going anywhere,
and he's on a rookie contract, And even though McDonald
had a sensational year one, he is still Sam Donald
(08:33):
and could revert back quickly to the Jets and Panthers
Sam Darnald at any given moment, and he did it
in the most pressured eyes moments of the season this year,
the final two weeks against the Lions and Rams. So
the Minnesota Vikings love JJ McCarthy and it is a
(08:54):
fascinating development that he is now doing on field work
this is all great news if you're the Minnesota Vikings organization,
if you're a Minnesota Vikings fan, and if you're JJ McCarthy,
because now the question of well, is he going to
be ready by OTAs, Is he going to be ready
by rookie Mini camps? Is he going to be ready
(09:16):
by this and that? Well, it seems like the question too,
that is answered. It seems like we now have some
evidence that this knee thing is not going to be
too long term and that he will be back on
the field sometime shortly. Jordan Schultz is an NFL insider,
(09:40):
and he went on the Herd with Colin Coward and
he mentioned and talked about the same situation we said
last week.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
If Darnold struggled again, you said it, yeah, that his
runway with the Vikings was probably up.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
I would say most likely he's played his final game
in Minnesota because the tag is going to be right
around forty. There's no reason for Quacy to say, in
KOC we're going to tag you now and pay forty
when his contract's not going.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
To come into that number. The Baker Mayfield one hundred
million over three.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Is probably about right for Sam Darnold. He played so
well the second half of the season, but what happened
in the last two games nine sacks, a record against
the Rams, he's awful, two picks, was really bad against Detroit.
And then you have Minnesota thinking, not only did we
draft JJ McCarthy, but he was excellent in the preseason.
(10:33):
Someone there told me before the as the season was
getting going, that we have our like, there's no question
JJ McCarthy's the guy. Then he has the meniscus surgery
and he has to miss the season. They really believe
in him. They also brought in Daniel Jones in a
very small number cup, So I wonder if Minnesota just
decides to let Sam walk, which I think is more
likely at this point, then they have McCarthy healthy and
(10:56):
Daniel Jones go out and battle out for next year.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's intriguing because Tom Pelasaro just went on Kfan the
other day and said that, and if you're making bets,
the money would still be on Sam Donald returning to
the Minnesota Vikings. But a lot of this depends on
what kind of feelers Sam Donald's agency puts out. Obviously,
it comes down to the Minnesota Vikings putting the franchise
(11:21):
take on Sam Donald, but it does seem likely now
that the Vikings will not do that based on the
final few weeks of the year. And if they can
bring back Daniel Jones, if they feel certain that they
can bring him back for another year and be the
backup slash competitor with j Jon McCarthy, well, then Sam
Donald's gone. If they feel they can bring back Daniel Jones,
(11:44):
there is no room for Sam Donald on the Minnesota
Vikings roster because they probably feel that they could do
the same thing with Daniel Jones as they did with
Sam Donald if necessary, And hopefully they don't even have
to think about that situation because Jaj McCarthy will be
healthy for the entire season. So it seems like Sam
(12:06):
Donald is as good as gone and the Minnesota Vikings
are going to move on from him, and it's probably
best for the Minnesota Vikings and Sam Donald. Donald can
then receive a three year contract from some bottom feeder
in the league and hoping to try to make a
playoff run and hoping to continue his sensational regular season
(12:27):
play through sixteen games, and the Minnesota Vikings then have
all that salary cap space to bring in free agents
and to bring in guys that they want to bring in.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
So fascinating development.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
It will continue to be intriguing as the offseason goes on.
I'm sure more and more stories will come out about
this situation. But that's it for today. Thank you for watching,
Thank you for subscribing. If you have not yet, hit
that subscribe it and hit that subscribe by to wherever
you are watching or listening to this podcast. Everyone, take care,
have a great day, and thank you for making this
podcast ever your day.
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