#719: Minnesota Vikings QB JJ McCarthy DOMINATES Joint Practice vs. Patriots | NFL

Tim discusses the challenges and excitement of being a Minnesota sports fan, focusing on the Minnesota Vikings and quarterback J.J. McCarthy's recent performance in training camp. He highlights McCarthy's progress, the importance of consistency in practice, and the implications of injuries on the team's dynamics. Additionally, Tim addresses the potential need for the Vikings to explore free agency options, particularly in light of injuries to key players.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Grind, a Minnesota sports podcast. Welcome into the Grind,
a Minnesota sports podcast. And if you have any doubts
or questions whether or not it's a grind being a
Minnesota sports fan, just take a look at what happened
a few days ago in Minnesota when the Minnesota Twins

(00:24):
owners changed their mind and they said no, no, no,
we're not gonna sell the team, even though m they'll
be Commissioner rob banfriend just said, something is going to
get done. What a load of crap. But today is
not a load of crap. Today is an exciting day.

(00:45):
Today's a new day, a fresh day, a day to
get better, day to get stronger. And Ja Ja McCarthy
has his best practice as a Minnesota Vikus cornerback yesterday
against the New England Patriots in joint practices. So that's

(01:05):
what we're gonna discuss today, JJ McCarthy's dominance in joint practices.
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(02:18):
McCarthy was dialed against the New England Patriots enjoying practices.
I follow many Vikings reporters on social media, the Kevin Sefferts,
the Will Raggetts, the Ben Gaslings, the pernal persuasion, which
is the best, and they were just dialed McCarthy having

(02:41):
his best practice. Kevin O'Connell on JAJ McCarthy's strong day
and felt decisive. Incredible amount of conviction to some of
the decisions he made location of the football. Yesterday, Jajon
McCarthy missed his share of past As Kevin Seffert says today,
he was pretty much lights out. That's how he thinks
of his accuracy and himself as a thrower in general.

(03:03):
He said in parts, I think I'm one of the
most accurate guys out there. McCarthy's numbers, according to Greg Bodard,
fifteen for nineteen, four touchdowns, two sacks, taking two scrambles,
zero interceptions. JJ McCarthy shreds Patriots defense. McCarthy outperforming may

(03:28):
Diana Rusini in front and center at Vikings training camp
watching JJ McCarthy dealing Kevin Seffert again, this has been
McCarthy's sharpest practice to date, over and over and over again.
McCarthy is just receiving the love and compliments from Minnesota
Vikings reporters. And my reaction to this is twofold. There's

(03:56):
a few things that strike me when discussing MacArthur he's
practice against the Patriots yesterday. One the first thing that
strikes me is McCarthy hasn't played competitive football for practically

(04:18):
a year. Some ota stuff, some mandatory ota stuff, but
he has not had competitive training camp reps or in
game reps for basically a year, and because it's been
a year, it's going to take him sometime to feel acclimated,

(04:44):
to get comfortable, to get the touch and feel back.
The dude is rusty, or was rusty. So that's where
my mind goes at first, McCarthy. When you haven't done
something for so long, whether it be anything, whether it
be football, work, working out, whatever. If you try to

(05:07):
do something and you haven't done it for three hundred
and sixty five days or about that, then when you
return for the first time, things are not going to
be as crisp as you hope. Now, with that being said,
McCarthy dominated practice yesterday, which tells me that the rustiness

(05:37):
or the rust factor that he was battling through preseason
and training camp action is leaving and he can put
to the other performances like this. So going forward, we
should see more performances like this in McCarthy's practice, because

(06:05):
up until this point, what we've seen is McCarthy had
a great day, he hit a bad day, he had
a good day, he hit a poor day, he sucked,
he played great that's all we've seen reported about McCarthy

(06:25):
until this time in practice, And what I want to
see next is some more consistent performances of McCarthy locating
the football where he needs to locate the ball. I
want to see more consistent performances of his arm strength,
of him moving around in the pocket, of him dominating practice,

(06:47):
of him putting the ball on time and on target.
And we can give him a pass or not throwing
the ball for over a year competitive setting. But if
he's going to put together performances like this in practice,

(07:08):
then his rust must be wearing off because he's capable
of doing things like this. So if he's capable of
doing things like this, then this is what we should
expect more often in practice, because here's the problem with
McCarthy's up and downs in practice. If you're down in

(07:33):
practice or up in practice, it's not going to get
any easier during the games. You don't perform poorly on
the driving range and then go dominate a golf tournament.

(07:55):
It's the exact opposite. Typically, what happens is you dominate
the driving range. You ask any golfer and it's the
exact same question. You dominate on the driving range, you're
hitting great shots, you get to the first tee and
you suck because of the pressure the moment. It's intimidating,

(08:19):
it's scary. There's more at stake than you suck. The
question that everyone asks is how can I take my
driving range to the golf course. That's the number one
question golfers ask that isn't about their golf swing. How
can I take what I do on the driving range
over to the golf course? And same thing with free throws.

(08:45):
Larry Bird would make three hundred free throws in a
row in a practice setting. Is career free throw percentage
was eighty eight point six. During an in game setting,

(09:06):
Larry Bird would go nine of ten from the free
throw line, But in practice he would make three hundred
straight free throws. Your body performs differently, it acts differently
and an high stake environment, and it always does worse.
So when I saw these ups and downs, it's like, well,

(09:29):
it's not gonna get any better. He's not gonna go
from being down in practice to tearing up the Chicago
Bears defense in week one. So what I want to
see you more of is McCarthy dominating practice, because yes,

(09:49):
he dominated practice against the Patriots, but his domination against
the Patriots isn't going to look the same way against
the Bears. Play great in practice and then you play
good during the game. You play bad in practice, and
there's no way you're gonna play good during a game.

(10:14):
The saying that my family has lived by in the
sports world is you practice like crap, you play like crap.
And it's true. If you are practicing like crap, you
don't go to a game and then all of a

(10:35):
sudden perform really, really well. So what I want to
see now is McCarthy taking this great practice reported by
everybody and do it again, take another step in that direction.
I don't want to see another down day of practice

(10:55):
because through this point he's been inconsistent. He's been up,
he's been down. I just want to see him maintain
a level of consistency that reflects the day that he
had against the New England Patriots, because if he goes

(11:16):
back to having a bad day, then I'm not going
to be super hopeful that he's going to tear up
the regular season because it's not going to get any
easier when the actual game start. It's going to get harder.
The Minnesota Vikings had some injuries again in yesterday's practice,

(11:45):
and one of them was to a significant player. Considering
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(12:08):
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(12:33):
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(12:56):
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a significant injury to the Minnesota Vikings yesterday, and not

(13:17):
because he's a significant player necessarily, but because it's a
significant situation. Jalen Naylor had a hand injury that needs
to be evaluated today, which tells me it's more than

(13:40):
a little Awi tells me that it's more than nothing
if it's being evaluated. And with his injury comes concerned
because he is wide receiver two but option three, Jefferson
option one, Hawkinson option two, Jalen Naylor Option three, while

(14:10):
Jordan Addison is injured and not injured, suspended and unavailable
to play. So with that being said, all of a sudden,
the Minnesota Vikings find themselves in a sticky situation. Odell
Beckham junior is on the market and is available to

(14:32):
sign with any team and wants to play another year.
Has familiarity in Kevin O'Connell's system, with him being a
part of the Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl winning roster,
and at this point in time, I don't know how
you don't consider Odell Beckham junior and you're not bringing

(14:56):
in Odell Beckham junior to bree the one handed snagger
that he was with the Giants or that he was
with the Cleveland Browns. Last year, Odell played nine games.
He was targeted eighteen times. He had nine catches for

(15:18):
fifty five yards. Pretty poor season, hardly did anything, had
zero touchdowns. But the year before with Baltimore, he played
fourteen games, started six games, was targeted sixty four times,
had thirty five catches, three touchdowns for five hundred and
sixty five yards. And that's the kind of production that

(15:41):
you would ask of Odell Beckham junior. You're not asking
him to be a dominant wide receiver two or wide
receiver three. You're asking him to make the occasional catch.
And there was some reports that Minnesota Vikings wide receiver
reported by Jason Harmon, who is a Vikings content creator,

(16:02):
there's a white wide receiver for I want to say
it's like Jordan Thamer or something along those lines. He
posted some videos consistently. He had a good day at
practice yesterday. He caught some touchdowns and caught some passes.
Another McCarthy to Thayer toss. Thomas is doing a lot

(16:26):
of work with the first team Thomas Thayer. Okay, so
maybe it's Thomas Thayer. Maybe Thomas Thayer takes the role
of Jalen Naylor. But the Minnesota Vikings better feel confident
about Thomas Thayer, are confident that Jalen Naylor will return
by week one, or they better look elsewhere and highly

(16:50):
consider their options in free agency because time is running
out to consider the You don't want to bring Odell
Beckham Junior in the week of the matchup against the
Chicago Bears. You want to bring him in now and
get familiar with Jajon McCarthy and reacclimate himself into Kevin

(17:18):
O'Connell's offensive system, which he hasn't participated in for a
few seasons. So it's something the Vikings need to weigh
right now. Do you have confidence that Naylor will be back,
that Thomas Thayer can step up and be a wide
receiver three if Naylor isn't going to be back, or

(17:41):
do you want to bring in somebody else, whether it's
Odell Beckham Junior or somebody else, But either way when
they evaluate Jalen Naylor. That decision needs to be made
soon because preseason game number two is coming up. McCarthy's
not gonna play. But you want this wide receiver that

(18:02):
you could bring in via free agency to start participating
in practice. And maybe you want to do that regardless
because if Jefferson or Naylor or Hockinson goes down in
week ones, two or three, you want someone within that
could step in immediately. You don't want to have to

(18:22):
sign a guy off the street on a Tuesday to
get ready for a Sunday game. So maybe it's in
the Vikings' best case scenario to sign a wide receiver
now so that they can get familiar with this scheme
and comfortable with McCarthy throwing him the ball. So things

(18:43):
the Vikings need to consider and really way right now
because time is running out to sign a free agent
receiver and have him ready. He can sign a receiver
whenever you want, but to have him ready and up
to speed, that's when time is running out. Thanks for
joining the show today. Thanks for making this podcast part
of your day. Remember to check out five Star Bass

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