Kwesi Adofo-Mensah met with Kevin O’Connell in a Los Angeles conference room before hiring him in February 2022. O’Connell laid out his vision for the Minnesota Vikings and how to develop quarterbacks there. Adofo-Mensah had a long list of qualified people to choose from. Raheem Morris, DeMeco Ryans, Todd Bowles, Jonathan Gannon, Dan Quinn, and Nathaniel Hackett eventually landed head coaching jobs.
Jim Harbaugh left Michigan on signing day assuming the interview was a formality and returned to Ann Arbor after he learned it wasn’t. But Adofo-Mensah was most impressed with O’Connell. He hired the former quarterback who set school records at San Diego State and bounced around the NFL before becoming a coach in 2015. He was the Los Angeles Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2022 and became Minnesota’s head coach three days after winning the Super Bowl.
“It all started at a conference room table in Los Angeles when we first sat face-to-face,” said Adofo-Mensah. “We talked about these things. Not just, you know, what do we want to do from a culture standpoint, but how do you evaluate quarterbacks? How do you grow quarterbacks? How do you develop them? And those things [O’Connell] talked about is the reason why I have so much faith in him to take and mold a player like [J.J. McCarthy].”
McCarthy’s name likely didn’t come up at the time; he was a sophomore at Michigan. Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell had inherited Kirk Cousins, and the Vikings were trying to turn a Ford into a Ferrari. Cousins is American-made and practical, but he became more expensive as he got older. He blew out a tire last year, and the Atlanta Falcons paid a premium for him in the offseason. It looks like they already have buyer’s remorse.
McCarthy is a Fiat. He has won at every level, including a national championship last year. However, he’s 21 and played in Harbaugh’s run-heavy system, making him hard to project. Similarly, everyone has heard of Fiat, but nobody knows someone who drives one. You’ve seen the dealership off of 394, but could you name any of the makes or models without stopping in? They’re Italian-made, so they have to be fast, right? But are they reliable?
Nobody knows.
“His talent is, his traits, are as high-end as anybody and mold him into that player we want to be,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We talked about a lot here. A lot of times when we go back over history, and we say these quarterbacks have missed, there’s a lot of hands that are dirty in that regard. We’re going to make sure that our hands are clean and give him the best opportunity he can to be the best player he can be in this offense.”
In McCarthy’s first press conference, he looked poised and ready to take on the pressure of being an NFL quarterback. He can’t improvise like Caleb Williams or scramble like Jaden Daniels. He doesn’t have Drake Maye’s size. But McCarthy can slide in the pocket to buy time, locate throwing windows against zone defense, and deliver the ball smoothly on rollouts and while scrambling.
“Enigmatic quarterback lacking the measurables and splash throws associated with early-round quarterbacks,” NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein summarized in his evaluation of McCarthy, “but possessing elements that require more study and consideration.”
Nobody knows McCarthy’s true potential, but the Vikings have positioned themselves to maximize it. O’Connell specializes in coaching quarterbacks, and Sean McVay’s system doesn’t need an elite quarterback to be productive. McCarthy will also enter the best situation any rookie quarterback has recently, and O’Connell has a plan for him.
“We’re really trying to build our system…from the ground up,” said O’Connell.
“No detail is too small and really working at a clip that is learnable, digestible,” he added. “Our job is to maximize our time we do have with him throughout the rest of the spring. And I always, you guys know, I consider this spring a learning, teaching phase.”
McCarthy has talent around him, but he has to convince them to believe in him. At some point soon, he will hear his name blared on the U.S. Bank Stadium loudspeakers. The crowd will roar, then go silent while McCarthy huddles with his teammates and goes through his checks at the line. They must believe that he’s in command. That he will go through his reads and use sound footwork. Ultimately, they must trust him.
“Being able to connect with my teammates on and off the field is something that I hold to most importance,” McCarthy said at his introductory press conference. “To go to battle with somebody, you got to trust that they got your six at all times. It starts with developing those relationships and being able to connect with each person individually.”
“You know, the meditation, all the things he does emotionally or whatever, he uses his superpower to create really lasting bonds,” said Adofo-Mensah, referring to McCarthy’s emotional IQ. “When you watch him around his teammates, there’s a – honestly, I would just describe it as a love.”
O’Connell always expressed his appreciation for Cousins, but you have to believe he wanted Minnesota to draft a quarterback he could develop eventually. In February 2022, he had a vision for the Vikings and how to develop quarterbacks. Two years later, Adofo-Mensah has overhauled the roster and drafted a QB O’Connell can mold.
They won’t rush McCarthy. He’ll earn his teammates’ trust and learn footwork and reads before taking his first snap. Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell want to give a quarterback who has won at every level the best opportunity to succeed in the NFL. They want him to have a clear head and a full heart so he can’t lose.
