After months of recovery, Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy appears different.
Captured on the Vikings’ sidelines during their final regular season game, the former 10th overall pick appeared drastically slimmer and, to some, unrecognizable.
There has been much discussion about McCarthy’s weight loss throughout his recuperation and how it may affect the Vikings’ quarterback decision this offseason.
ESPN’s Kevin Seifert confirmed all of this.
In a Jan. 25 piece, Seifert reported that McCarthy had shed 20 pounds since his fall recuperation.
“Listed at 219 pounds at the start of training camp, McCarthy dropped more than 20 pounds this fall, following a pattern familiar for many football players who put strength workouts on hold during the rehabilitation process,” according to Seifert.
McCarthy has time to regain that weight, but gaining 20 pounds of muscle in a few months is a daunting undertaking, especially given that he must rebuild his throwing mechanics from the ground up.
As a result, the Vikings’ brass has maintained a “neutral tone” regarding their quarterback prognosis for the 2025 season.
“His appearance was a visual symbol of the neutral terms Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell used last week in discussing his immediate future,” Seifert told reporters.
McCarthy, according to Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell, is on schedule to return to where they expected him to be after getting a full meniscus repair in August.
“He is … right where we hoped he would be at this point,” O’Connell said on ESPN, “to have the type of offseason to be able to answer that question.”
However, McCarthy’s immediate status as team leader as early as this spring remains doubtful.
“We’re really confident in him, his work ethic, and his preparation,” general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah stated during the end-of-season news conference. “But I can’t sit here and tell you I know anything for certain.”
Getting a sense on McCarthy’s prognosis for the coming year is the first step in Minnesota’s choice on Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones.
If the Vikings are unsure if McCarthy will be ready to start next season, an experienced quarterback is a necessary insurance policy to keep the team competitive through 2025.
Darnold is projected to command too high a market to persuade him to stay without at least a two-year guarantee of being the starting quarterback.
Meanwhile, Jones is a clear possibility to sign a one-year contract to compete with McCarthy in training camp, as Darnold did a year ago.
Leave a Reply