Vikings rookie JJ McCarthy left no confusion about why the Vikings took him in the first-round after his first preseason showing.
MINNEAPOLIS — Preseason stat lines can be misleading sometimes. For example, last year’s NFL leader in preseason passer rating was Kenny Pickett and his exhibition play didn’t exactly translate to the regular season. So when analyzing JJ McCarthy’s preseason debut, we need to look beyond the strong 11-for-17, 188-yards, 2 TD 1 INT stat line and focus more on the skills that were on display at US Bank Stadium in the Vikings’ win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
To start the second half, McCarthy converted a third-and-long pass to tight end Nick Muse for a first down and then tossed a long touchdown pass to Jackson.“How about him battling and coming right back?” O’Connell said. “Especially coming out of half I really wanted to see how he can come in, take some coaching as a group and then let's go out, execute, and try to put some points on the board.”“I know he felt bad about it but he turned around and showed it,” Jackson said. “Great leadership.
Where he needed to make improvements following OTAs and minicamp was in footwork and accuracy. Those things have come a long way during camp and several passes where he hit his receivers in stride stood out on Saturday afternoon. “There is an overall belief in the development toward this position that I am way more focused on controlling what we can control, which is how we put together practice, how we layer learning, how we allow confidence to build and ownership to build,” O’Connell said.— O’Connell has shown a lot of belief in Jalen Nailor since he was drafted in 2022 and the young receiver carried over his strong camp to the preseason field vs. Las Vegas with three catches for 63 yards.
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