Behind the Vikings' two-year process that saw Cousins leave for Atlanta and McCarthy drafted No. 10 overall.
J.J. McCarthy speaks to SVP on when he knew about the interest from the Vikings as well as former coach Jim Harbaugh's words of praise. Kevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL at ESPN. Kevin has covered the NFL for over 20 years, joining ESPN in 2008. He was previously a beat reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Washington Times. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia. You can follow him via Twitter @SeifertESPN.
ESPN spent the offseason tracking the Vikings' quarterback transition, one that took them through intense negotiations with Cousins, included a check-in on theand the acquisition of a second first-round pick that ultimately helped secure Turner rather than McCarthy. It featured a set of five private workouts around the country, one big surprise and the first top-10 quarterback pick in team history and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah pinned their futures on No. 10 overall pick J.J. McCarthy.
O'Connell shut down some mild internal sentiment to take a flier on a quarterback that spring. He has since jokingly referred to himself as the Vikings'"quarterback killer" in draft discussions. Cousins responded with perhaps the best first half of a season in his career. He was tied for the NFL lead with 18 touchdown passes and ranked second with 2,331 passing yards when he tore his right Achilles tendon in Week 8. The injury hit the franchise hard. People throughout the organization believed O'Connell had elevated Cousins' game and set him on a course for a late-career blossoming as a genuine top-10 NFL quarterback.
By that time, there were rampant public reports the Falcons were readying a massive contract offer that would meet Cousins' expectations for an end-of-career agreement. He accepted their four-year offer, with two fully guaranteed years and part of a third, as confirmation the Falcons wanted him as their long-term starter.
The schedule varied based on availability, but most days began with O'Connell teaching a series of plays from the Vikings' playbook in a classroom at each school's football facility. For roughly an hour, he would review expectations for footwork, progression and eye placement, among other minutiae. O'Connell stressed his intent as a playcaller for each play.
In McCarthy's case, the Vikings' scouting and film review had been limited by a Michigan offense that asked him to throw an average of 22.1 passes per game, the fourth fewest by a first-round quarterback in his final full college season over the past 20 years.
McCarthy selected Zingerman's Deli, the famous eatery a brief walk from Michigan's central campus. The group did not call ahead, and they walked into a crowded weekday lunch hour, said Miles Bolton, a front-of-house staff member who was there that day. McCarthy took photos with fans who recognized him as the group waited in line to place orders."He was really gracious in taking time to pose for pictures and interact with fans," Bolton said.
"You're always sweating a little bit with that one pick in between," he said,"but this business is about taking a little risk and trying to get a reward, and I think we got that in the end."coach Sean Payton later suggested that he had bluffed the Vikings into moving up, out of concern that he would move from No. 12 to No. 10 and select McCarthy ahead of the Vikings.
McCarthy will be ready, O'Connell said, when"the comfort level that he has within our offense and his ability to then translate it to adverse situations and difficult aspects of playing quarterback in the NFL aren't magnified by inexperience.
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