Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy recently said the team hasn’t told him he’s the starting quarterback. The team is nevertheless hoping that’s what he’ll be.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said that McCarthy as the starter is “the outcome we want” and “the outcome we’re headed towards,”
“At every checkpoint, whether it’s been the draft process or practice until the injury and really the offseason now, he’s met the bar,” Adofo-Mensah said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. “He’s exceeded our expectations at every point. So I don’t have the ability to tell you what the future is, but I can tell you what I expect to be the outcome this offseason from the competition. But it’s also our job to set up a quarterback room that’s going to have to . . . provide insurance in case somebody needs to come in for a couple of games. And that’s our job as a personnel department to look at all the options out there and make sure we’re setting ourselves up for the best case we can.”
Adofo-Mensah’s comments came at the same time he acknowledged conversations between Aaron Rodgers and coach Kevin O’Connell — and at the same time the General Manager didn’t rule out further conversations with Rodgers.
For now, though, it’s McCarthy’s chance to show he’s the guy they expected him to be when they moved up from No. 11 to No. 10 to draft him a year ago. Things looked promising in his preseason debut against the Raiders, even if the optimism quickly gave way to news of a season-ending meniscus tear.
That doesn’t mean the Vikings won’t need a veteran. They will. But they seem to be focused for now on a veteran who’ll serve as a mentor and not as a competitor.
