O’Connell’s answer fits right in competition breeds excellence Camp, also commonly known as iron sharpens iron class, but it’s a necessary approach for a Vikings team that was good enough to win nine games last season despite lacking stability under center. This reality prompted Minnesota to act quickly in signing Murray.
Beyond that point, however, the narrative is different. O’Connell and Co. will understandably spin the addition of Murray as an encouraging rivalry. He brought up the same issue again in the aforementioned reply. But those who understand both where McCarthy is in his development and who Murray is as a quarterback will lean toward Murray winning the job, an outcome that probably wouldn’t upset O’Connell.
Some believe Murray already has the job.
Even if true, O’Connell isn’t going to admit as much, not in early July with a full camp and preseason ahead of his team. Instead, he decided to deliver a detailed breakdown of the entire quartermaster’s room, because few tactics fill time better than the filibuster.
“Kyler has come in and done a great job,” O’Connell said. “JJ, I think, has an advantage[ed] from that; he has had a very good spring. Carson Wentz is that veteran quarterback in the room. As a guy who has played seven or eight quarterbacks in four years, the two years we had our starter all season, we won 13 and 14 games. So we want to try to get back to that standard of having the quarterback position be the driving force behind the wins by doing their job, by engaging hopefully the great players that they get to play with.
“We have a great defense. (Defensive coordinator) Brian Flores has done an incredible job. If we can limit our turnovers and create explosiveness and get our running game going — even though nobody’s really talking about it, that’s been a big focus this offseason, both from a coaching staff standpoint and player development and offensive development.
“I’m excited about where we’re at, but we won’t really know until we start chalking, molding our team together. We’re going to compete in the NFC North. It’s a very, very competitive division.”
July is the time when football people use lots of different metaphors to describe the preparation process. Building a cold. Calcifying. Whichever you choose, the process is largely the same: Assemble a team, put it to work, and come up with a defined depth chart come September.
O’Connell will begin such a process in less than three weeks.