O’Connell exuded confidence when talking about McCarthy in training camp, keeping his comments about the second-year quarterback (and indeed rookie after McCarthy missed his entire freshman season) vague while he was excited. The results haven’t quite followed, surprising some who thought McCarthy’s year on the sidelines would give him a head start heading into 2025.
“It was really just the injury that I felt kind of took away all those repetitions,” McCarthy said, “over and over again to make them a habit and make them concrete like [O’Connell] talks about. But yeah, I feel like it’s just the repeats. How many times could I go home and every time I take the dogs out I get 10 drops every time. Little things like that where I just keep getting the reps.”
Over time, such repetitions should yield better results. But in an NFL that seems to grow more impatient with each passing year, McCarthy needs to step up, especially if the 4-6 Vikings have any hopes of getting back into the playoffs in the tough NFC North, which begins Sunday against the rival Packers (6-3-1).
McCarthy believes in the process and will continue to follow it, regardless of outside expectations.
“You’re rewiring a neural network,” he said, “and that’s not something that happens overnight. So just understanding in giving myself that grace, that patience that I might not have today, but that’s something that I’m going to continue to strive for day after day, rep after rep and get to the place that we all want me to be.”
The Vikings hope he gets to that point sooner rather than later.