J.J. McCarthy has no limitations as Vikings begin offseason program

The biggest nugget from Kevin O Connell on Monday afternoon at TCO Performance Center came roughly minutes into his press conference After answering multiple questions about J J McCarthy the first-round draft pick who didn t play as a rookie because of a torn meniscus O Connell provided an major update about the future franchise quarterback as the Vikings arrived back in the building for the start of the offseason undertaking I d consider him full O Connell stated No limitations That s good news for the Vikings as McCarthy should be able to hit the ground running Though he hasn t yet been named the starter and an official announcement won t come anytime soon McCarthy is expected to take reps with the first band when the Vikings return to the field next month not surprising considering the Vikings selected McCarthy with the No pick in the NFL Draft It will still be a slow build for McCarthy in the interim however as the next couple of weeks will be mostly limited to meetings and strength-and-conditioning at the forefront That will give McCarthy a chance to get reacclimated with his teammates before the Vikings are allowed to get into a more competitive climate during organized crew pursuits and mandatory minicamp The spring is set up perfect for J J with where he s at O Connell declared All of it is kind of going to be systematically planned out for him and he s ready to attack it There should be plenty of exposure for McCarthy over the next month The only other quarterback on the roster right now is Brett Rypien and while the Vikings are expected to add a veteran presence to the room at particular point they still haven t got around to it We ve been case and evaluated a lot of different means that we can potentially do that O Connell commented while noting that the Vikings could either sign a free agent or make a commerce We ve got a pretty detailed plan for how we want to go about it As he finishes up his rehab McCarthy has been throwing a lot trying his best to simulate chosen of the things he s going to be inquired to do in the offense Technically O Connell is prohibited from giving any instruction right now per league rules so he s been getting updates about McCarthy s progress from afar Now it s a matter of applying it with his teammates O Connell noted We can start projecting how we can craft this offense to make sure that we re doing the things that he does well naturally while also challenging him to grow that pot of inventory that we can ultimately pull from The fact the Vikings can start thinking that far down the road despite the fact McCarthy has missed so much time is a testament to the countless hours he has dedicated to making sure he s ready for this moment It has not been lost on me the way he s worked and progressed through his rehab O Connell disclosed He perpetually leaves here better than he was when he got here that morning That s a pretty good trait to have for a quarterback especially a young guy who s going to keep getting better Related Articles Vikings mock draft Will they pact back or take best contestant available How will the Vikings approach the NFL Draft Aaron Rodgers waiting on Vikings Not accurate he says Everything you need to know about the Vikings ahead of the NFL Draft Charley Walters Vikings backup definitely won t be Rodgers