EAGAN, Minn. — J.J. McCarthy was one of the first Vikings players to reach the locker room at halftime Monday night. So he turned around and walked upstream through the Soldier Field tunnel, smacking teammates on their shoulder pads and telling them he would turn around what had been an anemic first-half offensive showing against the Chicago Bears.
If anyone felt compelled to roll their eyes or otherwise recoil from a scene that plays out more often on lower levels of football than in the NFL, they kept it to themselves. Asked about it later, veteran defensive tackle Javon Hargrave shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said: “He was saying that he’s got us. And he did.”
McCarthy followed up his words with action, accounting for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a 27-24 victory. The third score, a 14-yard run off a surprise read-option play, caused what coach Kevin O’Connell called an “eruption” on the sideline — an emotional release among players, coaches and staffers after the quarterback they waited 16 months to see had finally worked his magic.
“All the stories about how much of a maniac J.J. is, all those stories came true,” former Vikings safety Cam Bynum said on the Kay Adams Show. “He made those stories be real. People may call those stories, ‘OK, he’s just putting on an act.’ But when he went out there and did what he did in the fourth quarter, it’s like, ‘Alright you can’t say nothing about J.J. McCarthy’s mindset.’ It was beautiful to watch.”
It would have been human nature to withhold judgment on McCarthy. He was perhaps the biggest projection of the 2024 quarterback class, having thrown an average of 22.1 passes per game during his final season in Michigan’s run-based scheme, the fourth fewest by a first-round quarterback in his final full college season over the previous 20 years. His draft stock was boosted by his association with a national championship and the vibes of his competitive spirit, and since then he had proved nothing about his capacity to play at the professional level.
After recovering from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, which sidelined him for the 2024 season, McCarthy relied on his youthful instincts during OTAs and training camp as he took over the Vikings offense. It was common to see him moving through groups of players in between drills, delivering high-fives and hugs. His verbal encouragement in the huddle could be heard regularly by fans and observers on the sideline.
What will @jjmccarthy09 remember most about tonight?
“Getting the win.”
📺: @ESPNNFL pic.twitter.com/0JG3N7ljdu
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 9, 2025
During an interview this summer, McCarthy’s Chicago-based quarterback trainer compared McCarthy to P.J. Fleck, the University of Minnesota’s high-energy coach, saying: “He’s almost, like, too happy sometimes. It can almost look obnoxious.”
He looked the part and certainly acted like it. But could he play? O’Connell pushed hard this summer to look past that question.
During his radio show on KFAN-100.3 this week, he acknowledged that it’s commonplace in the NFL to expect players to prove themselves on the field before fully accepting them. But, O’Connell said, “That’s not the way I have ever operated, and hopefully no team I coach ever will.”
Instead, O’Connell encouraged players and the entire organization to utilize the equity they had built in compiling a 34-17 regular-season record while playing with five different starting quarterbacks during the past three seasons. McCarthy would be ready to play, just as Kirk Cousins, Jaren Hall, Joshua Dobbs, Nick Mullens and Sam Darnold were before him.
“I’ve just tried to lean on the fact that a lot of the guys have the belief they do and had it before we took the field on Monday night,” O’Connell said Wednesday when asked to elaborate. “They hopefully have reasons beyond just the fact that we all believe J.J. is made of the right stuff, and we all believe he would respond in those moments.
“It’s an accurate statement to say we hadn’t actually seen it. But that’s my hope with a lot of things, not just the young quarterback. That’s my hope with our football team, where we can start to really believe and deep down inside, believe and expect good things to happen based upon how we prepare, how we have prepared with training camp and the whole offseason to make sure in those moments we shouldn’t be shocked by it. We should be expecting it.”
O’Connell began his tenure in Minnesota expressing similar belief in Cousins, whose career at the time was at a crossroads. During an early team meeting, he showed players video of Cousins delivering a pass in the face of a heavy pass rush. Cousins later said that O’Connell was about “building people” and “not just building a football team.”
Vikings running back Aaron Jones Sr. recalled a similar dynamic in Green Bay, when he was part of a Packers team that elevated quarterback Jordan Love prior to the 2023 season.
“It’s the same thing with J.J.,” Jones said. “The confidence is there. He’s a gamer. I didn’t have to play football with him to say, ‘I’ll suit up with this guy any day.’ We could play kickball, and I’d say, ‘Yeah, this guy is a gamer. I want him on my team.'”
As a result, McCarthy said he didn’t enter Monday night looking to prove himself to the team.
“I feel like it was more proving it to myself,” he said, “because I feel like this team, their belief in me is something I tremendously appreciate. … Being able to really show who I am in the biggest moment was something that was really cool, but it was more just about proving it to myself.”
