On Saturday afternoon, Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy put together a really nice performance in his NFL debut against the Las Vegas Raiders with a pair of touchdown passes. When the team gathered for Monday night’s practice at TCO Stadium, word came out that McCarthy would not be participating due to knee soreness.
Unfortunately, McCarthy won’t be participating in much of anything for the next few weeks, at the very least.
The Vikings have announced that McCarthy suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee and he will undergo surgery to have it repaired. There is no timetable for his return but the usual recovery time for this sort of injury seems to be right around 4-6 weeks.
This means that McCarthy will not be the Week 1 starter for the Vikings, so Sam Darnold’s spot at the top of the depth chart is secure for now. It also means that Nick Mullens will move into the role of the primary backup and Jaren Hall will be the third quarterback until McCarthy is cleared again.
If the injury to McCarthy lingers too long, the Vikings could take advantage of a new rule involving the injured reserve list. The NFL has passed a new rule that says that during the final cutdowns, which will take place between the final preseason game on Saturday, 24 August and 3:00 PM Central time on Tuesday, 27 August, teams can place two players on injured reserve and retain the ability to designate them for return during the regular season. It used to be that putting a player on IR before the 53-man rosters were finalized would end their season, but the rule that was passed this offseason will change that.
While this is a bit of a bummer for Vikings fans after McCarthy’s performance on Saturday, it likely isn’t going to change the long-term chances of McCarthy being the quarterback of the future for the Vikings. He doesn’t have any sort of significant injury history or anything like that, so getting the surgery out of the way and the rehab process started is the best possible scenario here.
To his credit, McCarthy is approaching this with the right attitude.
Love you Viking nation. I’ll be back in no time. Amor fati
— J.J. McCarthy (@jjmccarthy09) August 13, 2024
Here’s hoping that J.J. McCarthy has a quick and painless recovery so that he can get back on the field and continue his development. Once there’s a report on exactly how long he’ll be sidelined for we’ll bring you that information here.
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