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Bruce Arians blasts J.J. McCarthy, readiness for NFL as struggles continue with Vikings

Danby: Daniel Hager9 hours agoDanielHagerOn3

The Minnesota Vikings took a huge gamble this offseason by deciding to let quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones depart in free agency, opting in favor of their 2024 First Round Draft Pick J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy missed his rookie season with a torn meniscus, but was tabbed as ‘the guy’ heading into this season.

While Darnold (Seattle Seahawks) and Jones (Indianapolis Colts) are excelling with their new teams, McCarthy is struggling mightily. Although he has dealt with a high-ankle sprain this season, he has started in six games for Minnesota. Over that span, the team is just 2-4.

The former Michigan Wolverine has completed just 54.1% of his passes for 929 yards (36th in NFL) and six touchdowns (T-34th in NFL). He has also tossed 10 interceptions, which is tied for the fourth most in the league. The sample size is not large, but it appears as if Minnesota could have made a massive mistake.

Bruce Arians calls J.J. McCarthy ‘not NFL ready’

Former NFL head coach Bruce Arians joined ‘The Pat McAfee Show‘ on Tuesday, where he blasted McCarthy for ‘not being NFL ready’.

“The alter-ego thing needs to be AP… accurate passer,” Arians said. “We don’t need snot bubbles and tears. You play quarterback, not linebacker. We don’t need all this hyped up bulls**t. Just go play f*****g quarterback and throw the damn ball to the right guy. You’ve got the talent. Now I go back to his senior year. He threw 35 passes in the fourth quarter of his entire senior year? That’s not NFL ready. Then you miss your rookie year.”

“So he’s had no development as a passer and like mechanically, you can’t think about mechanics in the NFL. You’ve got to be thinking about where the hell I’m going with this ball in two seconds. This things got to go somewhere right there because of this. He’s missing all of that right now. First of all, how the hell do I get back there? How do I read it? Where’s it going and now he’s thinking about where the hell to throw it. That’s a bad combination brother. Really bad.”

Following Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers (in which McCarthy passed for just 87 yards), McCarthy placed in the concussion protocol. This puts him in danger of missing his sixth game of the season, which would mean he’s missed 24 of Minnesota’s 30 games over the past two seasons.