Vikings tight end on JJ McCarthy: “He was incredible”

With training camp set to begin later this month, the hot topic for the Minnesota Vikings is the quarterback battle between veteran Sam Darnold and rookie JJ McCarthy. Although Darnold is reportedly leading the race for the starting QB job before training camp, there is a growing belief that JJ McCarthy needs to be on the field early and often.

Speaking with former UM offensive lineman Taylor Lewan on the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast, Minnesota Vikings tight end TJ Hockenson gave a glowing assessment of what he’s seen so far from the rookie QB.

“He’s been unbelievable,” Hockenson said. He works hard in the film room, he works hard in the classroom. On the field, he’s a real baller, obviously. But when you have a guy … especially a rookie, when you get into a facility and into the league, you usually have to shut up and get to work. And that’s exactly what he did. He earned the respect of a lot of the guys there.”

But as impressive as the rookie quarterback has been on and off the field, Hockenson admits there is a battle on and he is excited to see how it all turns out.

“Obviously, we also have Sam Darnold, who is a great player and can play the game at a really high level. So it will be interesting to see what happens with those two. But I’m really excited to have JJ on our team and on our roster. Like I said, he’s a leader. He did that at Michigan, and I’m sure he’ll carry that over to the league.”

Earlier this week, former Vikings wide receiver and Hall of Famer Randy Moss spoke out strongly in favor of using the rookie QB.

“My thing is, when we played, the first three guys they drafted played,” Moss said. “There’s no ifs and buts. Now in the fourth, fifth or sixth round… we’ll see. Maybe they get on the field, maybe they don’t, maybe a special teamer. We played the first three rounds back then. Now you draft guys in the first round, they don’t even get on the field. So if you ask me the question, yeah, JJ… I don’t care if he’s not ready, he’s got to be out there.”

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