https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/given-jj-mccarthys-struggles-what-happens-if-carson-wentz-plays-well-in-his-place-191904844.html
There had to be some concern about J.J. McCarthy after Sunday night.
He had a remarkable fourth quarter in the season opener, and everything else was pretty bad. And he was struggling badly against the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons, who aren’t defensive powerhouses.
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And now McCarthy has a sprained ankle, which might make things pretty complicated.
Kevin O’Connell said in his Monday press conference that McCarthy has an injury and he anticipates that McCarthy won’t play in Week 3 against the Cincinnati Bengals. O’Connell said the injury probably happened on a run on a second-and-20 late in the third quarter, and it felt worse on Monday than it did as McCarthy finished the game. O’Connell said that he doesn’t anticipate McCarthy going on short-term IR, so it’s not a long-term injury but it might also might be more than a week. The injury is a high ankle sprain and could keep him out two to four weeks, according to ESPN.
[Get more Vikings news: Minnesota team feed]
The injury means Carson Wentz will probably start at least one game and maybe more. For a team with playoff hopes and a struggling young quarterback, you can see how this could get weird.
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J.J. McCarthy dealing with injury
There’s no guarantee Wentz will step in and play well. Wentz is on his sixth team in six seasons. He was unsigned until Aug. 24. It has been a while since he was a high level quarterback.
But Wentz has played well in the past, and he steps into a situation that was a career changer for Sam Darnold. It’s not out of the question that Wentz plays well as long as McCarthy is out. Wentz has the benefit of facing the Bengals defense in his first start, which helps.
And what if Wentz does play well? The Vikings didn’t score a touchdown on Sunday night at home against an Atlanta Falcons defense that wasn’t expected to be in the top half of the league. The Chicago Bears made McCarthy look bad for three quarters in the opener, and the Bears allowed 52 points in Week 2. There are a lot of troubling signs for McCarthy.
Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy will miss time with an ankle injury. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
(David Berding via Getty Images)
The Vikings have a commitment to McCarthy, as the 10th pick of last year’s draft. Practically speaking, they chose him over Darnold this offseason. They want him to succeed.
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But if Wentz plays well and leads Minnesota to a few wins as McCarthy heals, it might not be so easy to go back to the quarterback with two career starts who has played well in just one of his eight NFL quarters.
Kevin O’Connell doesn’t blame McCarthy
O’Connell said the proclamation that Wentz is likely to start Sunday has nothing to do with McCarthy’s poor play on Sunday.
“No, no. Not at all,” O’Connell said, saying the news of McCarthy’s injury was “crushing.”
O’Connell did address McCarthy’s struggles to start the season, and he mostly absolved him of wrongdoing.
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“He’s in a long process, a long journey right now,” O’Connell said. “There’s going to be some ups and downs. As a team, I think our ability to play a little bit more consistent around him on the offensive side, these one-off critical errors that end up being totally out of J.J.’s control, we have to find a way to eliminate those.”
That’s fine for a coach to say, but it’s not like the operation has looked smooth and McCarthy has to take some blame for that. If, in the same setting, Wentz plays much better then it won’t look great on McCarthy. And it will become a very interesting conversation in Minnesota when McCarthy is ready to return.
It seems very unlikely that the Vikings would stick it out with Wentz, but he could make the decision much tougher by playing well. This could get interesting.
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/given-jj-mccarthys-struggles-what-happens-if-carson-wentz-plays-well-in-his-place-191904844.html
