Thank you to Christopher Gates of our sister site the Daily Norseman, which covers the Minnesota Vikings, for stopping by and answering a few questions about his team as they get ready to play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. If you want to find the pairing piece to this article, where Gates asks me questions about the game, you can find it HERE.
We gotta talk about J.J. McCarthy. What is the temperature like in Minnesota right now?
The answer to the McCarthy question depends almost entirely on who
you talk to. There are people in the camp of wanting to give McCarthy some leeway because he’s only had five NFL starts and that he needs time to develop, and there’s the crowd that’s already decided that he needs to be cast to the Spartan hillside and it’s already time to move on to another option at quarterback. I find myself quite firmly in the first camp, if only because I have faith that Kevin O’Connell can develop McCarthy into what he thinks he can be and, on a personal level, I’m tired of the Vikings having to rely on one and two-year stopgaps at the quarterback position and I want this to work out. I don’t know if we’ll have a definitive answer on the subject by the time of this season, but the job is McCarthy’s for the rest of this season and probably next season at a minimum.
Should the team have just signed Aaron Rodgers this offseason?
I wasn’t a fan of the idea of signing Aaron Rodgers, to be honest. Sure, the Vikings might have a couple more victories this season, but it’s not as if Rodgers has really been killing it or anything. He’s getting a lot of yardage after the catch in Pittsburgh and the Vikings’ offense has largely been structured around longer-developing plays and pushing the ball downfield, so I’m not sure if Rodgers would have been a great fit in this offense regardless. Plus, if you go the Rodgers route, you still have the same issue with McCarthy of not really knowing what you have because you haven’t put him out there in any live game action, so it’s just delaying the inevitable for another season. Getting an answer on your young quarterback sooner rather than later is probably the best way to go, so I’d lean “no” on the Rodgers question.
There are a lot of moving parts on the Vikings’ offensive line right now. Left tackle Christian Darrisaw was a non-participant on Thursday because of a knee injury. Right guard Will Fries went from a non-participant on Wednesday to a limited participant on Thursday because of a knee injury. Center Ryan Kelly is back to being a full participant in practices after suffering a concussion. How is it looking up front, right now?
The five players that the Vikings had envisioned being the starting o-line this season (Darrisaw, rookie Donovan Jackson, Kelly, Fries, and Brian O’Neill) have played a combined zero snaps together this season and we’re now into Week 12. That’s bad. Blake Brandel has stepped in at the center spot and done a surprisingly good job, and the Vikings have done what they can with what they’ve had on the injury front. Kelly isn’t really a guy you can rely on going forward, as he’s had a history of concussion issues and has already had two this season, the second of which landed him on IR. Darrisaw is still working his way back from last year’s torn ACL and has been getting one practice off each week. Given the circumstances, the Vikings’ offensive line has been solid enough, but still a bit of a disappointment given the expectations that we had for them going into the season.
Beyond McCarthy. What do you think the weaknesses of this team are right now?
Their inability to force turnovers, which is something they’ve been outstanding at over the past couple of seasons. Through ten games last season, this defense had generated 21 turnovers. Through ten games this season, they’ve forced a total of nine, and five of them came in one game when they crushed Cincinnati back in Week 3. They haven’t been getting the big splash plays that we’ve been accustomed to seeing them get in recent seasons, and they’re winding up spending more time on the field as a result. Last week, the Bears’ only touchdown drive of the day went for 10 minutes and was almost exclusively running plays because the Vikings just couldn’t get a stop. If this defense can’t find a way to start generating turnovers again, they’re likely going to keep struggling to get off the field.
The Packers are around touchdown favorites right now. Too much? Too little? What are you expecting out of this game?
It’s probably just about right, given the way these two teams are currently trending. I’m hoping that McCarthy is finally going to start finding some consistency, but this is not the best defense to hope that happens against. He’s going to have opportunities to make plays, but if he keeps airmailing receivers it won’t matter how wide open they are or anything like that. My guess is that the Packers win this one, but I think the Vikings find a way to make it closer than a touchdown.
