Vikings rookie QB J.J. McCarthy to miss season following right knee surgery to repair torn meniscus

BEREA, Ohio (AP) — J.J. McCarthy’s rookie 12 months with the Minnesota Vikings is already over.

The previous Michigan star quarterback and first-round NFL draft decide will miss the season after present process surgical procedure to restore torn meniscus in his proper knee, which he injured in his preseason debut final week.

McCarthy had the operation on Wednesday after struggling the harm in some unspecified time in the future in opposition to Las Vegas. McCarthy had been having a strong coaching camp and was pushing starter Sam Darnold, who signed a one-year, $10 million contract with Minnesota in March.

Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell delivered the news about McCarthy shortly after the workforce arrived for 2 days of joint practices with the Browns.

McCarthy’s loss was particularly robust for a franchise searching for a recent begin after letting Kirk Cousins go as a free agent.

Whereas some might have doubted Minnesota’s choice to take McCarthy with the tenth total decide, the 21-year-old, who led the Wolverines to a nationwide title final season, checked all of the containers over the previous few months.

“I actually consider that J.J. has type of confirmed to me and lots of our coaches and gamers that we obtained the fitting man within the constructing for the long run,” O’Connell mentioned. “And he did it in a brief period of time. That’s what makes this information laborious.

“As a result of you recognize simply how thrilling it will have been as a day by day, minute-to-minute course of transferring ahead. However I believe that optimism needs to be felt by anyone in our constructing and hopefully our followers.”

McCarthy went 11 of 17 for 188 yards with two touchdowns and one interception within the 24-23 win over the Raiders — a efficiency that will have led to him getting extra reps with the starters.

Following the sport, he advised the Vikings his knee was sore and imaging exams confirmed the meniscus tear. The Vikings initially hoped McCarthy would solely miss a month whereas acknowledging they wouldn’t know for sure till he had surgical procedure.

“I’m probably the most crushed for J.J.,” O’Connell mentioned.

In accordance with Sportradar, there have been 135 quarterbacks drafted within the first spherical since 1967, and McCarthy will likely be simply the eighth to not play as a rookie. The newest to take a seat out his entire rookie 12 months was Inexperienced Bay’s Jordan Love in 2020.

With McCarthy not within the combine, Nick Mullens will likely be Minnesota’s No. 2 quarterback. Jaren Corridor is No. 3 on the depth chart.

The 29-year-old Mullens began three video games for Minnesota final 12 months, when the Vikings’ season was derailed by an harm to Cousins and the workforce cycled via a number of backups.

“He’s not simply one other succesful man in that quarterback room,” O’Connell mentioned. “He’s offering context, expertise and understanding of our offense each day. His expertise final 12 months was crucial. I believe he discovered that he may very well be an explosive driver of our offense and in addition had some classes of taking good care of the soccer and making an attempt to ensure we’re taking part in aggressively however not over the road by placing the ball liable to being turned over.

“The workforce is worked up about Nick as a result of like many people we’ve gone via the ups and downs however he’s able to essentially be a man we are able to depend on and be a snap away.”

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