J.J. McCarthy plays a series in Vikings' preseason opener, has a decent outing
McCarthy, Minnesota's first-round pick in 2024 who missed all of last season with a knee injury and is taking over as the team's starting quarterback this season, played just one series against the Houston Texans on Saturday. McCarthy was fine, throwing inaccurately a couple times but doing enough to move the offense and get a field goal.
The reports on McCarthy out of training camp have been that he has been up and down, going against the tough, aggressive Vikings defense in practice. Saturday's preseason game was mostly a forgettable and short outing.
McCarthy's longest pass was a 18-yard gain to Jordan Addison, though it wasn't a great pass. McCarthy moved slightly to his left in the pocket and threw a bit inaccurately to Jordan Addison. But Addison made a nice diving catch for the first down. It wasn't a perfect throw but it got the job done.
McCarthy missed a pass over the middle on third down, throwing wildly to Lucky Jackson. But the Vikings went for it on fourth down and McCarthy scrambled to his right and picked up the first down.
The drive stalled when McCarthy threw to running back Jordan Mason over the middle on third down under pressure and it was knocked away. Mason would have been short of the first down anyway. The Vikings kicked a field goal.
McCarthy went 4 of 7 for 30 yards on the drive. It wasn't as exciting as his one preseason outing last year, when he had 188 yards and two touchdowns, but it was decent.
The Vikings chose to not pay Sam Darnold after he had a very good 2024 season and became a free agent, instead moving forward with McCarthy, the 10th pick of last year's draft. They'll be second-guessed if it doesn't work out, after going 14-3 and making the playoffs last season. McCarthy comes into this season as a bit of an unknown, in terms of how he'll perform as an NFL starting quarterback. Not much got answered against Houston on Saturday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
'They could win it if they keep their squad together'
Former England midfielder Izzy Christiansen says only time will tell whether Crystal Palace's demotion to the Conference League "will be a blessing in disguise". Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, Christiansen recognised the frustration after they lost their appeal, but said that "cannot move away from the fact Oliver Glasner has done a wonderful job" to get them this far. "He has won two trophies and you would probably back them to compete into the late stages of the Conference League as well," said Christiansen. "They could win it if they keep their squad together. "That then would then be a third consecutive trophy and that shows huge success for them as a club. "The manager has been given time to build and I think they have the most exciting front three in the league when Jean-Philippe Mateta, Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr are on form." Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer or listen on BBC Sounds
NBC Sports
3 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Tom Brady: Patrick Mahomes is the QB I see like me, doing everything it takes to win
Tom Brady is a minority owner of the Raiders, but it's the quarterback of the AFC West rival Chiefs he most respects in the NFL today. Asked on the Joel Klatt Show if there are any quarterbacks he respects for how they go about their business or remind him of himself, Brady named only Mahomes as he gave a long answer about everything a quarterback has to do to win. 'It's always that line about who wants to win versus who's willing to do whatever it takes to win,' Brady said. 'Everyone wants to win, but what are the habits and the daily habits and the actionable things you need to do every day to put your team in a position to win? So Patrick Mahomes, to me, is the one that does that the most often because who he is, obviously his physical talent, how he understands what he needs to do offensively, and he brings a consistent winning attitude to work every single day. In the biggest moments you can depend on him the most. That's clear.' Brady didn't mention any other active quarterbacks by name but indicated that the other top quarterbacks in the league still have more to prove before they're on Mahomes' level. 'There's other guys that are still developing, and they need to prove it before, in my mind, I can say, 'Oh yeah, he's done it.' Well, obviously, he hasn't done it yet,' Brady said. 'They've all shown flashes of amazing things. They're all great players. All of them can make tremendous plays. At some point, they need to take the next step and take, in my mind, more ownership of what they're doing, in terms of the organizational level, to do more things to empower more people, to get more people on that train or that bus with you to head in the direction you want to go.' Brady said he isn't sure if the current crop of quarterbacks outside Mahomes are doing every single thing they need to do to be the leaders of a franchise. 'The quarterback, in many ways, is the CEO of the team,' Brady said. 'Certainly on game day, there's nobody that impacts the game more than the quarterback in NFL football. Now, you have to have the ability and the belief from the entire team, offensively and defensively, that your word means so much. And how you act every day matters to all three phases of the game. As a quarterback you don't just punch the clock, 'I did my job, I threw for 40 touchdowns, why are we not winning?' What are you doing in the offseason to help your defense? What are you doing to push the personnel department, to get people doing the right thing. Are you involved in game planning? I used to do game plans. I used to walk in and say, 'Here's the things we're doing.' I used to do my own walk-throughs. I used to say, 'Alright, guys, I don't give a fuck if the coaches want to come, we're doing our walk-through.'' Brady reached 10 Super Bowls and won seven of them, the best in NFL history. Mahomes has been to five Super Bowls and won three. Time will tell if Mahomes is ever going to supplant Brady as the greatest quarterback in NFL history, but Brady thinks Mahomes is doing the right things to get there — even as the team Brady co-owns tries to prevent that from happening.
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
These eight players will help you win FPL
Have you settled on your Fantasy Premier League team yet, or are you still at the tinkering stage? Either way you may want to consider one of these players in your team, according to our FPL experts. Here are the eight players - aside from the obvious premium picks such as Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland - that we think can help you have a successful season. You can join the BBC Sport League on the official Fantasy Premier League game using the code bbcfpl - or by clicking this link. Who to pick, who to avoid - your team's FPL assets ranked Can Salah do it again? Avoid Mbeumo & Cunha? Five key FPL questions How to win at FPL - our experts give their best tips Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool, defender, £6m Picking defenders in FPL has always been about three things - clean sheet potential, attacking threat and reliability of starting consistently. The new rules around defensive contribution points gives us an important fourth aspect to consider. Van Dijk starts almost every game and Liverpool kept the most clean sheets in the league last season. But it's the defensive contribution points where the Dutchman also shines. Of all the defenders priced at £6m this season, he would have gained the most defensive contribution points (22) in 2024-25. Attacking threat? He has that too. Last season, Van Dijk was joint-top among defenders for headed efforts (21) and joint-sixth for shots in the box (23). He is the perfect 'set and forget' defender to enable using the free transfers elsewhere. Dominic Solanke, Spurs, striker, £7.5m New Spurs manager Thomas Frank has history of setting his team up to ensure his leading striker gets big chances consistently. Ivan Toney and Yoane Wissa hit 20 and 19 goals respectively in recent seasons. Add to this the fact that Son Heung-min's departure has left a big gap of goalscoring duties and potentially penalties for Solanke to fill. It doesn't get better than a home game against the promoted Burnley in gameweek one. Worth keeping an eye on Solanke's fitness, however, after a 'minor' injury in pre-season. Frank said Solanke will "be available quite soon" but if he doesn't start in Wednesday's Super Cup, the forward is one to wait a couple of weeks for. What's changed in FPL for 25-26? Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United, midfielder, £9m Fernandes is a great option this season for his consistent output and durability - he's rarely injured and usually plays 90 minutes. In a struggling Manchester United team last season, he still combined goals (eight) with assists (12) and he should improve on those numbers this campaign. The Portuguese midfielder has many routes to points - penalties, set-pieces, open-play assist threat and decent goal threat too. This season we can also have defensive contribution - he would have earned 22 extra points last season. Fernandes' pre-season form has been excellent too, giving him a strong chance to hit the ground running in gameweek one. Iliman Ndiaye, Everton, midfielder, £6.5m Ndiaye is an exciting budget pick this season - he'll be looking to beat last season's Premier League goal tally of nine. Priced at £6.5m, he offers excellent value with Everton's favourable early fixture run. Five of their opening seven fixtures provide Ndiaye with the potential for attacking returns as they face Leeds, Brighton, Wolves, West Ham and Crystal Palace. Importantly, Ndiaye has been reclassified as a midfielder this season - but his role in the team will be to support the centre-forward as much as possible. He's also on penalty duty for the Toffees, which is hugely important in FPL. Added bonus - unlike other attacking midfielders he's decent in terms of defensive contributions too. Chris Wood, Nottingham Forest, striker, £7.5m Wood looks like he could be great value once again this season, with Nottingham Forest having excellent opening fixtures against Brentford, Crystal Palace and West Ham. Promotion to the Europa League means no midweek fixtures for his side in August, and keeping Morgan Gibbs-White, one of Forest's best creators, in this window is another key positive. Wood scored 20 goals last season, making a fast start to the campaign. A full pre-season will help him, after injury hampered the latter stages of 2024-25. Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa, midfielder, £7m Rogers has increased in price this season but should remain great value after amassing 19 goal involvements last campaign. He is a reliable player, who regularly completes 90 minutes. Villa have enticing early fixtures, extending across the opening eight gameweeks. Keep a close eye on his fitness before his opening game against Newcastle United, after an ankle issue forced him off in a pre-season game. Murillo, Nottingham Forest, defender, £5.5m Both Nottingham Forest centre-backs are excellent options again this season and, even with price rises to £5.5m, they no doubt will both reward owners early on with their favourable fixture run. While Nikola Milenkovic has the higher ceiling with his greater goal threat, Murillo has the higher floor. The Brazilian is better than his team-mate for both bonus points and the new defensive contribution points, where based on last season he would pick up the addition two points in over half his games. Only a handful of defenders in the league can match Murillo's combined totals for tackles, blocks, interceptions and clearances. Florian Wirtz, Liverpool, midfielder, £8.5m The German is the new chief creator at Liverpool and has impressed pre-season, playing as the number 10. He's combined well with Mohamed Salah and appears to be on all set-pieces other than penalties. In the past two seasons in the Bundesliga he's picked up an impressive 46 goal contributions (21 goals, 25 assists) in 63 matches, and has equally impressive stats in the Champions League and at international level. Premier League fans are lucky to have him and he's arguably the closest player to Kevin de Bruyne we have seen in England for some time. Expect elite-level output from the German, who comes in to FPL at only £8.5m - a price I thought was £0.5m-£1m too low. Premier League index Premier League table Premier League fixtures Follow your Premier League team and get news, analysis and fan views sent direct to you
