'I want them to be high': Vikings coach outlines expectations for J.J. McCarthy

Coming off one of his best practices of this year's training camp, the arrow for McCarthy appears to be pointing up with the regular season opener just 24 days away.

"I expect there to be reactions, positive, negative," continued O'Connell. "Our goal is to win football games and J.J. is going to play a role in that. Our team's going to play a role in that. I will, maybe more so than anyone, play a role in that, with what we ask our team to do, with what we ask our offense to do, what we ask J.J. to do."

However, O'Connell was quick to stress that developing a quarterback isn't something that happens overnight. There is a process with ups and downs, and patience will be needed as McCarthy gets his legs under him in the NFL.

"I think that's what gets organizations in trouble sometimes. When you want so badly — we all want so badly for it to look a certain way, and be a certain way from the very beginning," said O'Connell. "But what are you doing as a coach, as an organization, as a teammate, as one of the 11 in the huddle with said player to make sure that we're doing everything in our power to give the best possible chance to have success?"

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Where is McCarthy in that process? With his in-game action likely done for the preseason, the 22-year-old's next real snaps will be in front of the nation when the Vikings are in Chicago for the Sept. 8 opener in Chicago.

"J.J., specifically, he's in a really good spot right now from a standpoint of we're trying to build a plan that goes beyond the first regular season game. We want to get him ready to go. We want to get him prepared. But my job is to prepare the whole football team. And those two things can be going on at the same time, but maybe not necessarily be in the same place at the same time," O'Connell said.

"I think there's been good examples of that throughout the first three, four weeks here and having a day like today (Thursday), responding to both some positives that he did yesterday, some coachable things. To see a team for a second time, play with that much conviction — the ball was jumping out of his hands and really felt like the offense had a great day," he continued. "I feel like J.J.'s in a good spot right now. We just got to keep working. It's details. It's discipline. It's a lot of boring things."

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