Kevin O'Connell talks Aaron Rodgers conversations, J.J. McCarthy's future

Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell is in Palm Beach, FL with the rest of the league for the NFL's annual meeting this week. During a press conference with reporters and a couple TV interviews, he had the opportunity to finally address the Aaron Rodgers story that has dominated headlines in the Vikings universe over the last few weeks.

O'Connell confirmed, as GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did last week, that he spoke with Rodgers (who seemingly initiated the conversation). He also expressed major confidence in J.J. McCarthy's future, saying that the discussions with Rodgers were not indicative of any sort of lack of belief in last year's No. 10 overall draft pick.

"Two things can be true at the same time," O'Connell said on Monday, via The Athletic's Alec Lewis. "We took (McCarthy) tenth in the draft last year after a very extensive evaluation process. A lot of things that we hoped to see from him, we saw in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, he got injured. We tried to maximize as much as we could his 'redshirt' year, while still making sure we were getting Sam Darnold and our other quarterbacks ready to play. I think J.J. was able to take some things out of that and be ready to go for the spring."

"The second part that can be true is Aaron Rodgers is a four-time NFL MVP and somebody who we've all had so much respect for, competing against him," he continued. "And he happened to be at a point in time in his career where he was free to have some real dialogue about what his future may look like. And we happened to be one of those teams that he reached out to. I have had a personal relationship with him going back to my playing days. So two things can be true."

O'Connell said he kept McCarthy in the loop on the team's discussions with Rodgers because he thought it was "important he was hearing it from me."

The Vikings ultimately decided not to sign Rodgers, who remains a free agent despite visiting with the Pittsburgh Steelers recently. Last week, Adofo-Mensah declined to 100 percent shut that door, so there's a theoretical possibility that talks with Rodgers could be revisited if he chooses not to sign with the Steelers anytime soon. But for now, the Vikings are moving forward with McCarthy as their focus, with O'Connell believing he's going to "hit the ground running."

"I feel very good about projecting a really positive year for J.J., and now we've got to go to work and do it," O'Connell said on Monday.

He echoed those same sentiments in an interview with NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.

"J.J. is having a great offseason," O'Connell told Pelissero. "He's gained all his weight back from making sure that that knee healed properly. At the same time, he had a great year from a mental standpoint (last year). I asked him to pseudo treat it like a redshirt year, where he was able to mentally submerse himself in our offense and the verbiage, and live through Sam (Darnold) playing one year, coming in and having to learn everything and go out and be productive to win 14 games. J.J. was able to have a front-row seat for all of that. So I really don't look at J.J. as a rookie. He's going to be a first-year guy competing and hopefully ends up being our starting quarterback. And he's in a great position to do that."

"In regards to Aaron, look, Aaron and I have known each other for a long time. Four-time MVP. I can't even put into words the amount of respect I have for Aaron. So when it became a possibility that Aaron may have interest in playing for the Minnesota Vikings, our job — Kwesi, myself, amongst many others — is to evaluate what that looks like. ... You have to take the time to visit those topics and have that kind of dialogue as an organization. Where we ended up is, after some personal dialogue with Aaron, we wanted to make sure J.J. feels that he's in a position to hit the ground running this spring, have a great spring, and put himself in position to have a great 2025. Which has kind of been the plan all along."