J.J. McCarthy is a true perfectionist. He doesn’t run from that. It’s a character trait that has fueled him throughout his life.

It’s also made his transition to the NFL rather challenging at times over the past month and a half.

There have been ups and downs for McCarthy since the Vikings selected him with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 NFL draft. He’s showcased his incredible arm talent throughout organized team activities and mandatory minicamp. He’s also struggled with accuracy as a result of trying to improve his footwork.

How would he assess his growth with the Vikings with spring work finished and the team not set to reconvene until the summer?

“I know growth is not a straight line,” McCarthy said. “It goes up. It goes down. It goes up. It goes down. I’m trying to just maintain that trajectory of going up and I feel like I’m on that. Just attacking every day with a growth mindset and it’s been doing me well so far.”

That’s sometimes easier said than done.

“I definitely get down on myself,” McCarthy said. “You’ve got to learn from those little dips and not be attached to them.”

That mentality is something coach Kevin O’Connell has tried to impress upon McCarthy on a daily basis. He doesn’t want him feeling like every throw is a referendum on where his career is headed. He wants him to take some chances in practice while feeling comfortable enough to make some mistakes in the process.

“That’s the only way they’re going to really learn the trial and error aspect of playing the position,” O’Connell said. “That’s what makes this time of year so special for us.”

You can see it slowly starting to click with McCarthy. He has so much raw ability, and when it looks good, it looks really good. There was a slant route McCarthy threw on Wednesday afternoon at TCO Performance Center, for example, that whistled through a tight window and hit receiver Jalen Nailor squarely in the numbers.

“I feel like every day it keeps getting better and better,” McCarthy said. “The reps are helping me progress.”

None of those reps have come with the starters. Not with the way Sam Darnold has seemingly put himself in the pole position to be the starter. Though he emphasized that the Vikings haven’t released a depth chart, O’Connell made it pretty clear that Darnold is the ahead of his peers at the moment.

Not that McCarthy is too worried about where he’s at in the pecking order right now. As much as the competitor in him wants to be the starter, he’s focused on learning as much as he can from Darnold, Nick Mullens, and Jaren Hall.

“They’re just phenomenal human beings that are sharing their wisdom with me,” McCarthy said. “I can’t thank them enough for that.”

Asked about his expectations for himself with training camp coming up next month, McCarthy listed a few items, including knowing the playbook front to back, being the best teammate he can possibly be, and working harder than everybody else in the building.

The latter is evident in how McCarthy plans to spend his break between the spring and the summer.

“I’m going to be facility as much as I possibly can and focus on building habits that I can rely on when it starts getting hectic,” McCarthy said. “Just going to be here working my butt off.”

Spoken like a true perfectionist.

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