J.J. McCarthy is trying his best to keep things in perspective with training camp in full swing at TCO Performance Center. Though the Vikings selected McCarthy with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, he currently sits behind Sam Darnold on the depth chart.

How is he sizing up the competition?

Interestingly, McCarthy likened it to his freshman year at the University of Michigan when he spent most of the time behind Cade McNamara on the depth chart at quarterback. He trusted the process under former Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh and he plans on doing the same thing under Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell.

“I’m not focused on the outcomes of each single day,” McCarthy said. “I’m focused on learning how to get better.”

That’s exactly how McCarthy should be handling things at the moment. Who cares that it’s about as cliché of an answer as possible? At least he understands that he has a lot to learn as he begins his journey in the NFL.

“I stayed back this summer to not take my head away from it,” McCarthy said. “Just continued to dive into the playbook and focused on the little things.”

The difference has been palpable for McCarthy when comparing his knowledge from organized team activities to training camp.

“I feel like being around this building every single day, my comfortability in this offense is growing exponentially,” McCarthy said. “I’d say in OTAs it was very hard for me to get out a play call. That was my biggest goal going into this training camp. To be able to hear it once and execute it and regurgitate it to the guys with confidence.”

Asked about the biggest thing he’s learned so far in training camp, McCarthy launched into an jargony soliloquy about a particular play from earlier this week. He described the coverage he was seeing after taking the snap, then went into detail about how things played out. His main takeaway from that experience?

“I wasn’t decisive enough,” McCarthy said. “I got lucky and it was a completion. I should’ve got it down to the underneath guy. Just picked up the first down, moved the chains, and not get greedy.”

As he continues to work his way through training camp, McCarthy said he’s going to do everything in his power to make sure the Vikings get better.

Just helping this team get better any way I can, whether it’s going against the 1s and giving them all I’ve got, or hitting some deep balls downfield on them to piss them off a little bit and get that urgency up,” McCarthy said. “At the end of the day it’s all about the team.”

If he does that, McCarthy is confident the rest will take care of itself.

“When the time comes the time comes,” McCarthy said. “I’m training every single day so when the time does come I’m going to be ready.”

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