Imagine, if you will:
It’s September 8, and the Minnesota Vikings are battling the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. Caleb Williams is fired up and all ready to go. The fans at Soldier Field are growing louder with the anticipation of a new season.
Williams goes into the huddle and waits for the play. He takes a moment and then looks over to the sideline, but it’s not Ben Johnson on the other end. And Williams isn’t wearing a Bears jersey. He’s wearing a Minnesota Vikings jersey. Kevin O’Connell gives him the play. Williams is ready to go when he hears another voice in his ear.
“Caleb?” the voice says. “Caleb, did you get the play?”
Williams snaps out of it. He’s back to reality, and the play clock is winding down. He calls a timeout and realizes he needs to re-focus and shake off his daydream.
That’s probably not going to happen, but there was a time when Williams probably wished he were a Viking. There are plenty of quarterbacks – including former nemesis Aaron Rodgers – who want to be wearing purple these days. But there can only be one, and it should have Vikings fans excited about J.J. McCarthy.
Let’s run things back about one year ago. ESPN senior writer Seth Wickersham documented Williams’ transition to the NFL as part of his new book American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback. He described Williams’s meeting with O’Connell during the pre-draft process. His meeting with the Bears wasn’t a disaster, but he had several reasons why he wanted to join O’Connell and the Vikings.
Wickersham writes that Williams almost considered a power play to force a trade to Minnesota:
[When] Caleb met with O’Connell, he saw someone who had been a four-year quarterback starter in college, and briefly teammate of Tom Brady’s in the NFL, had learned from some of the brightest coaches and brightest offensive minds in the league, had won a Super Bowl and was turning out to be a good coach in Minnesota.
Rather than have the guy who’s bringing a playbook from his previous place [like former Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron] and trying to apply it, [Williams wanted] a guy who’s the brains behind that particular playbook. And I think Kevin O’Connell could speak quarterback in a way that was unlike anybody on the Bears’ staff.
Looking at Wickersham’s account, Williams had a few good points. The Vikings were building an infrastructure that would help Sam Darnold – the guy who saw ghosts with the New York Jets – become an MVP candidate in 2024. They had bona fide weapons in Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. They had a defense that was a top-five unit and a team that wound up winning 14 games despite losing left tackle Christian Darrisaw to a multiligament knee injury in October.
Compare that to the Bears. Matt Eberflus was a defensive coach entering a do-or-die season. The Seattle Seahawks had fired Waldron and had Jaxon Smith-Njigba giving him a kick out the door. Wickersham later revealed that Williams had to watch film alone without guidance, leaving a lot of guesswork for a player stepping into one of sports’ most difficult positions.
Williams saw all of this, and he wasn’t the first quarterback to take notice. Developing a quarterback has been more about the situation around him than ever before. John Elway forced the Baltimore Colts to trade him to the Denver Broncos, and that decision won him a pair of Super Bowl rings. Eli Manning scoffed at playing for head coach Marty Schottenheimer and the San Diego Chargers and forced a trade to the New York Giants.
These situations don’t happen much in today’s NFL, where fans can voice their opinion and target athletes more than ever, thanks to social media. Still, we see examples where the situation overrides talent.
Think about Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Lawrence was one of the best quarterback prospects since Andrew Luck, yet he still spun his wheels as Urban Meyer created a toxic environment. Even Doug Pederson, who cultivated Carson Wentz into an MVP candidate before the wheels fell off, couldn’t pull Lawrence out of the tailspin. The Jaguars are on their third attempt with Liam Coen this year.
It’s a different situation for Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers. While the Jets dragged around quarterbacks like Darnold, Purdy landed with Kyle Shanahan and a cast of All-Pro weapons, including Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Deebo Samuel. A few years later, “Mr. Irrelevant” is leading his team to the Super Bowl and has recently signed a $265 million contract.
That’s why the Vikings appealed to Williams and J.J. McCarthy, the quarterback they took. The 22-year-old named Jefferson as the receiver he wanted to throw to the most when asked at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine. A few weeks later, Michigan Wolverines offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell told The Athletic’s Alec Lewis that going to Minnesota would be a “dream scenario” for his young signal caller.
That scenario has played out even as McCarthy has rehabbed from injury last season. He’s sat in the environment, watched film, and taken notes from afar. He saw how a professional quarterback operated in the system and what’s required to succeed in the NFL.
It’s not a given that McCarthy will succeed, but it’s the type of scenario that Williams dreamed of coming out of college. That has to have Vikings fans optimistic for the future, one that will hopefully turn McCarthy into their franchise quarterback.