Kevin O'Connell: Vikings to have 'competitive camp' to set QB room

"He's working his tail off and I think he's going to be in a great spot to continue his growth and development on a really good timeline."

Rookie QB J.J. McCarthy (9) throwing at Vikings rookie minicamp | Minnesota Vikings

Kevin O'Connell texted memes and gifs to Justin Jefferson upon hearing the news the Vikings and Jefferson finally agreed to a new extension early last week.

"I was smiling ear-to-ear," O'Connell told Rich Eisen Monday in a guest appearance on Eisen's radio show. "Love having him around, love having around our team and our building... He really is a building changer. He's a culture changer. And he happens to be the best person at his position in football and somebody who means the absolute world to me."

For the inquiring minds, O'Connell told Eisen he sent Jefferson the Bill Gates and Microsoft executives dancing gif, presumably similar to the one below.

Jefferson, along with second-year receiver Jordan Addison, will now form an elite 1-2 punch for whichever quarterback the Vikings name as the starter this season. After Kirk Cousins signed a four-year, $180-million deal with Atlanta, the Vikings turned their focus to the future at the position.

Minnesota brought in former No. 3 overall pick Sam Darnold as a bridge option while the team prepares the 10th overall pick in this year's draft, J.J. McCarthy, to be their quarterback of the future. The 'QB of the future' tag isn't just one the media have placed on the former Michigan standout, it's one that O'Connell used himself Monday when talking about getting McCarthy ready to take over one day.

"It's going to be a competitive training camp but we do have a plan for J.J., a long-term plan. We see him as our quarterback of the future," O'Connell told Eisen. "When that ultimately starts with him taking game reps under center, will really be about his process to getting there and demonstrating that he's got total comfort in the system."

Since selecting him in the draft, O'Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah have hammered home that they are going to be patient with McCarthy's development. The duo have repeatedly stated they will not rush the 21-year-old into starting snaps if he's not prepared.

"We want to make sure it's the right time and J.J. feels 100% confident he can go in and not only have success but then also when adversity does hit, is he taking it on the right way from a foundation that hopefully we've built up over a good amount of time," O'Connell said.

O'Connell has repeatedly referenced a development plan for McCarthy with benchmarks the rookie has to hit before taking first-team snaps. Throughout the team's OTAs and minicamp, Darnold took a majority first-team snaps while McCarthy was off to the side with the second team. That's not to say that McCarthy isn't performing well though. Again, it all comes down to the patience the Vikings are having with the highest-drafted QB in franchise history.

"He's had a great spring. He's off to a really good start, transitioning into a new offense, bunch of new teammates, new players. He gets a ton of work throughout routes-on-air and even in seven-on-seven," said O'Connell. "So, J.J. has gotten a good acclimation to what our offense is really all about. He's starting to show some ownership of it and growing every single day. It'll be a big week for him this week, getting a few more reps before we set him off into the summer before arriving back here for a big training camp for our whole team.

"Everything, so far, we had hoped to get out of J.J. from the spring – confirming a lot of the things we thought about him through the pre-draft process – he's done all those things, and then some. He's been wearing us out at the facility. He's working his tail off, and I think he's going to be in a great spot to continue his growth and development on a really good timeline."

O'Connell stated that the best thing for McCarthy this season is to get comfortable with the offense. While he has been heavily emphasizing patience, O'Connell did drop hints that the starting role isn't completely set heading into the team's training camp next month.

"We're going to have a competitive camp where we give our guys an opportunity, on the practice field, joint practices and also in the games, to really identify what that quarterback room is going to look like," he said. "But it is perfectly OK for guys to have individual improvement and development plans on different timelines in that quarterback room. The most important thing is that no matter who is in the game for us playing quarterback, we want them to be playing at a level that gives us a chance to win football games consistently."