'He’s wildly capable': O’Connell backs Wentz, critiques McCarthy after ankle injury

With J.J. McCarthy sidelined with an ankle injury, Carson Wentz steps up as the latest QB to take the reigns of Kevin O'Connell's offense.

Sep 14, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) speaks with Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell during the first half against the Atlanta Falcons at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

With J.J. McCarthy set to miss the next couple weeks with an ankle injury, Kevin O'Connell is preparing Carson Wentz to take over the potentially high-powered Vikings offense. Wentz will be the seventh QB to start a game under O'Connell since he took over as Vikings head coach in 2022.

The 2025 season got off to an electric start with a fourth-quarter comeback spearheaded by three touchdowns by McCarthy. However, that excitement was short lived as the 22-year-old struggled in Week 2 during the team's home opener and a day later was announced to have suffered an ankle sprain that will keep him out of action this week and perhaps a bit longer.

In the meantime, O'Connell isn't putting all the blame on McCarthy.

"We didn't play well as a team. We didn't play well enough. We didn't coach well enough. There's a lot of aspects of it that we missed the mark on but it is Week 2," O'Connell said on KFAN-FM 100.3 Tuesday morning. "We are a 1-1 team with a chance to get right back on track this week. I think, coming out of that game, there were some real learning opportunities for our young quarterback."

While McCarthy's heroics took the headlines in Week 1, it's been more bad than good in seven of eight quarters for McCarthy. He has completed just under 60% of his passes and thrown more interceptions (3) than touchdowns (2). However, as O'Connell pointed out Tuesday, the struggles haven't been limited to just McCarthy.

"He was hit too much for my liking early on. We had some mental breakdowns and some physical breakdowns that we've got to find a way to rectify. I think we'll be able to do that as we move on and press forward," said O'Connell.

McCarthy was sacked a whopping nine times over the first two weeks. That trails only Titans rookie QB Cam Ward, who was sacked 11 times. When he has been protected, McCarthy has struggled to get the ball to his playmakers.

"Young quarterbacks have days where there's always going to be the maximizing of the learning opportunities," said O'Connell. "It's very much easier to do after you come back, storming back in a football game on the road, in the NFC North, in the opener. But, you know, you've got to equally — if you're going to be a 1-0 team, and a mindset of doing the things we try to do to win one game — we all have to acknowledge what took place on Sunday is not the standard."

As for McCarthy's ankle injury, which the team believes happened late in the third quarter, it likely had a lot to do with McCarthy's accuracy late in the game.

"I think, specifically for a quarterback, a right-handed thrower, that right ankle... that's where you're generating all your initial force off the ground, via transferring that through your mechanics to, inevitably, the ball leaving your hands with a lot of torque and revolutions on it. It's all generated from the ground and I think one of the things that got away from him in the game was he wasn't on the ground enough," O'Connell reasoned.

With McCarthy now rehabbing the ankle injury, O'Connell has shifted his focus to getting veteran quarterback Carson Wentz prepared to lead Minnesota. Wentz has bounced around the last several seasons, with one-year stops in Indianapolis (2021), Washington (2022), the Los Angeles Rams (2023), and most recently with the Chiefs (2024). It's been a winding road to the Vikings for a quarterback who was taken with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 draft.

"I had a good conversation with Sean [McVay] and I was able to talk to Andy Reid as well about his experiences last year," O'Connell explained. "A lot of the things that both of those guys, who I hold in such high regard, they had very similar things to say, independent of each other. A lot of those things, if not all, have already been confirmed with what Carson has been able to do on the practice field."

When Wentz takes practice reps on Wednesday as the team's No. 1 QB, it won't be the first time he's done so since joining the organization following training camp. Wentz took all of the team's first team-reps last Thursday when McCarthy was at the hospital for the birth of his child. O'Connell noted that the team had a "phenomenal" practice with Wentz and that "he had total command."

"He's made throws. He showed his athleticism. He's big. He can see everything on the field and he's played a ton of football," said O'Connell. "He's carried teams on his back before. He's not going to need to do that. He's just going to need to go out there and do the things he's wildly capable of doing and do that job at a consistent level. My hope is we get the execution around him to be the standard we want it to be."

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