Does Kevin O’Connell want a quarterback that will run through a brick wall for him? If so, J.J. McCarthy might be his guy.
“It would mean the world just because Coach O’Connell, he’s a guy that I’d run through a brick wall for,” McCarthy said Monday on Adam Schefter’s podcast.
“Everything that he wants to do with his football team is something I want to be a part of and obviously being the NFC North, being a Bears fan my entire life and being able to play at Soldier Field and stay in the Midwest and all that good stuff would be just a dream come true. I love what they’re building. Obviously the weapons there are limitless and they got just a great thing going for them so it would be a blessing to be a part of it.”
Could he stomach playing for the Vikings as a lifelong Bears fan?
“I can. Yes, sir, with smiles, for sure,” McCarthy answered.
Minnesota might have to trade into the top five to get one of McCarthy, Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels. Will the Vikings pull the trigger and trade for No. 3 with New England, No. 4 with Arizona or the Chargers at No. 5? Schefter thinks the Chargers could be Minnesota’s landing spot.
“I still think that the Chargers are a potential trade-back spot from No. 5 for the Vikings to come up to because it allows them to stay in front of the Giants at No. 6,” Schefter said.
Longtime Twin Cities sports reporter Charley Walters agrees.
“The way it looks now, as it has for months, the Minnesota Vikings will take quarterback J.J. McCarthy from national champion Michigan in Thursday’s NFL draft,” Walters wrote in his Sunday column for the Pioneer Press. “To get McCarthy, the Vikings will trade their Nos. 11 and 23 first-round picks to either the Arizona Cardinals, who have the No. 4 pick, or the Los Angeles Chargers, who have No. 5.”
The wait to find out is almost over.
