EAGAN, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings have preached nothing but patience when it comes to rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy, pledging publicly and privately to debut the young signal-caller only when he's ready for the NFL. If and when the time comes, however, one of McCarthy's top blockers already believes the team will find the answer it's looking for, arguing he'd "put all my chips on that dude" as the future.
"J.J., I mean, I see why they drafted the dude in the first round and [at] the pick that they did," starting right guard Dalton Risner told CBS Sports after Thursday's practice, "because he's a good dude. He's a good human being. He's a stud. I love what they're doing with him; they're not just throwing him in the fire right away. I think they're giving him time to develop. I'd put all my chips on that dude in a couple years, man."
McCarthy, 21, was far from absent Thursday, seemingly seizing control of the No. 2 job behind veteran Sam Darnold with a bulk of second-team reps and overt willingness to zip throws into tight windows. Coach Kevin O'Connell, however, has insisted the team would rather introduce the Michigan product slowly than rush him into action out of necessity. Darnold, after all, is eyeing an emergence of his own as a former top pick-turned-journeyman, presumed to be Kirk Cousins' immediate successor on a prove-it deal.
Fortunately for the Vikings, Risner also had high praise for the quarterback room's elder statesman.
"With Sam, it's just the way he [fits] in right away," Risner said. "It's like, 'Have you been here for a couple years, man?' He flows with the guys. He's confident. You can tell that he's gonna be able to fill that role. Sometimes with quarterbacks, especially guys that haven't been here and they're new, you wonder, how quickly will they fill that role and be the confidence to be the guy? Because you need that as a quarterback. You can't be going into a huddle or a practice and being like, this guy's not confident. This guy doesn't really gel with the group. Sam did that instantly."
While training camp optimism is worlds away from the rigors of the actual season, is it possible the Vikings deserve more attention for the upside of their two signal-callers in the NFC North? Especially when rivals like the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have drawn plenty of looks for their own under-center potential?
"One hundred percent," Risner said. "We believe in what this team can do. We believe in each other. We believe in the coaching staff. We believe in Skol, baby. There's gonna be talk every single year about teams and what people expect, but no one cares. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who's getting talked about. It's who comes out Week 1 ready to punch someone in the mouth. And we couldn't care less what the outside noise is doing. Let's just focus on us. ... We got a long training camp and a lot of grind ahead of us."
