The combination of skills and experience Kyler Murray carried with him to the Minnesota Vikings has made him their presumptive starting quarterback this upcoming season, even if the coaching staff declared an open competition for the job with J.J. McCarthy. In his first public comments since Murray was cut by the starting-over Arizona Cardinals and signed with the eager-to-contend Vikings, McCarthy sounded as though he understood the situation but did not necessarily appreciate it. “Look, the organization made a decision that they feel like is going to improve the depth and the quality of the room,” McCarthy said Wednesday after the first offseason practice session the team opened to reporters. “All I\u2019m thinking about is continuing the upward trajectory that I set for myself last season \u2014 that last quarter of the season \u2014 and continuing to be the best version of me every single day.” Asked directly if he was disappointed that the Vikings acquired Murray, McCarthy said, “Then I would be disappointed if the rain fell. That\u2019s out of my control. At the end of the day, I\u2019ve just got to focus on what I can do to be the best quarterback for this football team.” As for his nascent relationship with Murray, McCarthy said there’s no awkwardness between them but, well, sure didn’t sound warm about it in his terse response. “It\u2019s just like two guys in a classroom. He sits on one side. I sit on the other side. And it\u2019s the coaches responsibility to teach us and coach us,” McCarthy said. Murray, for his part, didn’t hesitate to speak highly of the working arrangement, which is undoubtedly easier to do as an eighth-year player in the NFL with multiple standout seasons on his resume. Murray said McCarthy has been “overly” receptive to his input as a veteran with 87 starts. “We\u2019re both competitors. I know we both want what\u2019s best for the team,” Murray said. “He\u2019s always communicating, asking questions, stuff like that, so it\u2019s been good.” Murray has deftly dodged any discussion of depth chart expectation. Even with all of the assets the Vikings offer \u2014 from top-notch facilities to a quarterback-friendly head coach in Kevin O’Connell to star wide receiver Justin Jefferson \u2014 he likely wouldn’t have picked Minnesota on a one-year minimum-salary contract if he didn’t think he’d be the starter. Whether the job was privately promised to him or not hardly matters. “My confidence is unshakeable. That\u2019s how I feel about myself,” Murray said. “Regardless of what happens day to day, I know the next day I\u2019m coming out here giving my best effort.” McCarthy declined to specify whether he’s made any changes to his throwing mechanics, after being dogged by erratic performances during his injury-impacted rocky debut. He has spent plenty of time since the offseason began, however, working on the field with Jefferson. “Just building those on-time and on-rhythm passes for each concept and each route,” McCarthy said. “It\u2019s just tremendous to be around that guy every single day.” When Vikings players reconvened last month to begin the formal offseason training program, Jefferson spoke candidly to reporters about his excitement over Murray’s arrival \u2014 and his expectation for McCarthy\u2019s improvement. “It\u2019s good to get some good talent in that room to kind of give a little spark in that room, to see a competitive edge from those guys to lock in and do what we\u2019re expecting them to do, which is to come in and to be that guy,” said Jefferson, the two-time All-Pro who has entered his seventh year in the NFL. “We have great talent in that room, especially for J.J. to get that spark in him and for Kyler to come from Arizona and continue that spark.” Assuming Murray wins the job this season, his mobility ought to open up more space for Jefferson down the field. “Definitely looking forward to his speed, his quickness, his arm strength that he\u2019s shown countless times over the years,” Jefferson said. “For J.J., somebody into that room with that type of ability, that type of talent, he\u2019s got to step it up a little bit. So it\u2019s good for him to feel that type of pressure and to really lock in a little bit and say, \u2018It\u2019s either now, or I\u2019m going to take that backseat again.'” Reporting by the Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The combination of skills and experience Kyler Murray carried with him to the Minnesota Vikings has made him their presumptive starting quarterback this upcoming season, even if the coaching staff declared an open competition for the job with J.J. McCarthy. In his first public comments since Murray was cut by the starting-over Arizona Cardinals and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}