The Minnesota Vikings began phase two of OTAs last week and in addition to the quarterback competition, there were some hints and bits and pieces that may prove insightful when it comes to scheme, who makes the roster, and the depth charts.
I’ve included notes from both practices open to reporters- last Wednesday and this Thursday.
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Let’s get into it.
The QB Competition
From the comments of local beat writers who attended last Wednesday’s OTA, J.J. McCarthy looked improved, but Kyler Murray was better. From Kevin Seifert of ESPN:
In the team’s second OTA of the spring, and the first open to local media members, Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy both took snaps with projected starters and against the likely first-team defense. If you were drawing up a plan to give each player fair and equal time to prove they are the team’s best option, this would be it.
But you can only have a genuine competition if there is actual uncertainty about who the best quarterback on the roster is. With the caveat that this was one day in May, with no pads and some drills performed at half speed, it is only fair to point out that the gap between the two quarterbacks was not close…
Murray made all of the best throws of the practice, demonstrating his downfield touch and accuracy. Nothing McCarthy did was objectionable, and one of his few incompletions — a pass to the flat that cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. nearly intercepted — occurred when two receivers drifted far too close to each other.
Overall, the afternoon was a reminder that McCarthy could continue along the upward trajectory he established at the end of last season — and still fall well short of matching Murray’s experience, arm talent and potential to make big plays in the passing game.
Seifert’s comments on the competition stood out to me for being unusually blunt. Normally his comments can be a bit more balanced (i.e. they both did some things well, struggled with others, we’ll have to wait and see who emerges, etc.) but he made it clear that Murray is the better quarterback and even with some improvement McCarthy may well lose this competition.
Alec Lewis with The Athletic framed it this way, calling the competition “manufactured”:
Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy took a similar number of snaps. Both threw to star receivers. Each received hands-on, on-field feedback from head coach Kevin O’Connell. Nothing about the structure favored one player over the other.
But it didn’t have to for the odds to feel dramatically tilted in Murray’s direction.
Murray, picked No. 1 in 2019 by the Arizona Cardinals, showcased his feel as a passer with several touch throws…
It would not have taken long Wednesday for any casual observer to recognize Murray’s immense talent.
He climbed the pocket and lofted a pass toward undrafted free-agent receiver Dillon Bell. The catch didn’t slow Bell, who raced for extra yards after the catch. Later, Murray connected down the field with former undrafted receiver Dontae Fleming, who rose and snatched a ball over a defender.
Throughout the afternoon, Murray quickly progressed to a couple of checkdowns. He drilled receiver Jeshaun Jones in the chest as he angled his route over the middle.
Murray’s best throw came against one of defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ all-out blitz pictures. Murray sniffed out the pressure and hurled a ball to receiver Jordan Addison down the right sideline. Several players hollered. Murray received some fist bumps. Mostly, the scene gave off the vibe that this is what’s expected.
Lewis also had positive things to say about McCarthy’s performance on the field:
On the field, McCarthy was nearly as efficient as Murray. He pinpointed passes with accuracy and notably lifted the ball up and over defenders during several drills. McCarthy’s mechanics looked polished and refined. The ball still zipped out of his hand. Unlike many times in 2025, health didn’t limit him from looking like the ball of clay with upside the Vikings believed him to be.
Dane Mizutani with the Pioneer Press characterized the competition as a 100-yard race with Kyler Murray starting on the 50-yard line.
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Both Mizutani and Matthew Collier of Purple Insider characterized McCarthy’s performance as solid, but just not as good as Kyler Murray, who was more reminiscent of veterans of the past like Sam Darnold, Kirk Cousins, and Sam Bradford- throwing with touch, arc, and accuracy in a way that was expected from a seven-year starter. Collier said that the rep count for each QB was about the same for most of the practice, but Murray had more reps toward the end.
Overall, all the beat writers basically had the same take: McCarthy was fine/solid and maybe a bit improved from how he was last year, but Murray was a lot better.
None of that should come as a surprise. McCarthy spent all offseason working with his longtime QB coach John Beck to improve his accuracy, ball placement, mechanics, and touch, so you’d expect some improvement from him. And Murray was the Heisman Trophy winner, #1 pick in the draft, OROY award winner, and 2x Pro Bowler for a reason, despite his 5’10” height. He is a great thrower of the football and a playmaker with his feet and has a long highlight reel to prove it.
Will Ragatz with SI detailed the QB competition from Thursday’s OTA, which wasn’t as noteworthy because the 11-on-11 drills were at half-speed. McCarthy had one bad throw (his first) which was way behind the intended target and would have been intercepted except it was way behind Josh Metellus as well. Murray had one interception on an underthrown deep ball but also continues to have the best throws of practice. Here’s a bit of Ragatz’s piece:
The overall analysis hasn’t changed much. McCarthy can still zip the ball on a straight line as well as anyone, and he’s shown some signs of mechanical improvement from last season. But Murray just looks like a veteran quarterback who can make all of the throws, even if his interception highlighted a concern about his ability to push the ball deep downfield if it’s not his first read.
“His physical talent throwing the ball has been on display every day,” Kevin O’Connell said of Murray. “The ability to throw to all three levels, layer the ball, anticipation that veteran players bring to the position.”
O’Connell also praised his growth within the Vikings’ scheme, saying “it’s like two totally different guys” when comparing Murray’s current comfort with calling plays to where he was when the offseason program began.
Tom Pelissero with NFL dot com suggested something similar, saying that the Vikings could begin to shift the first-team reps toward Murray as soon as this week and we could have a pretty good idea of which direction this is going by the end of spring.
All of this points to Murray being named QB1 probably early in training camp as a base-case scenario. It will be interesting to see how much improvement McCarthy shows over the summer and in preseason games, but there isn’t any indication that the competition will be close or go late into training camp. At some point Kevin O’Connell will want to name Murray as the starter to give him all the first-team reps he needs to be ready for the season.
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More Intense Offensive Line Work
Alex Lewis made the observation that the offensive line drills seemed a lot more intense than he remembered in the past since covering the Vikings after Wednesday’s practice. He added some color to that at the end of his podcast as well, which I thought was interesting. The Vikings have a new offensive line coach in Keith Carter and so likely a new approach.
New Assistant Head Coach Frank Smith is likely spending a lot of his time as a run game coordinator and I get the impression that developing more of a run game identity and physicality upfront could be a focus over the summer. Kevin O’Connell has talked about improving the run game the last few offseasons, but progress has been slow. The new coaching hires may be a more focused attempt by O’Connell to improve the run game in terms of both scheme and upfront blocking.
Lewis said they had some pretty intense run blocking drills while he was standing by from what he termed outside zone toss plays with fullback motion (presumably Max Bredeson) to double-teams and moving up to the second level. It’s not surprising that the offensive line is working on those types of fundamentals at this point in OTAs- this is what OTAs are all about- but the intensity is noteworthy.
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Some other offensive line observations from the Wednesday practice that was open to reporters:
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Brian O’Neill was present in street clothes but did not participate. Ben Goessling with the Star Tribune reported that this is probably contract related. O’Neill is on the last year of his contract with no guaranteed money remaining, so he may not participate until he has a new deal. It was reported around the time of the Combine that the Vikings and O’Neill’s representatives were discussing a new deal for the veteran right tackle and team captain. There hasn’t been any updates on those discussions since they were initially reported, but I imagine the Vikings would like to extend O’Neill, even though he’s now over 30. His performance has not declined, although he’s been more banged up in the recent years. The key will be negotiating the price tag on the extension.
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Newly acquired swing-tackle Ryan Van Demark filled in at right tackle in O’Neill’s absence.
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Blake Brandel took the starting reps (or most of them) at center, as expected. All signs point to Brandel being the starting center this season.
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Christian Darrisaw was participating and active. An early sign that he may finally have returned to full health after an on-again, off-again season last year as he recovered from the knee injury he suffered in 2024.
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Second-year left guard Donovan Jackson said that two areas he’s focused on improving are his first-step power in the run game and cleaning up his footwork to his landmarks in pass protection.
On Thursday Kevin O’Connell had a lot of praise for Keith Carter in terms of teaching the blocking techniques and Frank Smith in terms of scheme (presumably run scheme) and that scheme continues to evolve in terms of what the Vikings want to be offensively. KOC’s full comments on Thursday:
Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins to Edge
It appears that Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins has trimmed down a bit and was working with the edge rushers during OTAs. He was a bit undersized as a defensive tackle last season, (290 pounds) so his slimming down rather than bulking up suggests a position change. Kevin O’Connell said he could play anywhere from the 3-tech outward to the edge
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One could imagine that Brian Flores sees him as more of an edge-setting, early down outside linebacker in a 3-4 front or also possibly a base defensive end if Flores mixes in some 4-3 fronts this season. That would allow Andrew Van Ginkel more freedom among the front seven and maximize his disruption ability and save him from some run defense plays that isn’t his strong suit.
That could have some consequences for the end of the edge rusher group in terms of making the roster.
Vikings Have New Coaches in the Trenches
The Vikings have two new position coaches in the trenches this season. I already mentioned offensive line coach Keith Carter, but on the defensive side there is also Ryan Nielson. He’s effectively the defensive line coach, but his title is Defensive Run Game Coordinator. He had an impressive run as defensive line coach for the Saints from 2017-22, with a number of top run defenses and pass rushing units too. He had a couple short stints as a defensive coordinator with the Falcons and Jaguars that didn’t pan out, but as a defensive line coach, he’s got an impressive track record with the Saints (who ran a 4-3 front), particularly in run defense. Including college, he’s coached defensive line for 17 years.
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Can Tai Felton Eventually Replace Jordan Addison? How About Myles Price?
Kevin O’Connell was talking up both Tai Felton and Myles Price on Thursday. Neither had many snaps last year at wide receiver, but as they show improvement and have key roles on special teams, they will likely be WR4 and WR5 this season.
But given that Jauan Jennings is WR3, will either get much of a chance to show if they could replace Jordan Addison, if the Vikings chose to trade rather than extend him next year? Ability is one thing, opportunity is another. Felton has sub-4.4” speed and WR2 upside but needed to improve some as a route runner but especially at the catchpoint. He apparently doesn’t have the confidence or swag of Jefferson or Addison- or at least he didn’t last year- which can be an important ingredient for success in a wide receiver.
Price is a shorter, but slightly faster version of Addison physically, but also needs to improve his technique. He caught my eye a bit last year in training camp as a UDFA. He handled himself well and making the leap to the league wasn’t too much for him. He could separate on his stems against the back end of the defensive back group and didn’t make many mistakes. That also helped him win the punt return job and he proved to be an upgrade.
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Among the other receivers competing for the back end of the depth chart, Dillon Bell seems to be helping his cause in OTAs. He’s caught a number of balls from Kyler Murray in the OTAs open to reporters.
Harrison Smith Return Pushed Out, If It Happens
Kevin O’Connell’s comments on Thursday about a possible Harrison Smith return clearly indicated that his return was not imminent and seemed to push out the timeframe for a potential return, if it happens. O’Connell talked about having/continuing conversations with him into training camp and possibly into the season. Last year Smith missed training camp with an undisclosed injury/illness and took the first couple months of the season to ramp up his snap count.
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I get the feeling that Smith may consider a return if the Vikings look playoff bound, but even then it may not happen. It also seems more doubtful he’ll be there for training camp, although it’s still possible.
It’s comforting to think of a savvy future Hall of Famer like Harrison Smith, who has seen it all, quarterbacking the defense – and it’s difficult to put a value on that- but strictly speaking as a safety he probably doesn’t add that much over his replacement at this point. But his know-how from a play recognition standpoint and leadership in directing Brian Flores’ defense certainly brings value if he chooses to return for another season at some point.
The Vikings will hold their mandatory mini-camp next week from June 9th to the 11th, followed by another round of OTAs from June 15th – 18th. And that’s it until training camp starts at the end of July.
Stay tuned.
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