Some fans and media members questioned the Minnesota Vikings‘ willingness to move on to J.J. McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season due to a meniscus tear. Sam Darnold had led the team to a 14-3 record in 2024, throwing for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns en route to his first Pro Bowl appearance.

However, the Vikings’ goal with McCarthy isn’t exactly replicating Darnold’s success in 2024, his first year as a starter. Instead, they want to ensure they build McCarthy into a quarterback who can succeed not only in 2025 but in the years that follow.

Part of that requires building a contending roster around McCarthy, something that was possible this offseason with his rookie-scale contract allowing the Vikings to spend more money. Kevin O’Connell broke it all down while speaking with KFAN on Thursday.

I am wildly in favor of the quarterback development process involving more than just the quarterback. Too much has probably been made of my opinions on these matters, but I will say that I believe you’re supposed to put a really good football team around any quarterback that plays. When you have a younger player in this financial current NFL that we play in nowadays, you can do it a little bit more around that player with the young guy under contract for a certain amount of time before you inevitably have to start planning for what that will look like when he transitions to one of the more highly paid players on the team.

If McCarthy proves he can be the franchise quarterback for the next decade, and the Vikings surround him with the requisite roster to contend, Minnesota could finally compete for the Super Bowl championship that has eluded them for 65 years.

This article originally appeared on Vikings Wire: Kevin O’Connell opens up about the Vikings process for J.J. McCarthy