EAGAN, Minn. -- August 2 was a big day for J.J. McCarthy. The Minnesota Vikings were finishing their second week of training camp, and to that point, their rookie quarterback had managed to keep afloat in an environment that can swallow up young players. As it turned out, coach Kevin O'Connell was planning to give him his first snaps with the Vikings' No. 1 offense.
Right away, something seemed off. McCarthy said later he felt "rushed up mentally, just not settling in." On more occasions than he had in other practices, McCarthy tried to create additional time in the pocket rather than trusting his reads. He seemed jumpy, scrambling when there were places to throw the ball.
He violated what he said was advice he received earlier this year from Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, who told him to "respect the NFL but don't over-respect it." Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips refers to it as the John Wooden rule: Be quick but don't hurry. And in the only pass he threw during two first-team snaps, McCarthy fired into coverage and was nearly intercepted.
"[Manning said,] 'Don't speed up your footwork, don't speed up your thought processes," McCarthy said. "And that's something I fell victim to that day, so it was a great learning experience."
McCarthy didn't simply walk off the field and brood about it, though. The No. 10 overall pick followed a process he used while playing at Michigan: He kept his signature leg tights on for the rest of the day and evening. At night, McCarthy said, he stood in front of a mirror and thought about how his day went. When it's a bad day, he said, he tries to think how it differed from successful days.
"And once I go through that, I look myself in the eye and say, 'That's all gone. We're letting go and we're moving to the next day,'" he said. "I take those tights off and don't think about it ever again. ... It's a good metaphorical way for me to let go."
Reflecting a few days later, McCarthy said it was the camp sequence he is most proud of to this point. He called that practice "the one bad day I've had" but felt he came back August 3 with "a real solid performance." He added that avoiding an emotional roller coaster will be a key to his success as a quarterback.
"We have so much pressure on our shoulders," McCarthy said, "and things are not always going to go our way. [We can't] let that pressure suffocate us and deflate us."
As it turns out, that pair of first-team snaps have been the only ones McCarthy has had with the Vikings' starting offense this summer. As social media aggregators attempt to draw dramatic conclusions from individual throws, and the football world eagerly awaits news of McCarthy surpassing presumptive Week 1 starter Sam Darnold, the Vikings have been moving through the methodical developmental process they previewed this spring.
Speaking this week, O'Connell implied that some of McCarthy's struggles that day were by design.
"Amidst that kind of stretch of plays he might be not [be] getting the result he wants," O'Connell said, "and I may call a play just to see the footwork he'll take on something similar, or knowing he might have to climb the pocket if the edge matchup isn't maybe what you would want. Or I know where [defensive coordinator Brian Flores] might go with this play call, and this would be a great chance to see if he can recognize it and have immediate learning."
McCarthy wants to win every rep and every drill, O'Connell said, which is usually positive, but sometimes it can "leak into your decision-making or your ability to still take the right footwork, have your eyes in the right spot, the discipline. That's truly what I think has been the best part. And when it has not happened, he's been able to get himself back on track relatively quickly."
McCarthy is scheduled to get extensive playing time in Saturday's opening preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders, an occasion that he joked will provide relief from the aggressive and diverse schemes of Flores. Many of McCarthy's snaps with the second-team defense this summer have come against Flores' first-team defense. "We're making it almost harder than it will be when he gets into that first group," O'Connell said.
"It's nice to get the 400-level training before you go down to the 100- to 200-level," McCarthy said "It's going to be a lot easier [in preseason games], I can already tell you right now. It's very fun watching film, and just understanding the simplicity of it gets me very excited."
Flores, however, has emerged as a notable advisor to McCarthy's development this summer. The pair have had a series of conversations, initiated by McCarthy, to discuss the way defensive-minded coaches view NFL quarterback play.
Among the tips Flores has offered is to understand the value of cadence in keeping a defense off balance. Another is to identify defensive players who tip the scheme -- a "tell" in football parlance -- on most every play.
"There is always a guy," Flores said. "That's what I'm looking for. There is always someone that is giving it away. Hopefully [McCarthy] can start to find who those guys are and put himself in a more advantageous position."
The external rush to get McCarthy into starting role has simply not been felt on the ground in Minnesota. Players and coaches have straddled an organic line of excitement about McCarthy's future with acknowledgment that Darnold is the more polished passer at the moment.
"They're both different types of quarterbacks," receiver Justin Jefferson said. "Sam is more of a vet quarterback. He likes to put touch on the ball here and there. He knows what speed he needs to throw the ball and how he needs to throw the ball. J.J. is still young and wants to rip it all the time."
And as natural and skillful as McCarthy typically is in front of cameras, he is still learning NFL lingo. Attempting to use one of O'Connell's pet phrases to illustrate how he views his daily performance, McCarthy noted that "the process is the progress."
Actually, O'Connell said a few days later, the phrase is: "Progress is the process."
The point, everyone agreed, is that steady movement in the right direction is more favorable than a specific outcome on a given day. And that, it seems, is the best way to describe McCarthy's first NFL training camp. He's moving in the right direction.