J.J. McCarthy's 2024 season is over before it officially began.
The Minnesota Vikings' rookie quarterback will be sidelined until 2025 after undergoing surgery Wednesday to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, coach Kevin O'Connell said.
The news ruptured the increasing optimism around McCarthy's on-field progress and left the team with veteran Sam Darnold, who signed a one-year contract worth $10 million in March, as its likely 2024 starter. The other quarterbacks on the Vikings' roster are 2023 holdovers Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall.
Speaking Wednesday from the Cleveland Browns' practice facility in Berea, Ohio, where the Vikings will practice this week, O'Connell did his best to put an optimistic spin on the tough news.
"He's confirmed everything that I hoped to see early in training camp through his performance last Saturday," O'Connell said, "but our fan base and everyone should just be excited about the fact that we've got our young franchise quarterback, I believe, in the building. And now it's about the unique aspect of continuing a very critical development process for him, where maybe the physical reps aren't going to be there in the short term, but this is going to be a small bump in the road."
McCarthy was injured at some point during Saturday's preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders. The rookie reported ongoing soreness to team medical officials Monday.
McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick of the April draft, will be the fourth first-round quarterback in this century who did not play in a regular-season game as a rookie, joining Green Bay's Jordan Love (2020), Washington's Jason Campbell (2005) and Cincinnati's Carson Palmer (2003).
"Other quarterbacks in our league have gone through similar things early on in their journey and came back better and stronger than ever, and that is not only my expectation, but I know that is going to happen for J.J," O'Connell said. "We'll have a great plan for him not only in the quarterback room with those other guys, but a process so that him and I can continue to build our rapport and make sure there is a day-to-day football process."
The Vikings drafted McCarthy as the long-term replacement for Kirk Cousins, who departed in free agency and signed with the Atlanta Falcons. But to help avoid playing McCarthy before he was ready, they signed Darnold and kept Mullens on the roster. There was every indication that Darnold was on track to start Week 1 against the New York Giants even if McCarthy were healthy.
McCarthy made steady progress, however, since an erratic showing in OTAs and minicamp this spring. Darnold received all but two of the Vikings' first-team snaps during 11-on-11 drills in training camp, but McCarthy's two-touchdown performance in Saturday's 24-23 preseason victory over the Raiders likely would have led to more work with the offensive starters.
The injury has halted that momentum. There was some hope that the meniscus damage could be rectified by a "trim" procedure that would have allowed McCarthy to return by midseason, but a medical team led by Vikings orthopedic surgeon Dr. Chris Larson determined that a full repair was needed.
On Wednesday, O'Connell lauded McCarthy's "transformation" and said: "He had started to really look like an NFL quarterback."
"I really believe that J.J. has kind of confirmed to me and a lot of our coaches and players that we got the right guy in the building for the future," O'Connell said. "And he did it in a short amount of time. That's what makes this news hard. Because you know just how exciting it would have been as a daily, minute-to-minute process moving forward. But I think that optimism should be felt by anybody in our building and hopefully our fans."