With the goal of finding The Guy, the Vikings are well into their reconnaissance on quarterbacks in the draft class.
The two quarterbacks that are most frequently associated with the Vikings by different mockers are J.J. McCarthy of Michigan and Drake Maye of North Carolina.
One man has personal experience with both.
Joe Rossi faced Maye and McCarthy in a month during his tenure as the Gophers defensive coordinator the previous season, so he watched hours of footage of both and developed game plans taking into account their disparate skill sets.
After the season, Rossi left to take a position as defensive coordinator at Michigan State. This past week, he took a break from spring practice to discuss his observations about the two quarterbacks.
Let’s start with Maye.
“I think he’s super talented,”
“He’ll shift in the pocket to throw it if it’s not open. He will pull it down, run for five, run out of bounds, line up, and play the next down if it’s still not open. I like it because, well, he’s moving, stretching plays, and gaining positive yards while still using the ball well and avoiding contact.”
Rossi considered Maye’s range of motion when formulating his strategy.
“We wanted to keep him in the pocket as much as possible when we rushed because we knew that he would get out,” he stated. “He continued the play after he was out, and occasionally the coverage collapsed. Although we desired to [push] him,
Almost all of the Tar Heels’ 17 third-down conversions came from passes or scrambling by Maye.
“He did a good job of keeping the chains moving, getting first downs and kind of wearing us out a little bit,” Rossi commented.
Three weeks later, McCarthy and Michigan were back at Huntington Bank Stadium. The Wolverines dominated the game from the outset, winning 52–10 and advancing to the national final.
McCarthy’s passer profile was constrained by Michigan’s approach. Despite participating in three more postseason games than Maye, he only attempted 22 passes per game on average and completed 93 fewer passes overall during the season. In 15 games, McCarthy had just four interceptions while completing 72.3% of his throws, which is the sixth-best percentage in the country.
“We were really afraid of him sprinting with the ball on third down. He performed numerous footwork feats, such as extended scrambles, getting out of the pocket, and shifting chains.”
Against the Gophers, McCarthy tried just 20 passes, of which 14 were completed for 219 yards and a touchdown. He also had five- and seven-yard touchdown runs.
“If we would have got them into more passing situations and third down, we wanted to spy him because we felt like he was just really dangerous when he got outside the pocket,” Rossi stated.
The Vikings will spend a lot of time before draft night researching quarterbacks. If Rossi was asked what his thoughts were?
“After observing and strategizing for each of them, I believe
Leave a Reply