So here's why I'm worried about JJ....

[MaroonBells]

Man, this one's really hard to figure out. The only possible explanation I have is that it's in his head. Maybe he needs a shrink more than a coach. 

Because I don't remember mechanics-related accuracy being an issue in his college film. I don't remember mechanics-related accuracy being an issue in training camp last year or in the Oakland preseason game, or in this year's combined practice against the Pats. How he can have all the tools, look so promising, and then fail so badly is just shocking to me. 

I feel bad for the kid. 22 years old, new baby at home, and you have a history of depression. You're the QB for one of the most talented rosters in the NFL, and YOU are really the only reason, certainly the biggest reason, why it's not winning. Jordan Addison didn't have a catch yesterday. He's aiming toward a contract. He and others, while publicly supportive, have to be burning inside. 

In another depressing thought, it can take years for teams to recover from missing on a QB in the top 10. OK, so maybe he's on the Darnold path or the Mayfield path. A couple weeks ago I was dreading that thought—that it was our worst-case scenario. Now it's looking like it might be our BEST-case scenario when it comes to JJ McCarthy. Even those guys, as bad as they were early on, were never THIS bad. Hell, even Ponder took his team to the playoffs, and he didn't have anywhere near the roster talent around him. 

I think it's time to consider sitting the kid for his own good.

[pattersaur]

I read and trusted the things I'd been told the last 18 months.

6 games into it,  he's way below what was advertised.

Again, I knew it was gonna be bumpy, 

the benefit of redshirting last year hasn't shown up on the field  this season.  Like not at all.

Disappointing.

^^^^^^

I could have written this myself. I had faith in JJM because I had faith in Kevin O'Connell.  Kevin thought this was all gonna work out, so I did.

I still have faith in both of them to be honest, I really do. But the gap between what we were sold and what we are getting is a mile wide right now, and that is worrisome as a fan.

JJM is green as grass and the organization clearly misread the situation BADLY.

Unfortunately, McCarthy looks like a QB that needed to be on the Jordan Love path to starting, not the Mahomes path. That's not what happened and now we're here and I really am not sure what to do. I am still on the side of keep starting him and praying things improve, but that's all heavily dependent on if the locker room is ready to play hard with him at QB or not. If the locker room has had it then I suppose some sort of change will need to be made.

Grim times. That was embarrassing yesterday.

[supafreak84]

In another depressing thought, it can take years for teams to recover from missing on a QB in the top 10. OK, so maybe he's on the Darnold path or the Mayfield path. A couple weeks ago I was dreading that thought—that it was our worst-case scenario. Now it's looking like it might be our BEST-case scenario when it comes to JJ McCarthy. Even those guys, as bad as they were early on, were never THIS bad. Hell, even Ponder took his team to the playoffs, and he didn't have anywhere near the roster talent around him. 

I think it's time to consider sitting the kid for his own good.

Well here's another thought, but if the season plays out at its current trajectory and we end up with a top 10 pick...you almost have to look at drafting another quarterback. It's a shitty situation to be in, but if McCarthy isn't the guy, then turn the page and move on. The Jets cut Zach Wilson after year 3. Steelers moved on from Kenny Pickett after year 2. Mac Jones after year 3 in New England. If it's not a salvageable situation, move on, and the sooner the better. 

Hopefully we have a new GM in place to make those decisions

[pattersaur]

Man, this one's really hard to figure out. The only possible explanation I have is that it's in his head. Maybe he needs a shrink more than a coach. 

Because I don't remember mechanics-related accuracy being an issue in his college film. I don't remember mechanics-related accuracy being an issue in training camp last year or in the Oakland preseason game, or in this year's combined practice against the Pats. How he can have all the tools, look so promising, and then fail so badly is just shocking to me. 

I feel bad for the kid. 22 years old, new baby at home, and you have a history of depression. You're the QB for one of the most talented rosters in the NFL, and YOU are really the only reason, certainly the biggest reason, why it's not winning. Jordan Addison didn't have a catch yesterday. He's aiming toward a contract. He and others, while publicly supportive, have to be burning inside. 

In another depressing thought, it can take years for teams to recover from missing on a QB in the top 10. OK, so maybe he's on the Darnold path or the Mayfield path. A couple weeks ago I was dreading that thought—that it was our worst-case scenario. Now it's looking like it might be our BEST-case scenario when it comes to JJ McCarthy. Even those guys, as bad as they were early on, were never THIS bad. Hell, even Ponder took his team to the playoffs, and he didn't have anywhere near the roster talent around him. 

I think it's time to consider sitting the kid for his own good.

On the mechanics stuff... why exactly are we even doing that? Did those have to be changed the second he arrived in the league and could stand upright or could we have kind of massaged some of those tweaks in along the way?

I love KO but I wish his offense was more malleable to who is playing QB back there. McCarthy's strengths in college were game managing a run first offense with some big time throws and some scrambling/QB runs. We never call QB draws- EVER- and scrambling has disappeared completely from JJM's game over the past two weeks. Why?

Yesterday was the first game all year we came out with a running-focused offense that would presumably make JJM more comfortable. Unfortunately, it was on the road against a good run defense. And on the other side we were making the Emmanuel Wilson HB Dive look unstoppable.

It was bad. It's bad. We're bad.

[Knucklehead]

The biggest miss of the offseason was our inability to resign Daniel Jones. (I'm not going to refer to it as a failure because reportedly, the Vikings offered him more guaranteed money, but Jones correctly gambled that he could beat out AR for the starting gig in Indy rather than backing up JJM). With Jones this team at a minimum, is a wildcard contender.

[JimmyinSD]

Anybody else catch the JJM stat yesterday that he didnt throw much better than 50% in college to his left.

And it could have been worse,  that wr screen they tried to throw early on should have been a pick six if the defender hadn't had his back to the play.

They need to give JJs brain a break,  like others have suggested maybe a sports psychiatrist or whatever can get him straightened out,  either way this reps thing isn't working so make the change and make it this week.

[badgervike]

---

[DeepFreeze05]

Anybody else catch the JJM stat yesterday that he didnt throw much better than 50% in college to his left.

I did see something about this earlier this year and I had hoped the coaching staff could fix it.

Here's an article from September covering it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"For the second straight week McCarthy has been both unable to consistently throw to the left side of the field, and unwilling to do so. Through two games he has an incredibly pronounced split difference when it comes to which area of the field he is throwing to.

    Right: 14-of-23 (61%), 1 TD, 2 INT
    Center: 2-of-3 (66%) 1 TD
    Left: 8-of-14 (57%), 1 INT

Moreover, all eight of McCarthy’s left field completions either came off the RPO or out of play action. It’s a sign the QB just isn’t comfortable playing in structure to his left, which is a big problem when that’s Justin Jefferson’s side of the field unless the Vikings play bunch.

The obvious question is “why can’e he throw left?” The answer isn’t dissimilar to another ghost of NFC North’s past: Mitchell Trubisky. So pronounced was Trubisky’s inability to throw left that The Ringer took a deep dive into the issue back in 2019.

Here’s the rub with McCarthy: It’s about how he likes to throw the football. If you watch his mechanics he’s a huge fan of drive throws. Stepping into the pass and dealing a fastball is his preferred way of getting the ball downfield. McCarthy loves this throw so much that he’s developed a baseball-esque wind up in his mechanics to deliver the ball with as much force as possible.

This throw comes naturally when he’s looking to his right. His feet are properly lined up, and he has awareness of any frontside pressure that could take away his ideal motion. However, when he needs to scan left it requires a reset of his feet, and he’s not comfortable with that yet because it drastically increases his time-to-throw when paired with his windup and delivery.

It’s here we need to wonder a little about the pre-draft criticism about McCarthy’s arm talent. We haven’t seen him work out of platform much, really for the majority of his football career. Michigan’s protection was good enough that he had all day to be comfortable under center. What worries me is that he’s now in year-two under Kevin O’Connell, who is a QB guru — and O’Connell hasn’t had McCarthy drop that wind up throwing motion. Is that because he simply wants his QB to get comfortable, or does J.J. lack the arm talent to make NFL-caliber throws when he doesn’t use that motion?

We truly don’t know. What we do know, however, is that McCarthy drastically favors one side of the field, and is mediocre when he throws to the other. This is especially bad, because in games like Sunday night against the Falcons, when he needs to fire the ball in there and make plays, the defense knows one side of the field is basically worry-free. Atlanta were able to cheat safeties over the right, bracket receivers in bunch, and generate incompletions and turnovers because of it.

It’s ludicrous to say McCarthy is in trouble, but he needs to fix this problem to take the next step."

https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/1080388/jj-...ings-stats

[JimmyinSD]

I did see something about this earlier this year and I had hoped the coaching staff could fix it.

Here's an article from September covering it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"For the second straight week McCarthy has been both unable to consistently throw to the left side of the field, and unwilling to do so. Through two games he has an incredibly pronounced split difference when it comes to which area of the field he is throwing to.

    Right: 14-of-23 (61%), 1 TD, 2 INT
    Center: 2-of-3 (66%) 1 TD
    Left: 8-of-14 (57%), 1 INT

Moreover, all eight of McCarthy’s left field completions either came off the RPO or out of play action. It’s a sign the QB just isn’t comfortable playing in structure to his left, which is a big problem when that’s Justin Jefferson’s side of the field unless the Vikings play bunch.

The obvious question is “why can’e he throw left?” The answer isn’t dissimilar to another ghost of NFC North’s past: Mitchell Trubisky. So pronounced was Trubisky’s inability to throw left that The Ringer took a deep dive into the issue back in 2019.

Here’s the rub with McCarthy: It’s about how he likes to throw the football. If you watch his mechanics he’s a huge fan of drive throws. Stepping into the pass and dealing a fastball is his preferred way of getting the ball downfield. McCarthy loves this throw so much that he’s developed a baseball-esque wind up in his mechanics to deliver the ball with as much force as possible.

This throw comes naturally when he’s looking to his right. His feet are properly lined up, and he has awareness of any frontside pressure that could take away his ideal motion. However, when he needs to scan left it requires a reset of his feet, and he’s not comfortable with that yet because it drastically increases his time-to-throw when paired with his windup and delivery.

It’s here we need to wonder a little about the pre-draft criticism about McCarthy’s arm talent. We haven’t seen him work out of platform much, really for the majority of his football career. Michigan’s protection was good enough that he had all day to be comfortable under center. What worries me is that he’s now in year-two under Kevin O’Connell, who is a QB guru — and O’Connell hasn’t had McCarthy drop that wind up throwing motion. Is that because he simply wants his QB to get comfortable, or does J.J. lack the arm talent to make NFL-caliber throws when he doesn’t use that motion?

We truly don’t know. What we do know, however, is that McCarthy drastically favors one side of the field, and is mediocre when he throws to the other. This is especially bad, because in games like Sunday night against the Falcons, when he needs to fire the ball in there and make plays, the defense knows one side of the field is basically worry-free. Atlanta were able to cheat safeties over the right, bracket receivers in bunch, and generate incompletions and turnovers because of it.

It’s ludicrous to say McCarthy is in trouble, but he needs to fix this problem to take the next step."

https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/1080388/jj-...ings-stats

Makes me wonder if KOC is trying to call plays to force thar side of the field,  seems he was looking left quite a bit,  or maybe opposing Ds are weighing the field heavy center right to force him to his weakness?

[comet52]

KOC the QB guru is a media meme not reality.  In my humble opinion.

This is interesting.  JJM winding up like he wants to throw to Justin but his brain is gridlocked, probably from KOC stuffing it with word salad every waking minute.  Never sees very open Addison and checks to Hock aka punt team time. Watch a couple of times and notice Jefferson and Addison's body language afterwards.  Ugly.