The Minnesota Vikings held a night practice on Aug. 9 as training camp is ongoing and the preseason begins on Aug. 15 against the New York Giants. Nonetheless, the focus is on the QB competition between J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray.
For both players, the preseason game against the Giants will provide them with an opportunity to begin taking the lead in the battle. While many expect Murray to emerge as the winner, the former No. 1 pick is raising concerns for a former Vikings player.
During an Aug. 10 appearance on KFAN, former Vikings linebacker Ben Leber shared his thoughts on what he saw from Murray during the night practice on Aug. 9.
“Kyler made a couple plays,” Leber said. “He had a great touchdown strike to [Jordan] Addison in one of the team periods, but that wasn’t even a progression read. It was like, okay, Addison’s on the backside of this formation. He ran a skinny little slant post. He was clearly the number one read.
“He threw it in there, touchdown. And then he scrambled for a rushing touchdown later on. That was about it. Everything else seemed clunky for Kyler. It just doesn’t seem like a smooth operation for him yet. If it’s an immediate read, yes, he can make the throw. If he’s going to run through a progression, especially against this defense right now, it just seems very hesitant and very reactionary as a thrower right now, which is not a great situation.”
Ben Leber Does Have Concern Regarding Kyler Murray
Moreover, Leber was asked, with the first preseason game on the horizon, whether there should be concern that Murray can’t find that consistency to start pulling away from McCarthy.
“Yeah,” Leber said on whether he’s concerned about Murray. “We’re at a point in practice where he’s still halving the reps, so I understand that. We’re going against what I think is a Top 5 defense. They looked fantastic last night, so I want to give him a little bit of grace, both him and J.J. But yeah, I’m a little concerned just from the processing speed for both of these guys.”
Vikings Insider Gives Latest on Team’s QB Battle
Meanwhile, on Aug. 10, Kevin Seifert of ESPN shared what he’s seeing from this battle heading into the preseason game against the Giants. He noted that McCarthy is also having issues attempting to take advantage of Murray’s struggles at times.
So far, it appears neither QB has created enough distance over the other to give themselves a lead in the competition.
“Unfortunately for J.J., he has also struggled with his accuracy,” Seifert said. “[McCarthy] made some nice downfield throws [on Aug. 9] in the stadium practice, but also struggled in the red zone. So really what you have is going into the third week of camp, neither one of these guys has really jumped up and said, this is my job, I’m going to be the starter and so the competition will continue.”
It will be interesting to see if, after the game against New York, going up against an opposing defense that defensive coordinator Brian Flores doesn’t lead could allow either McCarthy or Murray to shine and begin emerging as the leading candidate for the starting job.
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