Immature Guns

This Monday night game doesn’t have me as excited as some other games. I am interested in J.J. McCarthy and his upbringing with the Vikings. I am also interested to see if Caleb Williams got any better. The two younglings get to shine on Monday night, or they get to crash into some headlights.

With Minnesota moving on from Sam Darnold at the end of last season, they turned their attention to rookie McCarthy. Coming into his second year, he has played zero downs of regular season football and already has the keys. Luckily, he has some weapons to help. Namely Justin Jefferson, but they just reacquired Adam Thielen, so the boy is coming home. They also picked up DT Javon Hargrave and CB Isaiah Rodgers, so there’s two starters added to the roster. The Vikings have me confused. On the one hand, they were by record, one of the best teams in football for a lot of last season. But on the other hand, they crashed and burned in the playoffs. They have Carson Wentz has a backup, but they are relying HEAVILY on J.J McCarthy. Maybe a little more than I’m comfortable doing, but hey, I’m not a GM for a reason. It’s on J.J. McCarthy this year. The team needs to play well, no doubt. But if McCarthy is unable to get into a rhythm, diagnose the coverage, or recognize a blitz and shift coverage, he may be in more danger than he realizes.

Now, for Chicago, I will give them credit for doing what they should’ve done like 4 seasons ago with Justin Fields, and that’s bring in offensive lineman to protect their QB! Who would’ve thought that could lead to success? They added G Jonah Jackson who spent time with Ben Johnson in Detroit, G Joe Thuney from the Chiefs, and C Drew Dalman, who ranked in the top five centers last year. Huge moves for Chicago. Especially because Caleb Williams holds onto the ball wayyyyyyy too long. Hopefully he changes that this year. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I am not even close to being sold on Caleb Williams. I wasn’t high on him in college, in the draft, last season, this season. I just don’t think he is the future for the Bears. But only time will tell. He got his protection that all the Caleb Williams supporters complained about, so let’s see what he does with it. I will give it to the Bears here Week 1. I think Williams will come out and play well and J.J. McCarthy may get overwhelmed early.