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Minnesota's mandatory minicamp is in the books, and it seemed like people were pleased with what was accomplished during the voluntary offseason program that culminated with three mandatory days.

The Vikings were able to practice outside Tuesday and Wednesday before rain ushered the team into the Indoor Practice Facility for Thursday's session.

I'd primarily categorize last week as continuing to emphasize the "above-the-neck" aspects of the sport, which is appropriate since players were only in helmets and shorts instead of full pads. In fact, the final 15-minute period of minicamp was helmetless.

The proximity created by the confines of the IPF, compared to outside fields, allows a much closer viewpoint, and it's easier to hear guys' reactions to outcomes of plays, whether there's excitement or disappointment.

The week was loaded with podium sessions, too, as we heard from Vikings coordinators for the first time this offseason before Head Coach Kevin O'Connell closed Thursday.

O'Connell enjoyed hosting the Minnesota High School Girls Flag State Champion Rosemount Irish at practice Thursday, just days after the squad secured the crown Monday at TCO Stadium.

Congrats to Rosemount, which was led by QB Talia Vescio's seven touchdown passes in the title bout to prevail over Rogers, and kudos to all 13 teams who qualified for the state tournament out of the 104 participating this season.

Rogers entered the tournament as the No. 13 seed and scored three upsets on the way to the final. Rosemount began as the No. 2 seed and fended off challenges from Minnetonka (an overtime win) in the quarterfinals and held off Centennial in the semifinals.

Quarterbacks J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray (listed alphabetically, as the QB competition is continuing), safety Joshua Metellus, outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, running back Aaron Jones, Sr., and receiver Justin Jefferson each participated in podium sessions. Those videos, the talks with the coordinators and O'Connell all were posted on Vikings.com last week.

Our editorial team will continue with content from those sessions to help fill the gap between now and the opening of training camp. We'll be working on some longer-term projects, and we're also going to try to take a bit of rest to prepare for the enjoyable grind of training camp that launches into the much-anticipated regular season.

Please keep the questions coming. This week, I'm only including a couple, but taking a deeper dive into the topics.

As a Vikings fan, I'd be pretty encouraged by all of this.

• The biggest takeaway is that Kevin O'Connell keeps praising both J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray for how they're handling the competition. He says they're working professionally together, asking good questions, and helping improve the offense through their discussions.
• Christian Darrisaw having a "great spring" might be the best news of all. If Darrisaw returns to form, that's a huge boost for whoever wins the QB job. A healthy Darrisaw is one of the NFL's top left tackles and changes the entire offense.
• As for the receivers, the top three are still:
  1. Justin Jefferson
  2. Jordan Addison
  3. Jauan Jennings
• O'Connell specifically mentioned that adding Jennings helps solidify the room, while younger receivers Tai Felton and Myles Price have impressed during OTAs.

If Darrisaw is healthy, McCarthy takes a Year 2 leap, and Jefferson/Addison/Jennings stay healthy, this could be one of the deepest offenses the Vikings have had in years. The QB battle will get the headlines, but Darrisaw's recovery might be just as important to the team's success.

And if McCarthy wins the job, he's stepping into a situation with Jefferson, Addison, Jennings, T.J. Hockenson, Aaron Jones, and a healthy Darrisaw protecting his blind side. That's about as good a setup as a young quarterback can ask for.

— Toby S. in Alaska

We'll start quickly with quarterbacks (there will be more on them below, too) before covering some of the other topics Toby presented.

Some have panned the QB "competition," but McCarthy and Murray shared reps with the first- or second-team offense while facing the first- or second-team defense. Most of the full-speed action was in 7-on-7 passing drills. Other growth occurred in 11-on-11 sessions, either at a walk-through or jog-through speed.

It seemed like there was an emphasis on navigating progressions and making good decisions about where to go with the football. The QBs worked the quick game, layered the ball into the middle of the field and took some shots, although a couple of the deeper attempts were pretty late in plays, so who knows if protection would have held up, or if the pass rush would have "gotten home," or if a scramble by either QB would have led to something spectacular.

O'Connell did not sound like he was in a hurry to declare a starting QB, but he did say he's got a general timeline that he's not sharing.

"This phase, this time of year, it's a foundation to build off of, and every rep obviously matters, but this time of year the beauty of not going full speed on a lot of reps is you can get a lot out of watching other guys' reps, as well," O'Connell said. "I think that's taken place. I think is great that's taken place, but those guys both know we have a plan in place to make sure that the decision we make that is going to be about what's best for the Minnesota Vikings and the timeline of that does involve getting our starter ready to go. We want to make sure when we play the Green Bay Packers that there's been ample time to have the best possible offense we can have to help our football team, and the quarterback is going to play a big role in that.

"I think to give an actual date would be not necessarily the portrayal of how we see it, but there is a timeline to make sure that we can allow the competition to continue and advance," he added.

O'Connell, Offensive Coordinator Wes Phillips and Jefferson talked about the growth by the quarterbacks during the offseason program.

"It's just been a continuous upward arrow for him," Phillips said when asked specifically about McCarthy. "It's fun to see guys come back in shape; you know guys have been working, and then in certain positions where you just notice that guys have been working the skills and fundamentals, as well on the things that have been talked about throughout a season, and they come back, you say, 'Oh, that looks a little better. Oh, look at him. I can tell he's been working on that, has been very intentional in the offseason even though nobody's watching.'

"So there's several things with J.J. that we noticed right off the bat that were improvements, things that he had done or continuing to grow with some of those things," Phillips added.

O'Connell has said from the jump that he wanted to raise the foundation in the quarterbacks this offseason because of how much the sport's most important position affects the rest of the offense.

The prior experiences of Murray and Carson Wentz, who wasn't yet with the Vikings this time a year ago, have helped the whole group build.

As for Darrisaw, I'd concur with the descriptor of a "great spring" for "Big Dog" and extend that to the rest of the offensive line for they way they have worked under the direction of new position coach Keith Carter, who was promoted this offseason from an assistant role last year.

That includes right guard Will Fries. Darrisaw had a winding recovery in the aftermath of his ACL tear suffered in Week 8 of 2024. Fries this time a year ago was rehabbing a broken leg he suffered with the Colts.

Having those two players at their projected levels will be massive for whoever is playing QB.

We didn't get the opportunity to see it very often, but I'm bullish on the combination of Darrisaw and 2025 first-round pick Donovan Jackson working in tandem on the left side of the line.

Sometimes the best free agent additions aren't the ones made immediately when the market opens, and I think that could be the case for Jennings. The Vikings understandably didn't overload Jefferson with reps, so Felton got more work with the first team when Minnesota was in a three-receiver set, and he showed some growth from his rookie season. Price was great as a return specialist last season, and the undrafted rookie was doing a bit more on offense, as well. Addison turned in some great practices, and Jennings is going to be a force multiplier for the group.

Hockenson's role as a receiving target last year got reduced a bit because of Minnesota's health at the tackle positions. If Darrisaw and Brian O'Neill return to form and avoid other injuries, that will be another great weapon.

I just watched the replay of the GMFB (Good Morning Football) gang talking about Kyler Murray being the biggest wild card in the NFC this season. But they weren't alone in wondering if "Form-er follows function." Specifically referring to O'Connell discussing the first day of OTAs, and how the quarterback competition is shaking out.

O'Connell let slip the phrase of "former captain" in discussing J.J. McCarthy, and just as quickly tried to backpedal.

Now, team captains are voted on by the players themselves, and not the coaches? That would imply that the locker room chose not to convey that honor. Or maybe they haven't chosen team captains yet, because it's far too early in the offseason and cutdowns are months away.

So the context of O'Connell's turn of phrase will surely be one of the more interesting topics of conversation long after the actual starting quarterback takes the first snap of the season. And in the meantime, how will the unfortunate Freudian slip affect daily practice and team dynamics?

Personally, I think it's a mistake for teams to sacrifice rookie quarterbacks to the football gods in their first year in the league. Jordan Love was allowed to sit and learn, but Caleb Williams had a baptism by fire. And just look at what happened to Trey Lance. Is he on his third or fourth team by now? J.J. McCarthy clearly could have benefited from having a couple seasons to soak up experience but was unfortunately denied that by his preseason injury in year one.

But J.J.'s fifth-year option is fast approaching, and I'm guessing he doesn't get a "gimme bonus" extra year for missing that first year. But year two was a miasma-mix of injuries, "deer in headlights" indecision and inconsistency, yet a redeeming arc to close out the season. So how much patience do the Vikings owners and coaches have in his growth path? Will they give him a longer leash to see how Kyler's presence affects his maturity and decision making?

And with Kyler being a one-year rental, and the fact that he has a no-tag clause, if he excels, could the Vikings even afford a long-term extension in the current $50-65 million stratosphere that NFL teams are doling out willy-nilly these days? Just ask Miami and Arizona, or especially Cleveland, how efficient it is to kick the salary cap can down the road.

Sincerely,

— David A. (From the North Shore but stuck in the South)

McCarthy and Murray have gotten the fishbowl treatment during OTAs with folks picking apart any visuals of the QBs throwing that made their way to the internet (either filmed by Vikings Entertainment Network or media members). Some of that is to be expected, given how much people care about the NFL and how rare a starting QB job is.

When he was in Tennessee, Matt Hasselbeck said he viewed the QB competition with Jake Locker as competing with everyone else in the world a team could find to play quarterback.

There's been some erroneous jumping to conclusions (anyone remember the "Jump to Conclusions Mat" in Office Space?) regarding intentions of actions, and the body language analysts have been trying to read between the lines between plays.

O'Connell already is accustomed to his words being parsed.

Regarding captains, a role which McCarthy was voted to by teammates in 2025, O'Connell has players cast their ballots between the conclusion of the preseason and the start of the regular season, once roster cuts have been determined, so referring to anyone who previously was a captain as former doesn't necessarily mean the player won't also be a future captain or that teammates downgraded their view of a player, even if the player's role changes from year to year.

Every team and every QB situation is going to be different, but there have been success stories of QBs, even if drafted high, benefiting from having extended time to absorb.

McCarthy's trajectory was impacted by the torn meniscus. He had been improving while competing with Sam Darnold, even though Darnold likely would have been Minnesota's starter during McCarthy's rookie season. The nature of a knee injury is that it prevented some of the on-field strides that could be made.

He showed up in some tough moments (trailing in Week 1 at Chicago before leading the comeback victory; starting fast and finishing strong at Detroit in Week 9; and later in the season), but McCarthy also experienced growing pains and dealt with some inconsistencies that again could have been impacted by other injuries.

If Murray starts and plays well, the Vikings could have a decision not dissimilar to the one they had with Darnold, who signed a three-year deal with Seattle that proved to be a bargain for the Seahawks.

If McCarthy is chosen as the starter, it will mean he won a competition in a room that has three former first-round picks and has shown encouraging progress for the next chapter.

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