EAGAN, Minn. — An afternoon practice in late August had just ended and Ryan Kelly was sauntering off the field smiling with his neck roll jutting out from the top of his large pads and the 2025 season in sight.

Moments later, still dripping sweat in 75-degree weather, Kelly scoffed and said, "Oh, dude – easy!"

He rattled off the names like each was his current quarterback: Andrew Luck, Scott Tolzien, Jacoby Brisset, Brian Hoyer, Phillip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles, Anthony Richardson, Gardner Minshew and Joe Flacco. Twelve starters he snapped to over a nine-season span with the Colts, who drafted him 18th overall in 2016 to shore up the offensive line in Luck's prime.

Kelly amazingly recalled each. Unbelievably, he did so in precise order and included their correct years.

His 13^th different starting quarterback, of course, is J.J. McCarthy.

We caught up with the four-time Pro Bowl center and father of three to gather his thoughts on heading into his 10^th season, reconnecting with teammates and building bonds in Minnesota's locker room.

Q: So you're entering Year 10 – what do you love so much about football?

A: I heard Jason Kelce say it one time, you start to get toward the end of your career – maybe not the end, but you're certainly closer to the end than the beginning – and it's still the game where you can be the best at what you do in the world. I had missed some time last year with a knee injury and came back strong at the end of the season and really felt like I could still do this at a high level. Ultimately, I ended up in Minnesota and I feel like it's a rebirth for my career, just a change of pace, which I feel like I needed. It's great to be surrounded by great players and proving yourself. I knew a lot of the AFC, but I wasn't really proven to a lot of the NFC. You come to a different team, a different division, and you've got to prove who you are again. I think that's an exciting thing as a veteran guy, and certainly a challenge.

Q: Vikings Assistant General Manager Ryan Grigson brought you into the league when he was GM of the Colts. Almost a decade later, what's different about the version of you Grigson helped sign in free agency?

A: It's crazy. That feels like a century ago. It feels so long. So much has happened in my career and with the team in Indy for those nine years. Obviously, he took me in the first round. It ended up being great. I couldn't have been happier to be in that place for nine years. I didn't have much interaction with him then. But I was just a young guy in the league, so knowing what I know now it's really cool to talk to him about his perspective being there, the culture, the things he's learned along the way; and being in different rooms – being on the same team but with a lot of different players around me in the last nine years – I feel like we've got just a lot of experience together. I mean, we've had different careers. He left Indy after the first year and I stayed there for the next nine and a lot of things happened for us and to us. I think it's just cool to share those experiences. At the end of the day the NFL is such a people business.

Q: You grew up in Ohio and have been tied to the Midwest for your entire life except for attending Alabama. What's your experience here been like so far?

A: I got a little taste of the South for a couple of years and then I was lucky enough to get drafted by the Colts and be two hours from my home, which was such a blessing. To stay in one place for nine years is pretty amazing. Most guys have to pick up and move every couple of years to different cities. So as I look back at it now, it's truly a blessing to be in the Midwest for so long, where I feel like I've made a lot of my home, like the connections I've made – the fans, the people are amazing. I think that's just a kind of a blanket for the entire Midwest. I didn't go to Minnesota at all when I was growing up aside from playing up here a couple of times throughout my nine years in Indy. Minnesota has been amazing. The people are fantastic, the fans are awesome, the food in Minneapolis is amazing, the weather's great – but I guess ask me in four months when it's negative 30. I think the Midwest people are the salt of the earth, and I feel like if you represent the city the right way, just speaking for Minnesota so far and Indianapolis after nine years, I feel like it goes a long way for your career and for your family, and post-football as well.

Q: How is your family (wife Emma, 2-year-old twin boys Duke and Ford and infant daughter Stella) adjusting?

A: They're all up here now. We found a house and love our neighborhood. I think the kids are just thinking they're on vacation. I don't think they'd know any different. And whether we play here for one year or 10 years, it'll be a cool story for them, too, to say that they lived somewhere else and Dad played for a different team. But they're loving it, and we're embracing wherever we are in life. I had a strength coach in the NFL tell me it doesn't matter wherever you go. You should just try to live there and embrace it. 'Cause at some point you'll put down roots forever but all those trips and stops you had along the way make you who you are. It tells your story.

Q: I'm assuming it's fun starting this chapter with your former Colts teammate Will Fries. How glad were you to reunite with the person who played right beside you over the past four seasons?

A: First of all I don't call him Will. I call him Spud. He got to Indy as a rookie, and I was like, 'Oh, I don't really like calling you Will or Fries.' Neither of them really roll off the tongue. I was like, 'All right, well, Fries, Potato – Spud.' And sure enough, Spud stuck. I haven't called him Will in five years now. So that nickname has taken over here. Pretty proud of that one. When he got to Indy, I viewed him as a big guy who was very passionate about getting better. I think you could see the hard work. When he got to Indy, no one knew – was he a tackle? Was he a guard? And he kind of got thrust in '22 into being a right guard. And the work that nobody saw that he put in and how much he cared about his craft, doing things for his body, his mind, learning the game, learning how to be a technician inside the game is really impressive.

Q: You're also back with your former 'Bama teammate Jonathan Allen. In what ways has his game grown since blocking him in practices all those years ago?

A: He was a couple years younger than me in college, but he was a great player from the day he got there. There were a lot of battles up front. And then playing against him a couple of times in Washington, he developed a move that got the best of everybody. I think that's such an impressive thing to really find that one move. And his skill set is so vast. You pair him with (Javon) Hargrave and it's just a different animal practicing against him. To see his career ascend and see the father and husband he has become … it's been really impressive.

Q: You've previously mentioned that J.J. McCarthy's maturity amazes you. Can you elaborate?

A: Fans just see the player and they can see how he talks during interviews. Obviously, he does the little things extremely well, and I think that carries over in the locker room, but what people don't see is his ability and understanding that it's not just the offense he has to connect with. It's the training staff, it's the equipment staff, it's the defense, it's the PR people – everybody who makes up the organization. When you have a true quarterback, a true leader, I think he understands at a young age what that does for the team; he's that franchise guy. When you start to look at his daily routine of what he does and who he talks to it's not just the guys who directly impact his career. It's everybody. I think that goes a long way for the whole organization. And then certainly, he's got a deep, deep love for the guys up front. Whether it's golfing or going out to dinners and stuff like that, he has always been amazing. He came to an on-line dinner in Nashville for the preseason when he could have been with family. He makes the sacrifices and understands the concrete you build carries and pays big dividends in the long run.

Q: Not to age you or anything, but being 10 years older than J.J., what is some advice you've shared?

A: It's just little nuggets along the way. Whether it's a 3x1 formation and I'm telling him, 'In my experience, this is how coordinators think in 3x1 versus 2x2' – things like that, that involve on-field stuff – or if it's the way you command the huddle. In a play call, the only person that needs to know everything for the most part is the quarterback. At some point, the offensive line doesn't need to know the route; wide receivers don't need to know the protection. Everybody's got a piece of this long huddle call. And the way that he pronounces it and looks everybody in the eye at different times gives everybody in the huddle the assurance that this is the best play. This is the touchdown play. This is the next one. I've been around great quarterbacks, I've been around a lot of them, and I think those guys have the ability to speak to each person without looking each one in the eye, right? It's the way to tell them with the inflection in your voice that this is gonna be the best play we got. That's such a special thing. So small things like that, and he's gonna be a father soon, so some dad stuff along the way, too.

Q: What are the little 'dad nuggets' you have passed to him?

A: I told him, 'Man, everybody thinks that at some point they'll be ready.' That's the biggest myth in life: 'I'll be ready to get married. I'll be ready to have a kid or two kids or three kids.' No one's ready for that. There's not a handbook for how to be a dad. You just learn how to be adaptable in your life because there's things that you can't control that are gonna happen. Whether it's professionally, being a father, being a husband. And I think it makes you a better football player, how you're able to adjust, because you do it every day. I think the game means more when you become a father. You appreciate things differently. There's the diaper questions and all those, too, but he's got to figure that out on his own.

View the 2025 Vikings Schedule.

Check out the 2025 International games.

View future opponents for the Vikings.

Buy single game tickets.

Download the official Vikings App.