RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesThe Minnesota Vikings had their first training camp practice open to the public today, which brought more visibility to the proceedings, at least for the day, from fans posting videos that media aren’t allowed to do (and fans aren’t supposed to do either). But it looks like the Vikings are enforcing the no video rule this year so that may curtail future videos of training camp. Teams across the league have been working for several years to prevent photos and videos of training camp from being disseminated to opponents via the public for competitive purposes and the Vikings appear to be enforcing that policy as a condition for fans attending training camp.
Be that as it may, there are a few storylines worth mentioning in today’s training camp notes.
Quarterback Competition
It was a day where Kyler Murray worked through some mishaps. There were a couple of bad exchanges with Blake Brandel that led to two fumbles. There was a miscommunication with a receiver on a pass play and a couple interceptions. But he also had the most impressive passes of the day as well. He also got most of the first team reps.
McCarthy didn’t have either the lows or the highs that Murray had. Mostly a steady diet of shorter passes, which reminds me a lot of what his training camp looked like last year.
Vikings training camp practice day 2 is over. The quarterback report: Kyler Murray took a hefty amount of snaps with the starters. Had one deep hit to Dontae Fleming. J.J. McCarthy spent more time with the No. 2 group, fewer downfield attempts.
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) July 30, 2026
And from the StarTribune:
J.J. McCarthy began with the first-team offense in an early 11-on-11 period and closed with them in a late 11-on-11 period. But most of the first-team snaps in between those reps went to Kyler Murray. Some of those were 1s-vs.-1s, others were 1s-vs.-2s. Carson Wentz got to run with the third-team offense a few times, which we didn’t see yesterday. As for how the QBs did, it was again a mix, though it felt like we saw a few more mistakes than on Day 1. Murray had back-to-back near interceptions in a full-field 11-on-11 period near the end of practice, one targeting Justin Jefferson and the other targeting Tai Felton. There were again drops by receivers, and Blake Cashman batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage. But there were also a few flashier plays than Day 1, too, like a deep pass from Murray to Dontae Fleming.
If two days of training camp can make a trend, I’d say the trend is that Murray is getting familiarized with the offense and receivers and making mistakes along the way, while McCarthy seems to be playing it safe with shorter, more high percentage passing. Whether McCarthy is missing open receivers further down the field or not has not been reported. Whether or not Murray getting significantly more reps than McCarthy continues or not remains to be seen. It does makes sense for Murray to get more reps in the sense that he needs more reps being new to the scheme and personnel whereas this is McCarthy’s third training camp working with the same.
It would be interesting to know on what basis Kevin O’Connell will divvy out the reps going forward. Are more reps earned by accomplishing tasks on a personal ‘to-do’ list (which might be different for each quarterback) or will they be more need based.
But ultimately, I don’t see the quarterback competition being decided by which quarterback has the higher passing rating in training camp. So to some degree a close accounting of passing stats for each quarterback may be focusing on the wrong thing.
Instead, I suspect the competition will be decided by which quarterback grows into being able to run the full offense, from getting the plays called on time, to getting to the right play at the line of scrimmage, to being able to aggressively take what the defense gives him. For Kyler Murray, that means mostly continuing to gain familiarity and comfort with the offense and personnel and eliminating mistakes along the way. For J.J. McCarthy, that means mostly growing his skillset to be better able to aggressively take what the defense gives him.
In a short competition, whether it lasts for a week or a month from now, that favors the more experienced Murray, who should be able to slowly become more versed in the scheme and in tune with receivers. It may be more difficult for McCarthy, who has said he has improved dramatically from last season, to show more touch, layering ability, and accuracy with his throws while also being able to process faster.
But over the next year, McCarthy may be able to get there. In the meantime, he needs to get out of his comfort zone and challenge himself and test his limits. That means trusting what he sees and attempting more difficult throws when available. That probably means making more mistakes too, but that is what training camp is for.
For Murray, moving to a new team and scheme forces him out of his comfort zone and so the challenge for him is to grow into the new system and slowly begin to master it. That may also lead to working on some aspect(s) of how he approaches the game as well. A change of scenery can also have the benefit of a better team around him and a more positive atmosphere and a chance to change some narratives about him.
So, at the end of the day, the competition may be decided not by who did the best from beginning to end, but by who progressed/improved the most with their to-do list. I would imagine that over the next week to ten days the coaching staff will have a good idea about the rate of progress for each quarterback and may be ready to make a decision on who is the starter.
Update on Other Position Battles
There aren’t many battles for starting positions on the Vikings’ roster at the moment, except maybe quarterback, but maybe some could emerge over the course of training camp. And of course there are battles further down the depth chart at just about every position group. Let’s take...
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