DETROIT — Once it was all over, the game and the handshakes and the television interviews, J.J. McCarthy made the trek toward the locker room. Nobody informed him that his Minnesota Vikings teammates and coaches were waiting for him. He didn’t know that when he weaved through the tunnel and past platters of postgame food, they’d all be standing at the door, ready to celebrate his arrival.
McCarthy yelled upon entering. He bobbed his head. He chest-bumped edge rusher Jonathan Greenard. He even mean-mugged coach Kevin O’Connell.
How best to describe McCarthy’s reaction?
“Crashing out?” Brian O’Neill suggested.
This is what a locker room looks like when you win a potentially season-altering divisional game on the road. Sunday’s 27-24 victory over the Lions in Detroit qualifies as such.
Here’s why: Before Sunday, Minnesota’s season was teetering. The team had lost two straight games, including one of the most embarrassing losses of O’Connell’s tenure to the Chargers in Los Angeles. The schedule wasn’t easing up, either: The Ravens, Bears, Packers and Seahawks loom.
Sitting at 3-4, the Vikings’ circumstances called for a pointed Monday meeting led by O’Connell. He also met separately with the team’s captains. They asked if they could speak with the team on Saturday night, and each shared a different message. Superstar receiver Justin Jefferson reiterated a line: “It’s time. It’s time for us to go out there and play how we’re supposed to play.”
McCarthy’s thoughts were more personal. He discussed how grateful the players should be. To play at this level. To have the chance to turn the tide. He told them he’d been sleeping in a side room in his house, and that he’d been having trouble sleeping. Why?
“Felt like I was catching this glare from a silver platter of this juicy opportunity right on top of it,” McCarthy said.
He capped his return to the lineup with a layered back-shoulder throw to receiver Jalen Nailor. Faced with a play-calling decision on third down with a chance to ice the game, O’Connell opted to do what the Vikings did this spring with their 2025 season. He handed McCarthy the keys.
The Vikings believed the Lions would play man coverage. When they did, Nailor released from the line of scrimmage behind Jefferson and fellow receiver Jordan Addison and floated up the right sideline. McCarthy added air to the throw, significant given the Vikings’ emphasis on that skill since McCarthy was drafted 18 months ago.
There were other key plays. In the first half, McCarthy found Jefferson for a touchdown. He also booted from the pocket and identified tight end T.J. Hockenson for another score. Afterward, O’Connell was consumed by the more mundane: a checkdown to running back Aaron Jones here, a throw into a zone void to Addison there.
It’s not that he was perfect. Even McCarthy, who completed 14 of 25 passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns (plus a rushing touchdown), mentioned inaccuracies and his inability to throttle down outside of the pocket. But he was able to stay healthy, manage the anxiety of the environment at Ford Field and provide some requisite energy.
“His overall demeanor is such a positive throughout the game,” O’Connell said. “If anything, sometimes he gets really excited. He’s competitive. This guy’s a winner.”
Sunday’s result required Jones’ juice behind a sturdier offensive line. The Vikings defense rediscovered its aggressive ways, too, with linebacker Eric Wilson constantly plucking at the Lions’ shaky interior. Undrafted rookie returner Myles Price even aided the momentum on special teams.
Edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel’s health shouldn’t go unnoticed in the effort. Nor should left tackle Christian Darrisaw’s playing all 59 snaps. Without those contributions, McCarthy wouldn’t have been standing at the lectern with the swagger that masks how hard his road has been.
The pain from the high-ankle sprain McCarthy suffered in Week 2 is one thing. Being confined to the sideline is something else entirely. On Sunday, though, when asked to explain what it meant to skip into that locker room with the entire team waiting, McCarthy choked up.
“Just — ” he paused. “It was awesome … ”
“Yeah … gosh,” McCarthy continued. “When you’re hurt, and being on IR last year, being out for five weeks this year, it absolutely kills me not being out there with those guys. Because I love every single one of them.”
McCarthy has spent most of his football life on the field with his team, which is to say: in the fight. He might not put it this bluntly, but the role he occupies as a starting quarterback in the spotlight is a major part of his identity. And twice now, as he tries to prove himself at this level and with these expectations, that identity has had to be shelved.
There is a difference between being in the building, like McCarthy was last season following his torn meniscus, and being the team’s quarterback. That shift, McCarthy has admitted, took a toll.
This season has been different but similarly taxing, especially given the preseason expectations. Think, for a moment, about McCarthy’s last couple of months. He went from hyped in training camp to a hero after Week 1. He became the father of a baby boy, Rome. He played through an injury, only to find out days later, after multiple medical opinions, that a full recovery from the high-ankle sprain would take four to six weeks.
Handling that amount of real-life whiplash would be difficult for anyone, much less a 22-year-old early in his NFL career. Hence, the raw emotion.
McCarthy came back to Michigan. He wore a blue-collar shirt as a nod to his experiences as a national-title-winning quarterback for the Wolverines, experiences that made this path possible. If nothing else, leaving Sunday with a win means the Vikings cannot be written off.
The more McCarthy plays, the more he’ll be under the microscope. The opportunities for which he’s had to wait patiently are only going to get juicier.