Minnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy was not called to practice Monday night after reporting soreness in his right knee to medical staff, coach Kevin O’Connell said.
O’Connell told reporters the rookie QB will undergo further testing on his knee and did not know if McCarthy will travel with the team to Cleveland, ESPN’s Kevin Seifert reports. The Vikings will participate in joint practices with the Browns before their preseason game on Saturday.
“As a precaution, we’re going to evaluate him and do some more testing,” O’Connell said, via ESPN.com. “A very important player, obviously, so we want to make sure we’re smart before he goes in and understand where he’s at.”
McCarthy was expected to get more reps with the first-team offense in practice this week after playing well in Minnesota’s preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders. He completed 11 of 17 passes for 188 yards with two touchdowns and ran twice for 18 yards. McCarthy was scheduled to play 30 snaps and was pulled from the game after reaching that total.
There is no indication whether McCarthy injured his knee during the game. O’Connell says he could have continued playing against the Raiders and believes McCarthy’s knee pain is a routine complaint after his first preseason action, according to The Athletic.
“We’re trying to figure out when it happened, but he came in with some routine muscle soreness that a lot of guys come in with after their first practice game sometimes,” O’Connell said. “It was something we wanted to be smart about.”
In addition to starter Sam Darnold and McCarthy, the Vikings also have quarterbacks Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall in training camp.
