The Minnesota Vikings picked quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. However, a torn meniscus injury during the preseason saw him miss out on his entire rookie year. McCarthy is gearing up to take over as QB1 during his league debut this year.During an interview with ESPN's Jeremy Fowler before practice on Friday, Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell talked about the type of impact he wants to create on the young quarterback."I'm having a blast coaching J.J. every single day," O'Connell said. "He came into camp prepared, ready to go and really gives himself the opportunity to have a great camp. He's playing against one of the more talented, cohesive, high-level scheme defenses in my opinion."But it's been a great challenge for him. He's responded in some great moments. We've had some unbelievable learning moments as well from the standpoint of techniques, fundamentals, progressions, managing situations, making decisions on certain downs versus other downs."But what I've been most happy about is he's been relentless coming back attacking this thing in a way that's kind of had an impact on our whole offense. A lot of work to be done but happy about where J.J. is at and look forward to trying to continuing this momentum." (Timestamp- 0:55)Last season, the Vikings had Sam Darnold as their quarterback. He helped the team to a 14-3 record while qualifying for the playoffs. Kevin O'Connell and his team lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card round.Justin Jefferson gets brutally honest about J.J. McCarthy ahead of his QB1 debut for the VikingsLast month, four-time Pro Bowler Justin Jefferson spoke about J.J. McCarthy ahead of his debut for the team.He said that while the quarterback is still a rookie, he's been making steady progress throughout the offseason."He's (J.J. McCarthy) pretty much a rookie," Jefferson said. "Last year pretty much doesn't count for him. He's still new to the scheme, new to coming out here and throwing it to these different receivers."You're not really expecting him to have the same mindset as a veteran. You can't really have that expectation from him, but we do have an expectation of him being great, him coming out here every single day and working his butt off and progressing every single day. And we do see that progression just on the second day of camp."J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings take on the Bears in Week 1 of the 2025 season. It will be interesting to see if he can lead the team to the playoffs in his debut season.