As Vikings fans process their J.J. McCarthy grief, Kevin O’Connell must do this

The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I’m not sure where every Vikings fan is in that process when it comes to rookie QB J.J. McCarthy, but a good number of them have reached and are stuck on “depression.”

Denial was Monday, when Kevin O’Connell told reporters that McCarthy had knee soreness. He’ll be fine. It can’t be that bad.

Anger was Tuesday when it was revealed that McCarthy had a torn meniscus. Why the bleep can’t we have nice things?!?!

Bargaining was the time between the diagnosis and the surgery. Maybe McCarthy will just need a meniscus trim? He could be back this year!

Depression is now. I know he wasn’t going to play much, at least early on, but this is a serious bummer.

Maybe you’ll reach acceptance once Sam Darnold slings his first regular-season touchdown and a hyped-up McCarthy, wearing a headset on the sideline, screams “Amor fati!” for all the cameras.

But you’re not there. At least Shane, a Daily Delivery podcast listener, isn’t. He sent an email this week that started out with: “Sorry, it’s my fault.”

Shane wrote: “I normally don’t believe in jinxes or bad vibes, but I thought I’d share. My three siblings and I were at the Vikings game Saturday and were very excited about J.J.’s performance and what we witnessed During warm-ups, I reminded my siblings the last Vikings game we went to together was the 2016 preseason and Teddy Bridgewater had an amazing game, generating a lot of excitement for the season. I looked up his stats and he was 12-16 for 161 and a touchdown. Two days later was his major injury, effectively ending his Vikings career and taking a lot of optimism away from the season. I made the comment to my siblings towards the end of the game, ‘Hopefully J.J. doesn’t get hurt this week, too.’”

That’s a heavy burden.

I just want to wrap Shane in my arms like Robin Williams comforting Matt Damon in “Good Will Hunting.”

Shane, listen: It’s not your fault.

It’s also not the Vikings’ fault for playing McCarthy so extensively in the game — as another listener earlier this week, perhaps while still in the anger stage, suggested. They need information about their rookie QB. They got a lot of it, most of it positive. Injuries happen, even if this one is particularly unfair.

O’Connell likely had to move through these emotions more quickly. Those with more skin in the game have accepted the news. And now they need to focus in on the bigger picture of winning some games in 2024.

That task didn’t change much given that McCarthy wasn’t going to be the starting QB this season (at least at the beginning). But two other events this week from joint practices in Cleveland did crystallize a thought I was already embracing. The events:

O’Connell’s Vikings have finished top-five in pass attempts and bottom-five in rush attempts in the NFL each of his two seasons here. That can’t happen this year, especially with a stopgap quarterback (Sam Darnold) throwing to a depth-challenged and injured group of pass-catchers.

If the Vikings are going to win this year, it’s going to be with a more balanced offense featuring running back Aaron Jones combined with stout defense.

The Vikings don’t need to pull a complete reversal and go all the way back to 2019 when they were bottom-five in pass attempts and top-five in rush attempts.

But a nudge toward “Mike Zimmer Ball” is the only path to success this year. In Zimmer’s last season (2021), the Vikings were No. 11 in pass attempts and No. 16 in run attempts.

If they did that again and scored 425 points like they did that season, while Brian Flores’ defense with a newly stacked front seven proves stout, the Vikings’ fate might not be so bad after all.