Vikings rookie QB J.J. McCarthy impressed vs. Raiders, but don’t expect a start anytime soon

J.J. McCarthy made his Vikings debut on Saturday, and proved he has a chance to win the job.

He may be a long shot, but if he plays well the next couple of weeks, he could — yes, on opening day — become the Vikings’ backup quarterback.

Anyone expecting anything more from him, or anything different from the Vikings’ decisionmakers, is misreading the situation.

Sam Darnold is expected to be the Vikings’ opening-day starter. The Vikings’ biggest decision at quarterback will be whether to treat McCarthy as their backup or break-glass-in-case-of-emergency reserve.

It’s not that McCarthy wasn’t impressive on Saturday in the Vikings’ 24-23 victory over the Raiders at a packed U.S. Bank Stadium. It’s that his performance was more promising than pivotal.

Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell raved about McCarthy’s savvy, and ability to take coaching at halftime.

Of course, McCarthy required extra coaching at halftime because the rookie made a rookie mistake. In the second quarter, McCarthy scrambled to his right and tossed a floating pass toward Trishton Jackson, who was running toward the right sideline. Raiders cornerback Jack Jones easily undercut Jackson for an interception.

In college, that throw probably would have been an easily forgotten incompletion.

Among a certain segment of the fan base — make that virtually all of it — McCarthy’s talent and pedigree have inspired an expected irrational exuberance.

The Vikings haven’t developed a star quarterback since Daunte Culpepper. And if you don’t consider Culpepper a star, then you’d have to go back to Fran Tarkenton. They have never drafted a quarterback in the first round who went on to become a star.

McCarthy won a national championship at Michigan, and he possesses arm strength, athletic ability and charisma. Why wouldn’t this fan base treat him like a savior?

There is nothing more rewarding in modern American sports than watching the emergence of a great young quarterback. There is nothing more damaging to an NFL franchise than ruining a young quarterback.

You can find instances of rookies playing well immediately, like C.J. Stroud last season. You can find dozens of instances of rookies playing before they were ready and ruining their career or delaying their development.

For now, enjoy the good moments — and McCarthy produced plenty of them on Saturday — without treating them as evidence of a changed depth chart.

O’Connell clearly is enjoying coaching McCarthy. He gushed about him for what seemed like half of his postgame news conference.

He also described the interception in a way that reveals how much a rookie has to learn to survive as an NFL quarterback:

“Let’s just dive in,” O’Connell said. “It was corners over, so we knew it was man-to-man. They ended up bringing a ‘backer. Kene (Nwangwu) attempted to pick up that pressure. It was a pretty violent hit, right at (McCarthy’s) feet.

“We call that an NFL pocket. It felt like he could have put his foot in the ground and delivered that ball to Trishton a little faster. He kind of chose to then move to his right, and then the ball got undercut late there as he tried to put it on Trishton.”

If there’s a lot going on in that summary, imagine how much is going through a quarterback’s mind as he tries to decipher and defeat an NFL defense.

On the first drive of the third quarter, McCarthy saw Jackson break open deep down the left sideline, and hit him in stride for a 45-yard touchdown. The massive crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium erupted as McCarthy pumped his right arm in celebration.

On the next series, McCarthy found another receiver open behind the defense, and hit Trent Sherfield Sr. with a 33-yard touchdown pass.

Those plays aren’t meaningless, even if they came against reserves in a preseason game. How many times have you seen an NFL quarterback fail to see an open receiver, or miss him with a throw?

But it will be that soft-serve interception that draws the coaches’ attention this week.