ESPN’s Jason McCourty: Why Kyler Murray Should be the Vikings’ Starting QB

Jason McCourty did not hedge. Asked whether Minnesota should start Kyler Murray or J.J. McCarthy, ESPN's McCourty went straight to the tape.

"You got to get Kyler a shot," he told Rich.

Rich pushed. Do you really have to give Kyler a shot?

"Did you see the quarterback play last year?" McCourty answered. Then, when Rich tried to explain it away, he asked it again. "Did you see the quarterback play last year?"

The Rich defense was that Nine was banged up. McCourty was not having the nickname.

"You got to do a little bit more for us to just refer to you as nine," McCourty said. "And Buffalo, they refer to their quarterback as 17. I'm okay with that. But right now, J.J. is just J.J."

He was careful to keep it clean. No disrespect intended. McCourty called McCarthy a good player and a good dude and wished him the best. His point was about evidence, and Minnesota does not have much of it.

The complication McCourty raised is the one that will actually decide this thing, and it is a practice-field problem, not a talent problem. Split reps in training camp favor the guy who already knows the system. McCarthy has been in the building two years. Murray has not.

"Chances are there's a good chance he's going to look better than Kyler Murray in practice," McCourty said. "And if he does, then how do you figure out if you're going to give him the shot that you may feel that he's necessary."

That is the trap. The competition is structured in a way that can produce the wrong answer, and the wrong answer costs a season.

Then McCourty brought up the other J.J., and this is where the argument sharpens.

Justin Jefferson spent an entire year watching whoever was under center struggle to get him the ball. McCourty wondered aloud what happens to Jefferson's outlook if the Vikings go back to McCarthy and it does not click again.

The sequencing McCourty proposed is tidy. Give Murray the chance. Let McCarthy keep growing behind him. If Murray fails, McCarthy is right there, further along than he was. If McCarthy proves he is the guy, nothing is lost.

His closing argument was the roster itself.

"You brought Kyler Murray there for a reason. Carson Wentz is there for a reason," McCourty said. "If you believed in J.J. McCarthy that much, I don't know that they would be adding this much competition to the quarterback room."

That is hard to argue with. Teams that are sure about their quarterback do not go shopping.

The conversation then swerved to McCourty's own situation, because ESPN now has all four of the old Good Morning Football crew under contract, with Schrager reportedly getting an afternoon slot. Rich floated getting the breakfast table back together.

McCourty declined to make news, and did it with a smile.

"Wherever they tell me to go is where I will be going," he said. "Go and get up tomorrow, do Good Morning Football, when you finish, run over and do some First Take. Hey, just let me know what time. I'm going to be there."

There is no I in Jason or McCourty, as Rich put it. Team player.