Rich: How the Vikings’ Kyler Murray vs JJ McCarthy QB Competition Could Play Out

The picture out of Minnesota is two quarterbacks sitting on opposite sides of the same classroom, listening to the same teacher, sharing as little as possible. Kevin O'Connell, with Josh McCown in the room, insists the competition is healthy and everybody's getting along. The reps tell a different story.

Kyler Murray was asked about the most challenging part of his current situation, and he gave an honest answer. After seven years of taking every rep in Arizona, splitting them now is the adjustment. "Me already being behind, not getting the amount of reps that you would typically want a guy to get with learning an offense, that's probably the toughest part," Murray said. He used to be in control of everything, comfortable in the system. Now he's learning on the fly while trying to play fast and let it loose.

When was the last time Murray didn't get all the reps in practice? The crew couldn't land on an answer. College, maybe. Middle school. Possibly a different sport entirely. The point stuck: this is new for him.

J.J. McCarthy got the same question and gave the more guarded reply. "Those reps being distributed are something out of my control, and the only thing I focus in on is that next rep," he said. Asked whether this is a legitimate quarterback competition, he leaned on the company line about competing with himself, where a rising tide lifts all ships. The read on the show was that someone had coached McCarthy to answer plainer and more boring.

The history says both men are allergic to losing. Murray went 42-0 as a high school quarterback, then won the Heisman at Oklahoma with 42 touchdowns and seven interceptions. McCarthy was 36-2 in high school and later lost to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl, a game Rich remembered well, having attended it with Cooper.

So how does it play out? Rich laid out the case both ways. McCarthy's edge is the offense itself. He was in it last season and didn't have to put the practice facility into his Waze on the first day. Murray's edge is bigger in Rich's eyes: seven years of experience, a team that hasn't yet seen his ceiling in their system, and a price tag of just $1.3 million for this one season. "Boy, do they really want to see him," Rich said.

There's also the talent argument, which Rich floated carefully. When McCarthy played the way he did against the Cowboys, with three total touchdowns, he looked like a professional quarterback. The problem is consistency. "Inconsistency is a hallmark of the inexperienced," Rich said, then admitted he'd invented the line on the spot. Football fortune cookie or not, it framed his conclusion.

This is year three for McCarthy, with a fifth-year option decision looming, and Rich doesn't think the team has time for another inconsistent season from the player they kept after letting a quarterback walk who went on to win a Super Bowl. The structure of a true split competition is real. The reps prove it. But Rich kept landing in the same place.

"I think the thumb will eventually be put on the scale for Murray," he said. "Maybe I'm wrong."