The J.J. McCarthy era in Minnesota has not gone as the front office would have hoped when they used a first-round pick on the Michigan product. It also hasn't really begun as McCarthy has been able start two games and finish one as his sophomore season approaches the midway point. He was once again on the sideline for Thursday night's rout suffered at the hands of the Chargers and Carson Wentz did not, by any metric, look like a serious NFL quarterback.

Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell says his young signal-caller will play when he's healthy—and perhaps that'll be next week. In the interim, the playoffs are getting further away from reality for the 3-4 Vikings and the pressure is only mounting. To the point that ESPN's Peter Schrager identified McCarthy as having more than any other at the position, league-wide.

"They made a decision this offseason to let Sam Darnold walk," Schrager said. "After a 14-3 season, they let him walk. They also let Daniel Jones walk, which was understandable—it was a backup quarterback and he was asking for a lot of money ...they get Carson Wentz in August. The whole expectation was J.J. McCarthy's gonna ride us the whole way."

"The amount of pressure on this young man right now to come in and suddenly be a Drake Maye or a Bo Nix, I don't know if there's any quarterback with more pressure on his shoulders."

Throw in the fact that McCarthy will be operating behind an offensive line that is full of question marks and basically to prove the front office knew what it was doing, and yeah, that sounds like quite a pressure cooker.

That doesn't seem particularly fair, even if Schrager's point is correct, considering McCarthy's sin has been getting hurt. But you cannot blame a fan base for wanting to see some type of tangible result—heck, even a middling one—by the end of an anointed franchise quarterback's second year. Especially with Darnold and Jones seemingly on track to play some meaningful football into at least January and maybe February.

So, yes, the pressure is on McCarthy. Not because of anything he did, but what the organization has done to him as they shove all their eggs into his basket.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Peter Schrager Reveals Surprising NFL QB Under Most Pressure.

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