{"id":596713,"date":"2026-04-21T02:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/596713\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:30:08","slug":"justin-jefferson-its-good-for-j-j-mccarthy-to-feel-the-pressure-that-kyler-murray-brings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/596713\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Jefferson: It’s good for J.J. McCarthy to feel the pressure that Kyler Murray brings"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of the 2025 season, Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson was asked about quarterback J.J. McCarthy and said that he \u201cwould love to work with him and show everybody<\/a> that he is that No. 1 guy\u201d but that picture looked a little different when the team started their offseason program on Monday. <\/p>\n

The Vikings signed Kyler Murray after the Cardinals released him and that makes McCarthy\u2019s path back to the starting lineup a more difficult one over the coming months. Jefferson said on Monday that he has spent time working with McCarthy since the end of last season and finds the quarterback \u201ca lot more confident\u201d than he was a year ago, but also said he\u2019s enthused about Murray\u2019s ability to make \u201cbig, exciting plays\u201d in the offense. <\/p>\n

That ability could push McCarthy out of the No. 1 job, but Jefferson outlined why the situation can ultimately be a positive for the quarterback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely looking forward to [Murray\u2019s] speed, his quickness, his arm strength that he\u2019s shown countless times over the years,\u201d Jefferson said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. \u201cAnd then for J.J., for somebody to enter that room with that type of ability, that type of talent, he\u2019s got to step it up<\/a> a little bit. So it\u2019s good for him to feel that type of pressure and to really lock in a little bit and say, \u2018It\u2019s either now or I\u2019m going to take that back seat again.\u2019 So it\u2019s all a competitive mindset when it comes to these type of things. So it\u2019s all about who\u2019s ready for that moment and who\u2019s ready to step up and take that initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to play out before the Vikings name their quarterback for Week 1, but there\u2019s little doubt that McCarthy will have to raise his level of play to remain part of the team\u2019s long-term plans. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the end of the 2025 season, Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson was asked about quarterback J.J. McCarthy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-596713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}