Vikings QB Battle: Luke Braun Goes Insane and Breaks Down Training Camp Clips

Camp is underway, which means football is back but not really back. There’s enough football on social media to whet our appetites, but not enough to make us normal.

As a society, we desperately need our culturally approved blood sport to vicariously relieve us of our pent-up aggression. Without it, we start to lose sight of reality. We start pondering the contents of text messages seen on police bodycam footage. We let Aaron Rodgers start a Fauci debate in 2026.

So when actual football comes back, even a little bit, you’ll have to forgive us all for being a little insane about it. I’m not happy that I found myself painstakingly analyzing blurry, shaky camp clips from Twitter. I forgive you for however you engaged with Thursday night’s Hall of Fame Game.

I’ve done a lot I’m not proud of this offseason, like write over 3500 words on Tua Tagovailoa or engage in time travel delusions. So what’s another tortured, overwritten piece of slop? At this point, who gives a shit?

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The answer is you, isn’t it? You give a shit. You gobbled that story about Dianna Russini’s texts right up, didn’t you? You’re so thirsty you’re going to read this whole thing. You’re just as desperate as me. Don’t deny it. Sit down, grab an absinthe and Lysol, and let’s do this.

Bold of you to assume that something like rules would matter to me. The whole nation, nay the world, is in its death throes. Who gives a shit? We’re not talking about military plans to fuck up some nation in the Middle East so bad it spawns a new terrorist group; we’re talking about the 2026 Vikings. 

But if you do give a shit, understand that these clips are already out there. They’re public. If some intrepid, investigative Packers advance scout wants to find them, they already have. Cat’s out of the bag. So we can at least try to squeeze some morsel of joy out of this before the Vikings inevitably crash us violently back to reality.

If your issue is that I am adding analysis that could be helpful to other teams, understand that I am a gigantic idiot. If someone in Green Bay gains insight from me that they couldn’t get on their own, then they belong in the NFL as much as I do. And if that person, who needs a Beehiiv blogger to tell them if JJ McCarthy is good or not, works for the Packers, let’s not look that gift horse in the mouth.

If you don’t think I should be breaking down clips someone else recorded without credit, that one’s actually a good point. These clips were gathered from three Twitter accounts, though I cannot endorse everything else posted on those accounts. Still, labor is labor, and credit is due. I also used clips posted by the official Vikings, which pre-empts many of these critiques.

Are you satisfied? Have I properly justified writing the article you’ve been horny for since March? Can we stop acting like you don’t absolutely want to watch fuzzy vertical video of Kyler Murray’s footwork? Well, too bad, because we’re eating our vegetables first.

The NFL watching community couldn’t possibly fathom that a team would give their third-year quarterback a second chance to start a season, so nobody expected the team to actually split reps between Kyler Murray and JJ McCarthy.

Instead, the two quarterbacks continue to split reps, though skewed toward Murray, and the battle could last throughout the preseason, per national reporting, at least. 

If it’s a “real” battle, then no worries — JJ McCarthy was expected to show up to training camp with piss-soaked practice pants and immediately vomit grape Shasta on the 35-yard line, clearing the way for an easy Kyler Murray win. 

Instead, we’ve seen a mixed bag that requires a couple of brain cells to analyze. Sorry to disappoint.

Let’s start with the oft-discussed leg whip, a key factor in McCarthy’s spotty accuracy. I’ve written about this a lot, most recently in the context of Kyler Murray’s leg. But in many of these clips, McCarthy seems to have a more calmed down lower half.

Here’s a clear example: a 7-on-7 rep where McCarthy throws right at the camera, giving us a nice clear view of his posture at the end of the throw.

McCarthy’s toe basically draws a ring just outside his frame. If I were to nitpick, you’d want that ring to be a little smaller, but discussing anyone’s toe ring in depth is never worth the effort. [Editor’s Note: What the hell!?]

Pause! Enhance! His hips are locked straight at his target, sending more force into the ball.

Footwork contributes to inaccuracy as well. If McCarthy hitched away from pressure, he would often misalign his feet, leading to awkward throwing angles and exacerbating his weird hip rotation.

Take this interception from Week 10 against Baltimore last year. There’s pressure, and McCarthy steps away, but in doing so, he completely loses his throwing base. He leads the ball right into the roaming safety, and all that hitching gave that safety time to make the play.

As his feet calm down, so might his hips. Here’s a clip from camp with a similar situation. It’s a different play call — the Vikings have some kind of spacing concept going here, making it a much easier outlet — but McCarthy doesn’t turn this into a chaotic off-platform throw.

^{This kind of zoomed-out clip is all we have to work with until the preseason opener, and I know you’re going to gobble it up, you disgusting little gremlin.}

So McCarthy’s no longer stumbling around the pocket like a freshly birthed giraffe, but he’s still doing too much in the pocket. Back to that Ravens game, the play where McCarthy blasted his hand into pieces on the back of his teammate’s helmet. Watch how many times McCarthy hitches, and how far his launch point moves.

The first hitch may help him evade Kyle Van Noy, but the second moves two more yards up for four in total from the top of his drop. Jackson gives up some ground, but linemen need more room than this to work with.

Bad news, truthers. McCarthy is still hitching his way into trouble.