Bringing back McCardell was key offseason move for Vikings' receivers

EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings’ receivers did not want to see wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell be sent packing when the Vikings decided to fire head coach Mike Zimmer. The team’s most successful position group in 2021 pushed their new coach Kevin O’Connell to retain their mentor.

“I appreciate all those guys going to bat for me,” McCardell said on Tuesday. “It shows what kind of room we have. We take care of each other. We look out for each other.”

McCardell was brought onto the Vikings’ staff in 2021 after spending the previous decade coaching receivers for Washington, Maryland University and Jacksonville. He inherited two stars in Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen and oversaw the development of KJ Osborn, who went from zero to 50 catches from his rookie to sophomore years.

Now McCardell is tasked with guiding the receiving corps through a change in offensive system, developing a stable of young depth receivers and working with Jefferson as he aims to push his game to new heights under O’Connell.

One of the early staples of the new regime is giving players more freedom to make decisions based on what they are seeing from the opposition. That means McCardell has to teach receivers how to read and react in order to become the driving force for the offense.

“I love it because it puts more onus on us,” McCardell said. “We have to put the ownership on us to make the passing game work so we gotta be dialed in, we have to communicate. It's like we are in control. We gotta hear it, see it, run the right routes and make the plays.”

The top two receivers Thielen and Jefferson have already shined under different offensive coordinators but the group behind them is mostly inexperienced, aside from recently-signed veteran Albert Wilson. The Vikings will require contributions from younger receivers like Osborn, Ihmir-Smith Marsette and possibly 2022 draft pick Jalen Nailor. Nobody knows better than McCardell, a former 12th-round pick who caught 883 passes, made two Pro Bowls and won the Super Bowl, how to work from the bottom of the depth chart to becoming a key contributor. He talked on Tuesday about how he once emerged from the bottom of the depth chart.

“A DB coach once told me, 'You have to make a play a day to keep us thinking about you,’” McCardell said. “So every day in practice I was going to make a play -- a big play. A one-hand catch, run by somebody, make a touchdown in the red zone. I was going to make a play a day. He told me that this league is about playmakers. It's hard to get rid of playmakers. That's what I did when I was a 12th-round pick. I caught some people's eyes.”

Of course, developing the back end of the roster pales in comparison to the importance of McCardell’s mentorship of Jefferson, who finished last season just a few yards away from the Vikings’ single-season receiving record. McCardell is preaching to Jefferson that he has to treat 2022 like starting all over again.

“I heard Troy Aikman say this one time, each year is a new year for him, each year he’s a different person, a better person,” the Vikings’ receivers coach said. “After 10 years, Troy Aikman could’ve sat there and been the same Troy Aikman and everybody would’ve said yeah. But now, you know, he’d say the next year is a new year, it’s like Year 1 for me. This is a new year. Why not you? Why not set the record for yards, catches in a year? Why not you? What you did last year was good, now let’s be great.”

McCardell said he doesn’t overthink with Jefferson, who has more receiving yards over the last two seasons than any receiver in the NFL. He just tries to point him in the right direction based on his many years of experience.

“When you got a great player like that, you try to keep it simple,” McCardell said. “Let his talent do the work. You help him with things he may have not seen before and I may have seen in my career. I’ve probably seen every look that he’s seen, but I try to help him through it. Once he gets it, he gets it so fast and he knows how to capitalize.”

While his job with the receivers is multi dimensional this year, McCardell’s big-picture goal is to have everyone in the receiving room pulling in the same direction. He talked about joining the Super Bowl-winning 2002 Buccaneers and how the team bonded quickly. McCardell wants to see that from his players.

“We took ownership, and we held each other accountable, and we loved each other,” he said. “We made sure everybody was all right, and when you can do that and have a great locker room.”