The biggest nugget from Kevin O’Connell on Monday afternoon at TCO Performance Center came roughly 20 minutes into his press conference.

After answering multiple questions about J.J. McCarthy, the first-round draft pick who didn’t play as a rookie because of a torn meniscus, O’Connell provided an important update about the future franchise quarterback as the Vikings arrived back in the building for the start of their offseason program.

“I’d consider him full,” O’Connell said. “No limitations.”

That’s good news for the Vikings, as McCarthy should be able to hit the ground running.

Though he hasn’t yet been named the starter, and an official announcement won’t come anytime soon, McCarthy is expected to take reps with the first team when the Vikings return to the field next month — not surprising considering the Vikings selected McCarthy with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

It will still be a slow build for McCarthy in the interim, however, as the next couple of weeks will be mostly limited to meetings and strength-and-conditioning at the forefront. That will give McCarthy a chance to get reacclimated with his teammates before the Vikings are allowed to get into a more competitive environment during organized team activities and mandatory minicamp.

“The spring is set up perfect for J.J. with where he’s at,” O’Connell said. “All of it is kind of going to be systematically planned out for him, and he’s ready to attack it.”There should be plenty of exposure for McCarthy over the next month. The only other quarterback on the roster right now is Brett Rypien, and while the Vikings are expected to add a veteran presence to the room at some point, they still haven’t got around to it.

“We’ve been patient and evaluated a lot of different ways that we can potentially do that,” O’Connell said while noting that the Vikings could either sign a free agent or make a trade. “We’ve got a pretty detailed plan for how we want to go about it.”

As he finishes up his rehab, McCarthy has been throwing a lot, trying his best to simulate some of the things he’s going to be asked to do in the offense. Technically, O’Connell is prohibited from giving any instruction right now, per league rules, so he has been getting updates about McCarthy’s progress from afar.

“Now, it’s a matter of applying it with his teammates,” O’Connell said. “We can start projecting how we can craft this offense to make sure that we’re doing the things that he does well naturally, while also challenging him to grow that pot of inventory that we can ultimately pull from.”

The fact the Vikings can start thinking that far down the road despite the fact McCarthy has missed so much time is a testament to the countless hours he has dedicated to making sure he’s ready for this moment.

“It has not been lost on me the way he has worked and progressed through his rehab,” O’Connell said. “He always leaves here better than he was when he got here that morning. That’s a pretty good trait to have for a quarterback, especially a young guy who’s going to keep getting better.”