Kevin O’Connell on Kyler Murray: What jumped out is what he could be in this offense

The Vikings put an end to their quarterback competition on Tuesday.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed reports that Kyler Murray won the job over J.J. McCarthy at the start of his press conference and said that this was always the time that they had targeted to make a choice. O’Connell said that making the decision now allows the Vikings to “start honing in on exactly what we’re gonna be offensively” because they will tailor things to Murray’s skill set heading into Week 1.

O’Connell said that Murray has “shown enough to really project . . . that we can get the rhythm, the timing, the mastery of our system and this year’s system” to the place where the Vikings want it to be.

“There’s comfort from Kyler in the scheme,” O’Connell said, via KARE 11. “He had some really high completion days where he was able to show some really, really good understanding of just putting the ball in play, playing with great timing and rhythm. . . . As you continue to look at the body of work really through those 10 days, what jumped out is what could be.”

O’Connell called McCarthy an “incredibly important member of our quarterback room and our team,” but his comments on Murray make it pretty clear that he believes the older quarterback raises the ceiling on the team’s offensive possibilities to a higher level. That had been the expected conclusion for many people and the Vikings getting there means they can start the work to reach that plane.