Written by Tom Schreier
I think I did really good in preseason, just all the speculation coming from college, different things that I did. I did everything to the best of my abilities and had some good things on film, some things to learn from, and I felt like I built on it every week, got better as a player, and now I’m just waiting for the opportunity to contribute. — Jerick McKinnon, Sept. 14, 2014
As soon as Adrian Peterson was deactivated — and then reactivated, and then deactivated again — the Minnesota Vikings started hyping The Next Man Up. Everyone in the room seemed to feel that this guy was going to save the season.
“I’m a firm believer in Next Man Up,” said cornerback Captain Munnerlyn in mid-September. “Things happen all the time, people get hurt. People get sick. I always believed Next Man Up.”
“Absolutely,” responded Brian Robison when asked about Next Man Up. “I mean, we have enough good running backs on this team and guys that can step up and fill in.”
But who is this guy? Who is this Next Man Up?
He must be something special because everyone was singing his praises. He had to be a first round pick, somebody out of a big school who put up big numbers, a physical specimen that was going to use his physicality to barrel over defenders as Peterson has done in years past.
Turns out that The Next Man Up was none of those things.
The Next Man Up went to Georgia Southern, an FCS school. At 5-foot-9, 210 pounds, he’s definitely not the biggest running back in the NFL. He was drafted in the third round, 96th overall. He played quarterback in college, but even that comes with a qualifier because the team often ran the triple option. “I don’t know too much about — was he Georgia Southern?” asked center John Sullivan, a seventh-year player out of Notre Dame. “I think they beat Florida and didn’t throw the ball once, so quarterback is a generous title for his college position.” He smiled. Everyone laughed. And it’s true, McKinnon wasn’t exactly Teddy Bridgewater in college.
“Any time, regardless of what’s going on, you always have to prepare yourself going in as though you’re the starter,” says McKinnon. “Along with that preparation, you know, you’ll build confidence and a lot of other stuff will help you be ready so when your number is called, you don’t have to worry about nothing or have any last minute questions. That’s why I prepare myself every week going into the game and stuff like that.”
He also was not a blue chip prospect coming out of college, and even his own teammates questioned whether he would be able to have a breakout season in Peterson’s absence. “Breakout? I mean he’s a rookie so I don’t know about breakout season,” said fullback Jerome Felton, who is in his seventh NFL season and was instrumental in Peterson’s success during the 2012 season. “We’ll just see what he’s made of. He’ll get opportunities, and he’ll have to step up and make plays for us.”
The general consensus around the league after Peterson was deactivated was that he was going to split carries with Matt Asiata, a more powerful runner who was supposed to do what McKinnon couldn’t: run between the tackles. The two backs were supposed to constitute a dynamic “Thunder and Lightning” duo. “[The] plodding yet reliable Asiata ran ahead of the third-round rookie (McKinnon) for the entire preseason,” wrote Rotoworld on Sept. 12. “If you need a plug-n-play for this week, he’s your man. If you want to stash a true freak athlete who might eventually get a big chance, McKinnon is the add.”
Well, it turns out that McKinnon can be both Thunder and Lightning. He struck down the pedestrian Atlanta Falcons defense in Week 4, rushing for 135 yards on 18 carries. “Basically, our whole offense was clicking,” he says, noting that Bridgewater threw for 317 yards and Jarius Wright had 132 yards receiving. “Fortunately, my number got called on some plays where I could make something happen, and really it was just the whole offense working together, everybody blocking — the O-line, they just did a good job to push all day, opening up holes, and then Jerome made a lot of blocks in the secondary that gave me room to work with and then make some moves in space to make some things happen.”
Ever since then, McKinnon has gone from The Next Man Up, to just The Man. He is getting the bulk of the carries, and is only removed on third down when offensive coordinator Norv Turner uses Asiata for his ability to block or make small gains in short yardage situations. Otherwise McKinnon is the guy. “He obviously flashed from the beginning and has done a good job making big plays, I just think he’s learning how to play in this league, and he’s become more consistent,” says Turner. “I think he’s finding the correct lanes, he’s understanding defenses better, he improved a lot in protection from the first game he started to the second game and that’s a big part of playing running back in this league and in our system.
“He’s making the normal progress that you’d like to see a rookie running back make.”
Make no mistake, though, learning Turner’s offense is no easy task. While people joked that former offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s plays could fit onto a 3-by-5 note card, Turner’s playbook is probably longer than the Old Testament. “It’s very lengthy,” admits Marqueis Gray, the former Gopher quarterback who was with Turner in Cleveland before being claimed off waivers by Minnesota this season. “I have the advantage because I used to play quarterback too, and a couple of the offenses that I’ve been in, we had lengthy plays too,” he adds, “but they’ve been practicing it more.”
McKinnon echoes Gray’s sentiment, even if he wasn’t a traditional quarterback in college. “With playing quarterback in college, it has definitely made it a lot easier to pick up on things,” he says. “That’s one of the things that I think a lot of rookies have problems with, just picking it up and getting the gist of the offense and stuff like that, where coming in from college I translated it and kind of learning it a little bit faster.”
“Yeah, he surprised me,” admitted Felton recently. “He’s grown so much in the last two months, and he’s gonna continue to get better. Obviously there was an adjustment period playing quarterback in college, and then playing running back in the NFL, but he continues to work hard, he plays well, and he’s getting a lot better.”
Even with all of his success this season, McKinnon hasn’t allowed himself to become complacent. “The game was different in college, but I hold myself to high standards and high expectations,” he says. “I expect myself to be on top of my game, every day practice, game, whatever the situation might be. So I wouldn’t say expectation-wise things have changed for me. Responsibilities are getting a little bit bigger as the weeks go on, so you just gotta tune in more, focus, grind it out through the week and get ready when it comes game time.”
Losing Peterson was always going to be tough for the Vikings to overcome, but McKinnon has made the most of his opportunity. Safe to say, The Next Man Up lived up to the hype. Or, more accurately, he’s been even better than expected.
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Tom Schreier can be heard on The Michael Knight Show from 2-3:00 on weekdays. He has written for Bleacher Report and the Yahoo Contributor Network. Follow him on Twitter @tschreier3. |