EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings welcomed their time off from a much-needed bye week, following an unprecedented 10-day, two-game trip to Ireland and England amid an early season surge of injuries.
Not all of the players took a break. J.J. McCarthy had work to do.
After his progression as an NFL quarterback hit another snag with a sprained ankle that sidelined him for the last three games, McCarthy has been entrenched this week at the team's practice facility upon return from Europe in preparation for the resumption of the schedule.
Though Carson Wentz capably steered them to two victories with a veteran savvy and poise, the Vikings have a 22-year-old to develop in a win-now league. There's no reason to wait longer to bring McCarthy back if he's fully healthy. Doing so would be an admission of uncertainty around his ability to do the job.
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell has deftly avoided definitive answers when asked recently about the short-term plan. In describing the extensive drills McCarthy would be going through during the bye, however, O'Connell sure made it sound as though his protege will be on the field on Oct. 19 when Minnesota hosts defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia.
“We'll pick it up officially next week,” O'Connell said Monday, “but I'm encouraged about where he's at right now.”
After spending his entire rookie season rehabilitating from knee surgery and learning behind the scenes, McCarthy made a splash in his debut with a three-touchdown fourth quarter to rally past Chicago. The sequel was a flop, a lopsided defeat in the home opener to Atlanta fueled by sacks and turnovers. McCarthy was hurt in that game and yielded the following week to Wentz.
“He’s had some real moments of growth through this time, watching Carson,” O'Connell said. “Just seeing the value of putting the ball in play, even when it’s not your first progression, even when it’s not the most exciting completion of all time.”
That's normal instruction for young quarterbacks, the type of lessons he likely would've more fully digested had he been able to play last year. What's atypical about this situation for the Vikings is that they're trying to develop McCarthy on the fly with a roster built and financed for a deep run through the playoffs after a 14-win season with Sam Darnold at the helm.
Injuries have already cost the Vikings a cumulative absence of 22 games from the core of their offense, factoring in the optimal starting lineup and key role players and excluding significant stretches of game time missed by the players who were injured and unable to return. This has created yet another hurdle on the path to sustainable success for McCarthy, who has had plenty going on away from football, too: He welcomed a baby boy into his home last month after his fiancée gave birth to the couple's first child.
The Vikings have frequently given ringing endorsements of McCarthy's mental acuity, and his coachability and confidence are such that he was voted as one of eight team captains for this season before he'd even taken a meaningful NFL snap.
The current priority for O'Connell is to hone in on the finer points of playing the position, particularly the art of tying the feet to the eyes in the process of dropping back so that the placement and velocity of McCarthy's passes are regularly in sync with the routes and the protections. O'Connell mentioned this often throughout last year as he helped revive Darnold's career.
“I think the most critical part is going to be the technique and fundamentals of him playing the position the way he worked so hard to build up throughout the spring and the summer,” O'Connell said. “It’s going to be more about the physical side of his lower-body mechanics and then just trying to put together a game plan for him throughout the process of how much can he do and what's the soreness level coming out of practices to be able to try to have the most consistent level of a ramp-up as we can with him.”
As for Wentz, who admirably joined the team right before the regular season and found himself starting just three weeks later, he wasn't worried about whether he'd get to play again when asked about his status following the comeback win over Cleveland.
“I’ve done plenty of looking ahead in my life. I’m done doing that," Wentz said after throwing the go-ahead touchdown pass to Jordan Addison with 25 seconds left in London on Sunday. "I’m very much trying to live in the moment and appreciate the moment right now.”
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Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell walks from the field at the end of the NFL game between Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz (11) passes the ball during the first half of the NFL game between Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
AKROTIRI, Cyprus (AP) — Britain is not at war, the government said Monday, despite saying it would allow the U.S. to use British bases during its war with Iran and after a Royal Air Force base in Cyprus was struck by an Iranian-made drone.
Sirens sounded again at RAF Akrotiri on Monday and British Typhoon and F-35 warplanes were scrambled. Cyprus government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis posted on X that two drones heading toward the British base had been intercepted.
More than two decades after Britain followed the United States into a devastating war in Iraq, it is trying to avoid being drawn into a new Middle East conflict with unpredictable consequences.
U.K. officials say an attack drone hit the runway at RAF Akrotiri, a British air force base in Cyprus, late Sunday. There were no injuries and “minimal” damage, but the strike brought the conflict onto European soil.
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides identified it as a “Shahed-type” Iranian drone. It was not immediately clear whether it was launched from Iran or by a Tehran-backed militant group such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Akrotiri is the U.K.’s main air base for operations in the Middle East and in recent years has been used by British warplanes on missions against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq and to strike Houthi targets in Yemen.
As tensions between the U.S. and Iran mounted, Britain last month deployed extra F-35 fighter jets to Akrotiri, along with radar, counter-drone systems and air defenses.
Britain retained the base, and another on Cyprus, after the eastern Mediterranean island gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960.
It was last attacked in 1986, when pro-Libya militants struck the base with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, injuring three dependents of British personnel. The latest attack is believed to be the first attack on Cyprus from outside the country since Turkey’s invasion of the island in 1974.
Britain’s defense ministry said families of U.K. personnel who live on the base were being moved to nearby accommodation as a precaution.
Some residents of the nearby village of Akrotiri also opted to leave their homes and spend the night with relatives elsewhere.
Villager Mikaella Malta said she heard “strange noises” just before the drone explosion.
“We tried to figure out what was going on. We then picked up whatever we could from home. We were in a panic and we left,” she told the AP.
British officials have refused to say whether the U.K. supports the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. They have said that Iran should not be able to have a nuclear weapon and called for an end to Iranian strikes and a diplomatic solution.
Britain did not take part in the strikes on Iran that began Saturday, and did not allow the U.S. to use U.K. bases in England or on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
But on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he had agreed to let the U.S. use the bases for attacks on Iran’s missiles and their launch sites. He said the change came in response to Iranian attacks on U.K. interests and Britain’s allies in the Gulf, and is legal under international law.
Britain says its bases can’t be used for attacks on political and economic targets in Iran, and Starmer said the U.K. is “not joining the U.S. and Israeli offensive strikes.”
U.S. President Donald Trump told the Daily Telegraph on Monday he was “very disappointed in Keir," saying the prime minister "took far too long” to change his mind about the use of British bases.
Starmer said Britain would not be joining the U.S.-Israeli strikes, and Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer stressed that “the U.K. is not at war.”
The memory of Iraq remains raw for many in Britain. The decision by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to join the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 remains one of the most contentious in modern British history.
The subsequent yearslong conflict killed 179 British troops, some 4,500 American personnel and many thousands of Iraqis.
“We all remember the mistakes of Iraq and we have learned those lessons," Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons on Monday. “Any U.K. actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan.”
Critics say attempts to set firm limits on Britain’s involvement in Iran could be swept away by a fast-moving conflict.
“We are being drawn in, just as we were in Iraq, following the U.S. into an incredibly dangerous situation,” said John McDonnell, a lawmaker from the governing Labour Party.
Patrick Bury, senior associate professor in security at the University of Bath, said Britain is in an “incredibly difficult” position.
“We’ve had very little explanation for this war, really, from the U.S.,” he said. “The U.K. policy is always heavily on upholding international law. So they’re kind of looking at this going, ‘How does this fit with our own foreign policy?’ And I think that explains why they’ve held off as much as they could.
"And nevertheless, they get a direct request. What are you going to do, say no?”
Lawless reported from London.
A Fighter Jet prepares for landing at the U.K.'s RAF Akrotiri air base after it was hit by a drone strike early morning near Limassol, Cyprus, Monday, March, 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer issues a statement at 10 Downing Street, London, on the latest developments in the Middle East, Saturday Feb. 28, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/Pool via AP)
A dog sits at the main gate of the U.K.’s RAF Akrotiri air base after it was hit by a drone strike early morning near Limassol, Cyprus, Monday, March, 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
