It might be time for the Vikings to panic over J.J. McCarthy's contract situation

Eventually, the i's will get dotted and the t's will get crossed. But in the meantime, both J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner remain unsigned with the Minnesota Vikings. They were among five first-round rookies who were unsigned heading into the weekend. The other three were the Chicago Bears' two first-round picks in Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze and Cincinnati Bengals tackle Amarius Mims.

The hold-up in all this seems to be multi-pronged. The first is it is always challenging to get a first-round quarterback signed, given the language and complexities of their contracts. The second is that the Vikings have multiple first-round picks to sort through. And the third may have something to do with how the player's signing bonus is handed out. It can be all at once or paid out in installments.

All the while, training camp is rapidly approaching and neither McCarthy or Turner can participate in it until they put pen to paper. With this being a transitional year for the franchise, it serves general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to get these deals signed so that these two first-round picks can be on the field by the time training camp starts. Head coach Kevin O'Connell would totally appreciate it.

While this is not a five-alarm fire, why does everything with McCarthy seem to take forever to do?

J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner remaining unsigned is less than ideal

Although I expect for McCarthy and Turner to be vibrant contributors to this team right away, getting them signed well before training camp is about controlling the narrative. For example, if they were signed already, I wouldn't be writing this article and having to talk about it. No, I am not going to bury the Vikings for taking their sweet time in this, but somebody else might. It is all about the narrative.

When it comes to Turner, it is simple, really. We still ask ourselves how did he fall to the Vikings at No. 17 when he could have been a top-10 pick. The answer will be revealed to us in due time, but the complexities surrounding McCarthy shall remain at least for a few years. Despite being a winner at Michigan, he was more of a project than a prospect coming out. I think we all overlooked that part.

Although Michael Penix Jr. will ride pine for a few years on my Atlanta Falcons, he would be starting if he were drafted into most other situations. Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye and Bo Nix are all going to start early and often as rookies. But to bring it back to McCarthy, it seems as though he needs all the coaching he can get. Not having his contract signed prevents that from even happening.

This isn't the end of the world, but once again, him being unsigned does not help the narrative at all.