J.J. McCarthy time has arrived with Vikings facing his favorite childhood team, the Bears

Nearly 18 years ago, as J.J. McCarthy strolled out of Soldier Field after attending his first Chicago Bears game, his father stopped to buy them a program for a keepsake to mark their time together that far outweighed the home team's loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

The next visit to the old stadium for the McCarthy family will warrant more than a few more souvenirs.

With dozens of relatives and friends in the seats, putting aside their allegiance to the Bears, McCarthy will play in his first NFL game on Monday night for the visitors who just so happened to be the opponent he saw on that first live look at professional football as a 4-year-old kid.

"I know I'm gonna be amped up, but at the end of the day, I know that Coach O'Connell is gonna put me in a great position and my teammates around me are gonna do everything they can to make sure we're successful each and every play," McCarthy explained. "But yeah, it's just stay present, stay calm and centered."

He's not just suiting up, either. The 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft, whose debut was delayed by surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, will start at quarterback for a team with a Super Bowl aspiration stacked with Pro Bowl players at nearly every other position after winning 14 games in his absence last season.

“I just try to be completely present,” said McCarthy, who grew up in La Grange Park, a suburb less than 20 miles west of Soldier Field. “There’s going to be anxiousness, excitement and a whole lot of adrenaline, but at the end of the day that’s completely normal. It’s accepting those emotions, able to let go of them a lot quicker rather than try to deflect them and avoid them.”

While Sam Darnold thrived under coach Kevin O'Connell and his system, playing his way into a rich new contract this year with the Seattle Seahawks, McCarthy could only watch and learn.

It was hardly a lost season, though. The Vikings were particularly intentional about immersing McCarthy into every aspect of playing quarterback for this team, whether it was sending him to defensive meetings for exposure to game plans on that side of the ball, sitting him down with the virtual reality video of Darnold's reps in practice or one-on-one time with the head coach and resident expert on the position. Quarterbacks coach Josh McCown served as another invaluable resource.

Whenever he wasn't in the training room rehabilitating his knee, McCarthy asked questions of anyone he could get an audience with, endearing himself to the players and staff and building the foundation for the leadership role he's now fully immersed in.

O'Connell knows it goes a lot deeper than the guy taking the snaps.

"I'm really proud of our team and the work we put into practice for a divisional opener on the road," says O'Connell. "We're playing a really good football team and we know the energy is going to be there in the building. And we've got to respond to it the right way and compete for four quarters."

New center Ryan Kelly, who came from the Indianapolis Colts, compared McCarthy's composure and maturity to what he saw with veteran quarterbacks such as Andrew Luck, Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan. McCarthy was voted one of eight team captains this year, before taking his first snap.

“The whole organization holds him to a high standard, but it’s not nearly the standard he holds himself to," Kelly said. "You rally around that because you know that he’s doing everything he can to be successful."

The Vikings realize they'll have to be patient this year, a unique scenario for a team in win-now mode in a daunting division that sent three teams to the playoffs last season with the last-place Bears bringing plenty of potential to join them behind new coach Ben Johnson.

But the Vikings, from the front office to the coaching staff and everyone in between, have done just about everything they could to help make McCarthy's debut as smooth as possible. They're not simply winging it with a quarterback who's essentially still a rookie.

“The most prepared I've ever felt in my life,” said McCarthy, who was 27-1 as a starter in college at Michigan.

For the Bears, though there's familiarity with a division rival and O'Connell's offense to draw from, only a few film clips of McCarthy throwing passes in purple even exist from his brief appearances in exhibition games — one last year and one this year.

“We have to create that rookie mistake,” safety Kevin Byard said. “We try to mix and disguise coverages as much as possible. We don’t want to give him an easy test. You don’t want to just line up in coverages so the offensive coordinator and head coach can just tell him what to do: ‘Hey, this is what they’re playing.’ We want to try to confuse him as much as possible.”

After all McCarthy has endured to reach this point, any such confusion that might lead to an unsuccessful play on Monday night is unlikely to rattle him. While playing his final season of high school at IMG Academy in Florida, he struggled with depression prompted by the absence of family and friends, the pressure to perform in comparison with other elite athletes, and the isolation of social-distancing conditions during the pandemic.

He leaned into his mental health during that year, particularly his practice of meditation that became visible to the public throughout his career at Michigan when he'd sit cross-legged with his back against the goalpost, hands clasped in his lap and eyes closed about two hours before each game.

When he was asked this week to reflect on the magnitude of making his NFL debut against the team he grew up rooting for in the stadium where he first watched a game, McCarthy didn't hesitate to keep his focus away from the big picture. He sure sounded as if he's mastered the art of staying present to the moment.

“I feel like home is in Minnesota," he said, “so at the end of the day it’s just a business trip. I’m going to go down there and execute some football plays and see what happens.”

Vikings reunite Jefferson-Thielen

Monday Night Football also marks the return of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota's Adam Thielen. After a stint in Carolina, Thielen is back with the Vikings who traded for the veteran after wide receiver Jordan Addison was suspended for the first three games of the season due to a drunk driving arrest.

Thielen knows the Vikings and their offense but still knows there's more to learn as he reintroduces himself to the team.

"Just trying to get those reps in the huddle is huge," says Thielen. "You can look at a piece of paper and you can say, 'oh yeah, I know what I'm doing.' You got time to process. When you're in the huddle, like you don't got a whole lot of time to process. So just trying to get those reps in the huddle, whether that be a walkthrough or practice reps is huge. Just to get used to hearing the play call, getting lined up, and then boom, ball snapped, and be able to process quickly."

Justin Jefferson will also be seeing his first on-field action of the season Monday night. He's been mostly watching from the sidelines during the preseason after feeling some tightness in his hamstring. Jefferson says he's 100% now.

"Yeah, it feels great, I definitely credit to the training staff and the guys in the training room for really prepping me up until this point," says the Vikings All-Pro receiver. "Just missing our training camp and just standing in that training room is it definitely, gets dark days in there, working hard and  ust not being with the team."

Jefferson says he's learned it's more about the big picture and getting ready for a long, 17-game season.

"You gotta think about the end result, and having a healthy body, having a strong body to maintain a full season," says Jefferson. "And then of course, you know, getting back out there with my teammates and practicing with them and creating that bond."

The bond with Thielen is already there. The two players lined up on the field together in Jefferson's first three seasons and are reunited with a little different mentality. Now Jefferson is more the "teacher" in the relationship as Thielen returns to the Purple.

"Yeah, just like we never left. It's been awesome, it's been cool to see his maturity," said Thielen. "I was with him as a young player and he was a very mature guy at that point in his career. But just to see him helping out other guys and caring about them in the individual drills, 'hey, you could do this a little better, do that.' It's really cool to see and in fact, we kind of laughed about it. But he's been helping me out with the plays which is just funny, because it was obviously opposite early in his career."

Minnesota (14-4) at Chicago (5-12)

Monday, 7 p.m., ESPN/ABC.

BetMGM NFL Odds: Vikings by 1½.

Series record: Vikings lead 68-58-2.

Last meeting: Vikings beat Bears 30-12 on Dec. 16, 2024, in Minneapolis.

Vikings offense: overall (12), rush (19t), pass (6), scoring (9).

Vikings defense: overall (16), rush (2), pass (28), scoring (5).

Bears offense: overall (32), rush (25), pass (31), scoring (28t).

Bears defense: overall (27), rush (28), pass (16), scoring (13).

Turnover differential: Vikings plus-12; Bears plus-8.

QB J.J. McCarthy. The 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft makes his delayed debut, after a knee injury in the first preseason game last year forced him to have season-ending surgery while the Vikings turned to Sam Darnold. After helping Darnold revive his career and winning the NFL Coach of the Year award last season, Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell has been busy guiding the eager McCarthy, whose demeanor and determination have already impressed the team enough to have been voted as one of eight captains despite never playing a snap in a regular-season game. With dozens of relatives and friends in attendance in his home state, McCarthy must play without his No. 2 wide receiver, Jordan Addison, who's serving a three-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy.

QB Caleb Williams. The Bears hired an offensive-minded head coach in Ben Johnson and revamped their offensive line, most notably acquiring two-time All-Pro guard Joe Thuney from Kansas City. It's time for Williams to show he can be the franchise quarterback the Bears have long lacked, after a choppy rookie season for the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2024 who won the Heisman Trophy at USC. Though Williams threw for a team rookie-record 3,541 yards with just six interceptions, he was sacked a franchise-worst and league-high 68 times as his offensive coordinator (Shane Waldron) and then head coach (Matt Eberflus) were fired along the way.

Minnesota WR Justin Jefferson against Chicago's secondary. A matchup between the two-time All-Pro Jefferson and two-time Pro Bowl CB Jaylon Johnson is made for prime time. But with Johnson working his way back from a groin injury, it's not clear if that will happen. He missed all preseason practices after he was hurt working out prior to training camp. Jefferson has 50 receptions for 685 yards and three touchdowns in eight games against the Bears, though he was limited last season with 27 yards in Minnesota's overtime win at Soldier Field in Week 12 and 73 yards and a touchdown in the Vikings' win at home in Week 15.

Vikings: FB C.J. Ham (knee) is on injured reserve with a designation to return after a minimum of four games, marking the first time O'Connell will coach without the two-time Pro Bowl pick and 10-year veteran. ... FS Harrison Smith has begun to ramp up in his recovery from a personal health matter, but he did not practice on Wednesday and his status for this week is in question. ... Other players who missed significant chunks of training camp, WR Jalen Nailor (hand) and OLB Andrew Van Ginkel, have resumed practicing this week.

Bears: CB Terell Smith (knee) suffered a season-ending injury in the preseason. ... RBs Deion Hankins (quad) and Travis Homer (calf) are on injured reserve, as is DE Austin Booker (knee).

Minnesota has won seven of the past eight meetings, including both games last season. The Vikings blew an 11-point lead in the final 22 seconds of regulation in Week 12 at Soldier Field, only to win 30-27 in overtime on Parker Romo’s game-ending 29-yard field goal. The Vikings easily beat the Bears in Week 15, their only Monday night game last season. Minnesota has won five straight games in Chicago, last losing at Soldier Field in 2019.

The Bears are getting tested right from the start by the top two teams in the NFC North from last season, with a home game against Minnesota followed by a trip to Detroit. The Vikings and defending NFC North champion Lions were a combined 29-5 in the regular season. ... The Vikings had the second-most regular-season wins in 2024 in their 64-year history. ... McCarthy went 27-1 as a starter at Michigan, culminating with a win in the national championship game. ... Jefferson needs six receptions to become the youngest player in league history at 26 years and 84 days to reach 500 catches. ... Jefferson, Addison and Nailor gave the Vikings three players with at least six TD receptions last season, only the second time in team history they hit those benchmarks. Randy Moss, Nate Burleson and Marcus Robinson did it in 2004. ... Vikings OLB Jonathan Greenard tied for fifth in the NFL with a career-high sacks (12) last season in his debut with the team. ... Chicago has six straight non-winning seasons and just three playoff appearances since the 2006 team advanced to the Super Bowl. ... Johnson, a rookie head coach, spent the past three seasons as Detroit's offensive coordinator and joined the Lions staff in 2019. ... WR D.J. Moore led the Bears with a career-high 98 receptions for 966 yards. ... RB D’Andre Swift had 959 yards rushing and 386 yards receiving in his first season with the Bears, though he went from making the Pro Bowl with Philadelphia in 2023 to averaging a career-worst 3.8 yards per carry a year ago. ... K Cairo Santos broke his own team record with eight field goals of 50 yards or more, including a winning 51-yarder in the season finale at Green Bay. ... P Tory Taylor set franchise records for gross punting average (47.7 yards) and net average (41.6) as a rookie last season.

Given the playmakers the Vikings have on the edge and in their secondary, their defense is worth a start, particularly with the Bears adapting to a new system under Johnson.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.