All Things 2025 Minnesota Vikings In-Season Thread

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Which NFL teams have the best -- and worst -- rosters? Let's stack all 32 projected lineups

We ranked every NFL roster ahead of the season, then picked strengths, weaknesses, X factors and underrated players to know.
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11. Minnesota Vikings​

Biggest strength: Defensive front. Minnesota has a lot of strengths, especially on offense, but it's tough to find a DT/edge rusher combo with more upside across the league. Edge was already a strength following last season's additions of Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel, who were two of the nine players in the NFL with 11.5 or more sacks last season. The group will be even stronger this season if 2024 first-round pick Dallas Turner makes a leap. Minnesota also beefed up its interiorduring free agency, adding Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave to go with Harrison Phillips. Injuries were a problem last season, but Allen and Hargrave have been difference-makers when healthy. -- Clay

Biggest weakness: Cornerback. Quarterback would've been an easy pick, as J.J. McCarthy has yet to take a regular-season snap, but I'm more concerned about the corner situation. Byron Murphy Jr. was a good re-signing, but Stephon Gilmore and Shaquill Griffin both departed this offseason. That duo is set to be replaced by some combination of Mekhi Blackmon (missed all of last season with a torn ACL) and journeymen Isaiah Rodgers, Jeff Okudah, Tavierre Thomas and Ambry Thomas. -- Clay

X factor for 2025: McCarthy. He's walking into about as good a situation as one could imagine: Playing for a QB-friendly and great offensive scheme designer in Kevin O'Connell, throwing to possibly the best wide receiver in the game in Justin Jefferson (along with a good No. 2 in Jordan Addison and tight end in T.J. Hockenson) and playing behind a line with strong potential. That all helps substantially, but there are no guarantees. If McCarthy isn't at least decent, it won't work. -- Walder

Nonstarter to know: Wide receiver Rondale Moore. A 2021 second-round pick, Moore never put up more than 435 receiving yards in a season during three seasons with the Cardinals. He was traded to Atlanta last season, but he missed the entire year with a knee injury. Now, on an one-year, prove-it deal with the Vikings, Moore can compete with Jalen Nailor for snaps to WR3. Can Moore finally really produce as a receiver? And will O'Connell also use Moore's rushing skills? He had 28 carries for 178 yards and a touchdown in 2023. -- Schatz
 


Unregistered User said:
X factor for 2025: McCarthy. He's walking into about as good a situation as one could imagine: Playing for a QB-friendly and great offensive scheme designer in Kevin O'Connell, throwing to possibly the best wide receiver in the game in Justin Jefferson (along with a good No. 2 in Jordan Addison and tight end in T.J. Hockenson) and playing behind a line with strong potential. That all helps substantially, but there are no guarantees. If McCarthy isn't at least decent, it won't work. -- Walder
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If I'm betting money today, on the information at hand, I'm betting JJ McCarthy turns out to be a better pro than Caleb Williams. Small body of work for both, but I'm going with that.
 


Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
If I'm betting money today, on the information at hand, I'm betting JJ McCarthy turns out to be a better pro than Caleb Williams. Small body of work for both, but I'm going with that.
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better pro in what sense? The Eberflus Bears tried to break Williams. Now he gets Ben Johnson who made Goff look like an MVP at times (after he was almost bounced out the league). Think you're going to see a much much better season from Williams this year as its an offense that complements what he does well so much better than this dink and dunk 2 yard shit Eberflus tried to do.

Not like Williams exactly put up bad numbers either with 20TDs vs 6Ints despite an awful OL and a lower tier running game despite Williams rushing for about 1/4 of their yards.

Think JJ puts up good stats because KOC is a great coach. That said, I suspect we're going to run the ball way more this year than we have and his numbers will look way closer to Williams last year than they do to Darnold's last year, talent aside.

JJ says and does all the right things so I hope it translates onto the field as you have a franchise QB we've been missing for forever then. I worry we're all listening a little too much to Thor on SKOR North and forgetting he's a rookie who's played a relatively low total snap count at high level QB and most of those have been for teams that were substantially better than their opponents.
 
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Slim Tubby said:
Jefferson suffered a hamstring strain today. These types of injuries could linger all season. We already know that Addison is going to be suspended for at least three (3) games. Not an ideal development.
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It's mild and it's July. Let's not panic just yet.
 




Slim Tubby said:
No panic at all but it does take away 2-3 weeks of working with McCarthy in training camp.
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Supposedly JJ and JJ had worked extensively together all offseason. I think they’ll be ok chem wise because Jefferson can accomodate so damn much and gets so damn open it doesn’t matter (see Mullens and Dobbs looking semi competent throwing him the ball). They’ll run much more PA as well which will help a ton. The worry to me more is that it’s a hammy again and those flare off and on through a career once they start
 








This Bears fan really, really, really, really wants you to think JJ McCarthy is struggling and is going to be terrible this year.

 




Slim Tubby said:
Jefferson suffered a hamstring strain today. These types of injuries could linger all season. We already know that Addison is going to be suspended for at least three (3) games. Not an ideal development.
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Same leg/area as the one he strained last year?

Time and wear catch up to even the best. Last year's strain was the first major injury he's had like that?
 


GopherGrit said:
Same leg/area as the one he strained last year?

Time and wear catch up to even the best. Last year's strain was the first major injury he's had like that?
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JJ told reporters that he felt tightness in both of his legs. He said he knows his body very well and decided it was best to shut it down right away.

Hopefully it's nothing more than just being extremely cautious. With Addison getting suspended, if something did linger with JJ, that would leave Nailor as our WR1.

Hopefully the Felton kid we drafted shows out in camp. He was really solid in college. We also have Rondale Moore on the roster trying to come back from a couple of injury plagued seasons.
 

GopherGrit said:
Same leg/area as the one he strained last year?

Time and wear catch up to even the best. Last year's strain was the first major injury he's had like that?
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It was actually 2 years ago, 2023, and it was his other one. Though as Slim noted above, he is stating he felt tightness in both the other day.
 

It's pretty early, too early to be banging the alarm bells, but this summary on the backup QB situation is slightly concerning. Especially since I am a fully committed Sam Howell apologist/fan; I think he has time in the preseason to get things moving in the right direction. This from Alec Lewis in The Athletic:

>>"Sam Howell has taken the majority of the backup QB reps. This makes sense. How can O’Connell and the Vikings assess what they have if they don’t throw him into the fire? And, to be clear, it is the fire, as most of Howell’s reps have been against the first-string defense.

The best way to sum up Howell’s performance is a beat too slow. Without the post-practice film, it’s impossible to assess each rep accurately. Is Howell taking a hitch because he’s not seeing the picture correctly, or is he waiting a split second extra because the receiver was rerouted by a cornerback? Whatever the case, it feels fair to say that Howell hasn’t consistently pulled the trigger promptly.

More time against Flores’ defense should help. Howell now understands the challenge he faces. Also worth mentioning are Sam Darnold’s early struggles in training camp last year. These are but tiny data points.

As for the other quarterbacks, Max Brosmer’s accuracy is noticeable. Brett Rypien, who knows the offense better than the other quarterbacks, has been limited to a few reps.
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
It's pretty early, too early to be banging the alarm bells, but this summary on the backup QB situation is slightly concerning. Especially since I am a fully committed Sam Howell apologist/fan; I think he has time in the preseason to get things moving in the right direction. This from Alec Lewis in The Athletic:

>>"Sam Howell has taken the majority of the backup QB reps. This makes sense. How can O’Connell and the Vikings assess what they have if they don’t throw him into the fire? And, to be clear, it is the fire, as most of Howell’s reps have been against the first-string defense.

The best way to sum up Howell’s performance is a beat too slow. Without the post-practice film, it’s impossible to assess each rep accurately. Is Howell taking a hitch because he’s not seeing the picture correctly, or is he waiting a split second extra because the receiver was rerouted by a cornerback? Whatever the case, it feels fair to say that Howell hasn’t consistently pulled the trigger promptly.

More time against Flores’ defense should help. Howell now understands the challenge he faces. Also worth mentioning are Sam Darnold’s early struggles in training camp last year. These are but tiny data points.

As for the other quarterbacks, Max Brosmer’s accuracy is noticeable. Brett Rypien, who knows the offense better than the other quarterbacks, has been limited to a few reps.
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I'm with you on Howell. With WAS, he did hold the ball too long at times but he had solid passing stats along with rushing yards that come with his mobility.

I'm confident he'll shake the rust off and be a quality backup QB for us.
 

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