All Things 2026 Minnesota Vikings Off-Season Thread

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Big decisions need to be made.

Does Kwesi survive?

QB situation?

Do we trade Addison?

Are we able to keep Flores?

Skol Vikes!!
 

- I'd have no problem getting rid of KAM, but wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he's back. He has now most likely hit, and maybe hit big, on Turner. He did in fact hit huge on the 2024 free agents, even though they were injured a lot this year, possibly being one of the main reasons we did not make it.

- See if they can bring in Cousins for a price that works for everyone.

- Think we keep Addison and lose Nailor.

- Flores will either be a head coach, or he needs to be the highest paid non-head coach playcaller in the league.
 

Kwesi survives unfortunately.

Also unfortunately I think Flores is gone. Sounds like the Raiders might hire him for HC and if he doesn't get a head job, I still feel like he will take a DC job elsewhere.

Trade Addison, keep Nailor. Perhaps trade one of Grenard or Van Ginkel.
 

When the camera was on Kwesi, he was on his phone the entire time, and never looked up. I realize it was the 4th quarter, but he reminded me of a teenage girl at the dinner table.

Flores is great and I hope he is back.

I think we need a veteran QB, JJM has been hurt 4 times in the last 2 seasons, all different injuries.

We need OL help, just like every year.
 

Crossing Trey Lance off the list of veteran QB options....
 


Get the Ravens back up or Shough. I expect the Vikings leadership to tell the fans that everything is going as planned.
 

BleedGopher said:
Does Kwesi survive?
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He shouldn't...but he will.
BleedGopher said:
QB situation?
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Shoot for the moon and try trading for Burrow? Roll the dice on Kyler Murray in the last year of his deal to see if we can rejuvenate his career? (Yuk)

Realistic options to back up The Human Bandaid:

Mac Jones
Joe Flacco
Kirk Cousins
Malik Willis
Tyler Huntley

BleedGopher said:
Do we trade Addison?
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Keeping Nailor would be cheaper. If you can get a 2nd Round Pick for Addison, do it and use it to draft Elijah Surratt from IU.
BleedGopher said:
Are we able to keep Flores?
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I sure hope so but he's going to get paid one way or another.
 
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How do we afford a QB who is good enough to be a starter, as well as convince him to come here where it is not certain that he will be a starter?
 



Vikings have won 43 games in four years under this regime. The people who are thinking KAM is on thin ice, or even should be, are delusional.

Things Vikings fans have wanted the FO to do over the last several years since they took over;

- Get out of the cap hell that Spielman left them in with aging contracts - Check
- Escape the Kirk Cousins guaranteed contract situation and move on from him - Check
- Draft a 1st round young QB to hand the keys to the franchise - Check
- Improve the OL, most notably move on from Garrett Bradbury at Center - Check

Yes, among those, the Kelly signing at Center turned sour, but he was basically the best available and his signing, with Fries, was lauded by basically every expert as A+ offseason moves.

They've missed on a few draft picks, like everyone does in this business. Too bad, keep crying and screaming or move on and move forward. Time to get over it. Handling the draft is probably about 30% of the GM's job

And I know what one of the cries will be, they have some contracts to address in a few months, and they do. But if you think they are moving on from multiple impact players that will decimate the roster, you're also delusional.
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Vikings have won 43 games in four years under this regime. The people who are thinking KAM is on thin ice, or even should be, are delusional.

Things Vikings fans have wanted the FO to do over the last several years since they took over;

- Get out of the cap hell that Spielman left them in with aging contracts - Check
- Escape the Kirk Cousins guaranteed contract situation and move on from him - Check
- Draft a 1st round young QB to hand the keys to the franchise - Check
- Improve the OL, most notably move on from Garrett Bradbury at Center - Check

Yes, among those, the Kelly signing at Center turned sour, but he was basically the best available and his signing, with Fries, was lauded by basically every expert as A+ offseason moves.

They've missed on a few draft picks, like everyone does in this business. Too bad, keep crying and screaming or move on and move forward. Time to get over it. Handling the draft is probably about 30% of the GM's job

And I know what one of the cries will be, they have some contracts to address in a few months, and they do. But if you think they are moving on from multiple impact players that will decimate the roster, you're also delusional.
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well stated and I agree 100%
 


Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Vikings have won 43 games in four years under this regime. The people who are thinking KAM is on thin ice, or even should be, are delusional.

Things Vikings fans have wanted the FO to do over the last several years since they took over;

- Get out of the cap hell that Spielman left them in with aging contracts - Check
- Escape the Kirk Cousins guaranteed contract situation and move on from him - Check
- Draft a 1st round young QB to hand the keys to the franchise - Check
- Improve the OL, most notably move on from Garrett Bradbury at Center - Check

Yes, among those, the Kelly signing at Center turned sour, but he was basically the best available and his signing, with Fries, was lauded by basically every expert as A+ offseason moves.

They've missed on a few draft picks, like everyone does in this business. Too bad, keep crying and screaming or move on and move forward. Time to get over it. Handling the draft is probably about 30% of the GM's job

And I know what one of the cries will be, they have some contracts to address in a few months, and they do. But if you think they are moving on from multiple impact players that will decimate the roster, you're also delusional.
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Who cares if they won 43 games. They have zero playoff wins. And who cares what the fans want the GM to do? If the GM is paying attention to what the fans want then he should be fired.

This is the longest playoff win drought since the Frazier/beginning of Zimmer era. They were out of cap hell for a year and they put themselves right back in it now being 30 million over heading into next season.

They have a lot of holes to fill heading into next year with no cap space, no young depth, questions at QB, Flores possibly leaving, and now the 18th pick in the draft.

Kwesi is going to have to be nearly perfect this offseason for the Vikings to improve on this year. And if he's not, they're going to fire him after next season anyways. He has not done enough to waste another year IMO.
 



Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Vikings have won 43 games in four years under this regime. The people who are thinking KAM is on thin ice, or even should be, are delusional.

Things Vikings fans have wanted the FO to do over the last several years since they took over;

- Get out of the cap hell that Spielman left them in with aging contracts - Check
- Escape the Kirk Cousins guaranteed contract situation and move on from him - Check
- Draft a 1st round young QB to hand the keys to the franchise - Check
- Improve the OL, most notably move on from Garrett Bradbury at Center - Check

Yes, among those, the Kelly signing at Center turned sour, but he was basically the best available and his signing, with Fries, was lauded by basically every expert as A+ offseason moves.

They've missed on a few draft picks, like everyone does in this business. Too bad, keep crying and screaming or move on and move forward. Time to get over it. Handling the draft is probably about 30% of the GM's job

And I know what one of the cries will be, they have some contracts to address in a few months, and they do. But if you think they are moving on from multiple impact players that will decimate the roster, you're also delusional.
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This is about as rose colored as one could be. He’s done some good things and some bad. Citing pundits (who were mixed) as a sign of good moves is silly. The results are all that matters and that’s what he’s paid to figure out, not that a guy from pff or meat sauce is excited or disappointed.

It’s a make or break Year for him. He’ll be back but if they miss the playoffs again (barring injury) and he’s going to be gone. Just the joy of the business as they’ll want to scapegoat someone
 

So I guess we don't give KAM credit for putting together the coaching staff, hiring KOC and Brian Flores?

A quick internet search has the Vikings coaching staff/HC ranked anywhere from #1 to #7 in the NFL, but I guess our GM had nothing to do with that.

We're also not giving the GM credit for bringing in players like Greenard, Cashman, Van Ginkel, Byron Murphy Jr, or finding players like Jalen Redmond, or drafting players like Addison, D. Jackson, JJM, et al?

The GM has nothing to do with whether or not the team can attract Free Agents and get them to sign? I guess they just come to Minnesota for the weather?

Dumb. Like galactically dumb.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that SOME (ya think?) of the troubles with this year's team had to do with the following number of Starts by the following players on Offense:

JJM - 10 starts

O'Neill - 10 Starts
Fries - 12 starts
R. Kelly - 8 starts
D. Jackson - 10 Starts
Darrisaw - 10 starts

A quick look at the playoff teams, there isn't a Starting QB in the playoffs who started fewer than 13 (or 14?) games this season outside of Brock Purdy, who had Mac Jones backing him up.

KAM has made mistakes, but for some reason most people in the league view him as a top 10-12 GM.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Kwesi is going to have to be nearly perfect this offseason for the Vikings to improve on this year. And if he's not, they're going to fire him after next season anyways. He has not done enough to waste another year IMO.
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Of course this is possible. No doubt about it.

I was merely saying that taking any action THIS offseason is not only not going to happen, it would be stupid.
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
So I guess we don't give KAM credit for putting together the coaching staff, hiring KOC and Brian Flores?

A quick internet search has the Vikings coaching staff/HC ranked anywhere from #1 to #7 in the NFL, but I guess our GM had nothing to do with that.
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KOC was hired by more than just Kwesi. The Wilfs, Andrew Miller and others had a say. No one has ever said for sure, but I sense it was Miller or the Wilfs who torpedoed hiring Jim Harbaugh.

As for the rest of the staff, I assume KOC gets final say on them.
 

howeda7 said:
KOC was hired by more than just Kwesi. The Wilfs, Andrew Miller and others had a say. No one has ever said for sure, but I sense it was Miller or the Wilfs who torpedoed hiring Jim Harbaugh.

As for the rest of the staff, I assume KOC gets final say on them.
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Okay, but apparently he's the only one in the Vikings war room during the draft making any of these decisions on picks?

download.jpg

You can't have it both ways; for the decisions that turned out well, there was a lot of input to help him, but for the draft picks in the room, no input at all. You see the problem with this line of thinking, right?
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Okay, but apparently he's the only one in the Vikings war room during the draft making any of these decisions on picks?

View attachment 41319

You can't have it both ways; for the decisions that turned out well, there was a lot of input to help him, but for the draft picks in the room, no input at all. You see the problem with this line of thinking, right?
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Never said that. Certainly KOC is responsible for McCarthy being picked and has say in who is drafted/signed. But the overall draft and roster construction falls on Kwesi.
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Of course this is possible. No doubt about it.

I was merely saying that taking any action THIS offseason is not only not going to happen, it would be stupid.
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It wouldn't be stupid. They are right back where they were when Kwesi took over.

4 years of Kwesi and they have 0 playoff wins. This roster is a mess and is going nowhere right now.
 

howeda7 said:
Never said that. Certainly KOC is responsible for McCarthy being picked and has say in who is drafted/signed. But the overall draft and roster construction falls on Kwesi.
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You're right, roster construction is the job of the GM. And right now, the roster is pretty decent. Not without holes to fill, but certainly not in dire straits.
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
You're right, roster construction is the job of the GM. And right now, the roster is pretty decent. Not without holes to fill, but certainly not in dire straits.
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unfortunate part of "decent" in the north places us as the 4th best team imo (obviously one can debate vs the Bears and Lions, but one of those teams is the 2 seed and with an emerging QB and offense that knows who they are and the other had worse injury woes than we did this year and has a proven QB).

Given none of us have all the contract option details/cut options its hard to read a ton of detail into it, but think its going to be a lot of heads getting chopped or attempted to be moved coupled with some major guys to restructure and they're not swimming in free cap like they were. KAM has his work cut out for him. To me, biggest priorities are obviously QB, followed by figuring out the OL (what is up with Darrisaw, can a doctor convince Kelly he should retire) and the front 7 (assume we're moving on from 1 DT, maybe we move one of Gink or Greenard from a cap standpoint and we only have Cash under contract as a true LBer with Wilson due a pretty good pay bump if we're going to retain him).

Exciting offseason but likely a make or break for both KAM and KOC in terms of talent eval
 

I'm not sure they would go this route, and this is kind of an off-the-wall idea, but I wouldn't hate it if the Vikings were able to trade O'Neill for something and use their 1st round pick on an OT if one were to fall to them at #18.
upnorthkid said:
To me, biggest priorities are obviously QB, followed by figuring out the OL (what is up with Darrisaw, can a doctor convince Kelly he should retire) and the front 7 (assume we're moving on from 1 DT, maybe we move one of Gink or Greenard from a cap standpoint and we only have Cash under contract as a true LBer with Wilson due a pretty good pay bump if we're going to retain him).
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Everything I've heard is it's a given that Hargrave is gone. They are clearly happy with the production of young players like Jalen Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez, and even Elijah Williams (and I would expect Ingram-Dawkins to take a step forward as well)
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
I'm not sure they would go this route, and this is kind of an off-the-wall idea, but I wouldn't hate it if the Vikings were able to trade O'Neill for something and use their 1st round pick on an OT if one were to fall to them at #18.


Everything I've heard is it's a given that Hargrave is gone. They are clearly happy with the production of young players like Jalen Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez, and even Elijah Williams (and I would expect Ingram-Dawkins to take a step forward as well)
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I think the issue is then you're looking for a bunch of OL starters again this year. It's hard to hit on all those guys while not paying through the nose for them. I don't mind the idea given his age but you'd have to be getting a 1st rounder for him to do so
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
I'm not sure they would go this route, and this is kind of an off-the-wall idea, but I wouldn't hate it if the Vikings were able to trade O'Neill for something and use their 1st round pick on an OT if one were to fall to them at #18.


Everything I've heard is it's a given that Hargrave is gone. They are clearly happy with the production of young players like Jalen Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez, and even Elijah Williams (and I would expect Ingram-Dawkins to take a step forward as well)
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Getting rid of O'Neill is the easiest way for the Vikings to chip away at their cap issues this offseason. They can cut or trade him with very little dead cap relative to his salary, would save 20 million. At that point they would 'only' have 8 more million to shed. Cutting Hargrave will save 11 million.

The problem is finding someone just as good or better to replace O'Neill for little cost.
 

upnorthkid said:
I think the issue is then you're looking for a bunch of OL starters again this year. It's hard to hit on all those guys while not paying through the nose for them. I don't mind the idea given his age but you'd have to be getting a 1st rounder for him to do so
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
Getting rid of O'Neill is the easiest way for the Vikings to chip away at their cap issues this offseason. They can cut or trade him with very little dead cap relative to his salary, would save 20 million. At that point they would 'only' have 8 more million to shed. Cutting Hargrave will save 11 million.

The problem is finding someone just as good or better to replace O'Neill for little cost.
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Don't laugh, it's just a thought (throwing shit at the wall) but I wonder what they think of Jurgens and/or Rouse?

Both played like 8-10 games this season, and Jurgens played at Center down the stretch for pretty much all of the 5-game winning streak if I'm not mistaken. Jurgens holding down the Center spot is probably infinitely more possible/likely than Rouse being a starting caliber OT right now.

I don't think they hated Brandel at Center either, but kept having to pull him off there and plug him in at other spots as others got injured. From everything I've heard, they actually really liked Brandel's ability to play Center
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Don't laugh, it's just a thought (throwing shit at the wall) but I wonder what they think of Jurgens and/or Rouse?

Both played like 8-10 games this season, and Jurgens played at Center down the stretch for pretty much all of the 5-game winning streak if I'm not mistaken. Jurgens holding down the Center spot is probably infinitely more possible/likely than Rouse being a starting caliber OT right now.

I don't think they hated Brandel at Center either, but kept having to pull him off there and plug him in at other spots as others got injured. From everything I've heard, they actually really liked Brandel's ability to play Center
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I don't have a problem with Brandel. Fries will be the RG again. Rouse has no business being a starter.
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Don't laugh, it's just a thought (throwing shit at the wall) but I wonder what they think of Jurgens and/or Rouse?

Both played like 8-10 games this season, and Jurgens played at Center down the stretch for pretty much all of the 5-game winning streak if I'm not mistaken. Jurgens holding down the Center spot is probably infinitely more possible/likely than Rouse being a starting caliber OT right now.

I don't think they hated Brandel at Center either, but kept having to pull him off there and plug him in at other spots as others got injured. From everything I've heard, they actually really liked Brandel's ability to play Center
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Re Jurgens: depth piece but i don't think he's a starter on a team with postseason aspirations

Re Rouse: no idea. but given with all the injuries that he only got 88 snaps is not encouraging

Re Brandel: if they thought he was the center option, they would not have signed Kelly. I think they love him as a swing guard/depth guy, which is perfect. you need those guys

Think both Brandel and Jurgens could be pressed into playing, but I don't think they're the guys you want to have penciled as starters for next year
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I don't have a problem with Brandel. Fries will be the RG again. Rouse has no business being a starter.
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I would probably agree on all counts. Fries should be a lot better next year, another year removed from his bad tibia break and surgery. I had read a few things that indicated it wasn't 100% for all of this year. Fries is only 27 yrs old I think
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
I would probably agree on all counts. Fries should be a lot better next year, another year removed from his bad tibia break and surgery. I had read a few things that indicated it wasn't 100% for all of this year. Fries is only 27 yrs old I think
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Fries also signed a 5 year deal. They can get out of that contract after next season with zero dead cap. Barring injury, Fries will be the starter at RG next season. That just leaves center and potentially RT as ?s on the OL.
 

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