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By Matthew Coller

The two biggest questions facing the Minnesota Vikings are: Who’s going to start at quarterback in 2026 and who’s going to start at quarterback in 2027?

There are so many things to talk about within both of those questions but the most fascinating is how the decisions will be made. Where is the bar for each player to win the job out of training camp? Where is the bar for each player to become the long-term quarterback?

On Thursday, Kevin O’Connell called it a “feel thing” and said that they would be using data to track each quarterback’s success in training camp but it will be based more on how the QBs handle commanding the offense, especially when they get to the point of camp where O’Connell is sending in plays that the QBs did not prepare for and having their mastery of the offense show through.

Logically speaking, that makes plenty of sense. But the competition isn’t done in a bubble. These players are not beginning their careers today.

If both were inexperienced and hadn’t proven themselves at any point in the NFL before, then the competition could start at 50-50. But Kyler Murray is entering his seventh season in the league.

From a previous performance perspective, let’s take a closer look at both QBs:

Since Jonathan Gannon took over in Arizona, Murray played 30 games between 2023 and 2025. Between 2023 and 2025, 42 quarterbacks threw more than 500 passes in the NFL.

Among those QBs, Murray ranks 13th in Success Rate, 22nd in QB rating, 16th in sack percentage, No. 2 in yards per scramble (8.9).

By PFF grade, Murray ranked 24th of 45 in 2023, 12th in 2024 and 22nd in 2025.

In his full 2024 season, Murray ranked 5th in Pro-Football Reference’s “on-target percentage” and he was 11th in Expected Points Added per dropback.

So what can we say about Murray overall as a quarterback based on recent performance?

It’s reasonable to conclude that his floor is playing like an average quarterback and his ceiling thus far has been a top 10-15 QB.

At the NFL Combine, Kevin O’Connell said that when the Vikings have received a “baseline level” of quarterback play, they have won a lot of games. This rings statistically pretty darn true. Out of the 42 regular season games that the Vikings have won since O’Connell arrived, 31 of them have had a quarterback rating above 90. In total, when KOC’s QB has a 90+ QB rating, the Vikings are 31-9.

Murray’s QB rating over the last three years, by the way, is 91.6.

What all of those stats tell you is that Murray has a level of past production that strongly suggests the Vikings could be a playoff team with him at the helm.

When it comes to setting the bar for his performance during training camp to win the starting QB job, this has to be weighed very heavily. Even if he isn’t mastering the offense at the level that O’Connell would like, the fact that playing at an average Murray level for his career would put the Vikings in position to win a lot of games should give him a lot more benefit of the doubt.

On McCarthy’s side, there are some things that he did in 2025 that reflect well of him statistically. He finished with the second highest Big-Time Throw percentage by PFF behind only Matthew Stafford. While it was a much smaller sample size than Stafford, it still indicates that he was capable of making highlight-reel plays.

He was also the victim of the third highest drop percentage by his receivers. There’s some debate on whether the velocity on his throws and timing was to blame but nonetheless it’s unlikely that the caliber of receivers on this squad would repeat that number again.

And over the final four games of the season, albeit against three DCs who were fired and Green Bay sitting their starters, McCarthy performed like a starting-level QB with 64% completion percentage, 8.4 yards per attempt and a 100.4 rating.

The bigger picture is much tougher to lean on for the young QB. Among all quarterbacks in the NFL last season with at least 200 pass attempts, McCarthy was 36th of 36 in Pro-Football Reference’s “On-Target” percentage. In other words, the least accurate QB in the NFL.

He was 34th out of 36 in Success Rate, 35th in completion percentage, 35th in passer rating, 33rd in sack rate and 36th in interception percentage. The only QB with lower Expected Points Added per play was Cam Ward.

Those stats are rough and you’d be hard pressed to find many QBs who weren’t top-five draft picks who overcame numbers like that but it doesn’t mean that McCarthy should be tossed aside because of a bad 10-game start to his career.

Rather it means that the burden of proof is on McCarthy.

To use some legalese, McCarthy providing convincing evidence that he is the better of the two quarterbacks during training camp might not even be enough. This isn’t a preponderance of the evidence situation. This has to be beyond a reasonable doubt.

O’Connell and the coaching staff have to walk away from training camp like they are jurors coming out of sequestering and declare McCarthy the hands-down, lock-dead, no-doubter best quarterback of the two.

Otherwise, at least to begin the season, the job has to go to the guy who has done it before at a high enough level to win.

The other side of that is that Murray can’t be a disaster in camp. He can’t fumble his way through O’Connell’s offense. He can’t walk into the huddle unsure of himself and try to scramble on every other drop-back. O’Connell has to believe that he can confidently make calls into Murray’s headset and have them converted into successful plays.

But even if the Vikings went into Week 1 without 100% of the O’Connell playbook at hand, Murray’s elite scrambling ability and off-schedule playmaking makes a strong argument in itself that he could still win games while learning the offense on the fly. Heck, it took Kirk Cousins time in 2022 to get it down. Kirk’s QB rating in September of 2022 was only 83.9 but it jumped to 96.2 in October.

The odds lean heavily in Murray’s favor. The news of splitting reps in camp didn’t faze the sportsbooks with FanDuel giving Murray -1000 to win the job and McCarthy +600.

That should be the viewpoint going into camp. Where it goes from there, who knows.

After someone wins the QB competition, then the question becomes whether the Vikings have their long-term quarterback.

How will the Vikings decide if Murray or McCarthy is their QB1 going forward?

In this case, the bar is lower for McCarthy because he’s still on his rookie contract. Theoretically speaking, he doesn’t have to be as good as Murray in order to maximize his talent because the team will be able to use more cap space to build around him.

Of course, that was a major part of the theory of letting Sam Darnold walk in free agency and Seattle was able to win the Super Bowl with him.

The QB meta has changed since Kirk Cousins was making 20% of the Vikings salary cap because there is so much more cap manipulation these days. Out of the seven teams to make the playoffs from the NFC last year, six of them had quarterbacks that were at least on their second contracts.

Teams are now pushing more money down the road or setting up contracts to either be extended into eternity like we’re seeing from Patrick Mahomes or go bust. That’s pretty much how Kyler Murray became a Vikings, by the way.

That means if the Vikings did want to sign Murray to an extension, they could do it in a way that wouldn’t destroy their chances at building a complete team. Daniel Jones, for example, signed a two-year, $88 million contract with a cap hit of $19 million this year (6.3% of the cap) and $49 million in 2027. The deal has a void year in 2028 but the Colts can restructure the contract in 2027 and cut that number to $22 million and they can extend him and lower the number and spread out the dollars over several more years.

Another developing pattern in the NFC is that there are a lot of good QBs but no dominant QB like Mahomes, Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen, so teams can build top-notch supporting casts and elite defenses and have a chance to chase a Super Bowl.

So how good would Murray or McCarthy have to be in order to lock in the QB1 job in 2027?

To stick with the imperfect quarterback rating markers, 142 out of 175 QBs to make the playoffs since 2010 have managed at least a 90 rating during the regular season.

Last year 11 out of the 14 quarterbacks to make the playoffs ranked in the top 20 by PFF grade. Only CJ Stroud, Bryce Young and Aaron Rodgers were the only ones who were below that marker.

In 2024, 11 of the 14 QBs to make the playoffs ranked in the top 20 and another was 21st.

In 2023, 12 out of the 14 QBs to make the playoffs ranked in the top 20.

You get the point.

Unsurprisingly, it takes a top 20 quarterback to get into the postseason.

Does that answer the question?

In some ways, you might say yes. The last three QBs to win the Super Bowl ranked 10th, 20th and 10th by PFF in the regular season. One of them was the best QB of a generation and the other two had incredible defenses that tortured opposing offenses. Bo Nix ranked 17th for the Broncos last year and he was an ankle injury away from possibly reaching the Super Bowl.

So the Vikings could adopt the thought process that if they can solidify the position with a top-20 player, that the rest will be determined by whether they can build an unstoppable defense and quality offensive line and run game.

But there has to be more to it than that, right?

Certainly context matters.

If McCarthy ends up playing the majority of games and ends up as a top-20 QB, it’s not quite the same as if Murray cracks the top-20.

In this case, the standard has to be higher for Murray because there isn’t likely to be a higher ceiling for him than this year. He’s being given the best supporting cast in terms of wide receivers and coaching that he’s ever had in his career. Ranking as the 20th best QB in the league for a 29-year-old player who has missed a lot of time in his career might not be enough.

The Vikings also have to be careful about chasing their losses. Botching the Sam Darnold decision shouldn’t influence what they do with Murray. In order to be worth paying/keeping, he would need to be capable of leading a top-10 offense and performing in the same range as other second-tier QBs like Dak Prescott, Jordan Love, Brock Purdy or Justin Herbert.

They also can’t factor O’Connell’s timeline if they end up having to decide on Murray. Not many coaches get a chance to draft two first-round QBs but if Murray isn’t worth the price tag and they’d prefer to turn to the draft, they should adjust the timeline and adapt how they evaluate KOC rather than trying to keep a middling QB to make sure he remains competitive.

If McCarthy, with only 10 games under his belt at age 23, ranks as a top-20 QB, then it’s worth finding out if there’s more there. If he was any better than 20th, the choice would be pretty easy.

The devil will be in the details for whoever ends up starting. How do they respond to KOC’s offense? How do they gel with Justin Jefferson? How high are the highs and low are the lows? How healthy are the QBs?

The discussion is reminiscent of something that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah revealed after a question about why they let Darnold walk. He said that the team had set markers before the season that if Darnold was able to meet them then they would consider sticking with him. The idea was not to adjust in a reactionary way.

Yes, that’s exactly what they did but the concept was right. The Vikings should do the same thing with Murray and McCarthy for both training camp and the long term. Decide before camp on what it would take for McCarthy to win the job or for either player to keep the job long term so they don’t get caught up in the way the 2026 season ends or how desperate they might be at QB influence the right call.

By Matthew Coller

Happy weekend everybody. Apologies for being slow on the mailbag due to covering minicamp on Thursday.

Let’s dive right into your questions…

Base… This is slightly off-topic from mini camp, but regarding future roster construction when we hear that the new GM has ownership of the roster is that the 90 man roster or is that the 53 man roster? How much say do each head of the hydra have when it comes to the cut downs?

It’s everything. He’s in charge of every single player that comes in the building or leaves the building. So when they sign UDFAs in order to get to 90 players, he’s signing off on that. When they cut down from 90 to 53, he’s making those final calls. When they want to trade a conditional 7th for the 54th man on somebody else’s roster, that’s him.

He’s not doing all of this himself. They have directors of player personnel and pro personnel that are going to be involved in identifying players that they want to acquire and evaluating everyone in house but nothing on the roster happens without his sign off. He’s basically you with your Madden offseason.

Robert S… It seems like assessing talent, “anchoring” that assessment in analytics, and then talking over with the coach how that all fits their needs is so logical and is such a sound formula for success that it makes me wonder, Doesn’t everybody do this? and, Is this actually way harder than it sounds, to the point where the formula says little about whether there will be success? What do you think Matthew?

I’m not sure that it’s a revolutionary idea but I don’t know if everyone does it this way and it definitely creates a streamline in decision making from the front office to the coaches.

The way I understand it is this…

So if you have the pro scouts working on free agency, let’s say they identify 20 players that they believe could fit what Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores want for their systems and that they think are good players. The data people are going to deep dive into them to see if they spot any red flags. Let’s say they chop the list down to 10 players. Then Teasley is going to take those 10 players to the coaches and talk over their potential fit schematically and culturally and what their role would be.

I’m sure there’s always going to be guys that coaches stand on the table for because they know them from other places etc. but I think it allows everyone to be involved in the process and the coaches to have their say.

Kip N….

Matthew
Pie chart time
Trading JJ
1- before training camp
2-before week 1 ( during cut down days)
3- trade deadline 2026 season
4- after 2026 season
5- Kick Rocks, JJ flourished enough for them to keep him

I think they keep him bc trading him after 10 starts is a MASSIVE Mustakr unless a team gives (2) 1st rounders and a haul for them to say No

This is a tough one because I don’t think they are trading him in 2026 but I could certainly see it happening after the season if he doesn’t establish himself as QB1 this year. So I guess I’d go 20% chance that they trade him at any point between now and the deadline, 40% chance that it’s after this year and 40% that he’s flourished enough to keep him.

Saying “trading him after 10 starts” sounds a lot different than “trading him after three years.”

The situation is really up to McCarthy. Training camp is kinda his “now or never” moment.

Jake J… Let’s say McCarthy never was injured his rookie year but he sat the whole year because Darnold played so well. In this scenario, I still have a hard time believing he would have played well last year given how bad it looked and his lack of experience. Do you think it would have been possible for them to re-sign Darnold after 2024 if McCarthy didn’t look great in practice with the scout team? Or is it hard to access during the season and they likely would have went with McCarthy anyways for 2025?

It’s impossible to say how things would have played out if McCarthy had been healthy in 2024 but I’ve always felt like that year would have been huge for him. It would have been hundreds of practice reps with no pressure and a total focus on development. Learning an offense isn’t just about seeing it on a white board, it’s about feeling the footwork and the timing. He also would have been going against Flores’ defense every day in practice.

The other thing is that his upward trajectory would have continued rather than being halted to the point where he was starting from Square One. I underestimated how much of a setback he was going to face because it took him quite a while to look like he did at the end of 2024 camp last summer.

To your question, yes, if they had seen him behind the scenes healthy for all of 2024, they would have had a much more accurate picture of what he was going to be as a starter. If they realized by the end of 2024 that he wasn’t as far along as they would have liked, then they would have attempted to keep Darnold.

I don’t think Sam was going to sign a long-term extension with the Vikings unless they moved on from JJ though. The fans had already gotten so attached to the idea of McCarthy that Sam wasn’t going to want to look over his shoulder. So the only answer would have been franchise tagging him.

We know in hindsight that tagging him would have been the right move but I think it was also something we could have seen coming. McCarthy played so little football in true passing situations in college, those types of QBs generally need several years before they come into their own.

The Darnold part was fairly predictable too. If you search all QBs since 2000 who threw for 4300 yards, 35 touchdowns and made the playoffs, you’ll find 35 QBs and most of them are Hall of Famers. The worst QBs on the list are Baker Mayfield, Carson Palmer, Jared Goff and Daunte Culpepper… all considered franchise QBs at one time or another.

It’s a catastrophic mistake but they can’t go back and time and have better luck with McCarthy’s injury or make a better decision by keeping Darnold. So they have to move forward and decide whether McCarthy can ever reach the potential they thought he had in 2024.

Kip N… What positions do you think they try to sign during or after training camp ? I hear Judd saying CB, DT, QB ( if JJ is traded), Rb? What does the old crystal ball say ?

The biggest one for me would be outside linebacker. I’m very intrigued by the idea of Ty Ingram-Dawkins, Bo Richter, Chaz Chambliss and Tyler Batty fighting it out but I think you need at least one proven person at that position in case Andrew Van Ginkel or Dallas Turner gets hurt.

Maybe some of the guys who are out there like Leonard Floyd and Kyle Van Noy are weighing their options but both of them would be the ideal fit for a rotational role.

They signed two DTs already, just neither has a super impressive background. I’d be surprised if they went to free agency for a corner when they signed James Pierre and drafted Chuck Demmings and still have Dwight McGlothern but there’s always room for Fabian Moreau to come back.

Running back would make some sense. I’d want to see Demond Claiborne first though. With two starting-type RBs on the roster, I’m not sure any remaining free agent would be targeting this place right now. That would have to be if someone got hurt.

Al N… If you were head coach, what would you need to see from J. J. McCarthy to choose him to be QB1 in Week 1? Assume Kyler Murray remains healthy and plays as well as expected. What could J. J. do to win the starting position outright, if you’re making the decision?

I would need to see breathtaking play in training camp. I’m talking Sam Bradford 2017 level camp.

There’s just no way that I could ignore what has happened during the real games when making this decision.

I see all sorts of folks on the internet trying to sell one stat or another to make Kyler look bad but the reality is he’s 12th out of 42 QBs with at least 1,000 passes since 2020 in Success Rate (the top 5 are Purdy, Allen, Mahomes, Prescott and Brady). The guys close to him in that stat are Herbert and Jordan Love. His best three PFF seasons are in the top 13. He was 9th in ESPN’s QBR in 2024. This is a good NFL QB, even if he’s not perfect.

If I’m going to pass up playing someone who’s been that good, I’d better be blown away.

Matt D… Probably too early to ask but I’m going to ask it anyway. Who are your top 3 guys to watch for Mr Mankato?

The way-too-early Mr. Mankato picks for me would be Chuck Demmings, Demond Claiborne and Dillon Bell.

Corners and receivers are always good picks and those three guys caught our eye during minicamp. They are also likely to get a ton of work during the preseason and could become fan favorites with a big game or two.

Bekwelem… What’s your opinion on the “splitting reps” thing with the QBs? I don’t see it as a bad thing. JJ knows the system and Kyler is a vet. Whichever person wins the competition should be able to carry on into the season just fine.

With a guy learning a new offense, I’m not sure it’s something that I’d want to go on very long into training camp. However, if Kyler comes back and looks like he hasn’t been able to wrap his head around the offense and practices are going horribly, the coaching staff has to be flexible enough to keep going until there’s an answer.

The biggest problem with the whole camp competition is that I remember feeling like Kirk Cousins in 2021 with Klint Kubiak was having a lifeless training camp and the guy ended up putting together a really good season. In 2022, Kirk was having a ton of trouble picking it up and he struggled at points early in the season but ended up winning 13 games.

After watching JJ light up joint practices and coming away feeling pretty confident that he’d be quite good in 2025, my degree of certainty with camp equating to the season for QBs is very low. That’s why I’d be more apt to try to get JJ as much work as possible with the 1s to see where he’s at but I wouldn’t want to do this thing deep into August.

Thomas S… Thanks for your tireless work Matthew. Over or under 1.5 Emergency Podcasts before the start of training camp?

I’m going to go with under, though the bar for an emergency podcast around here is very low.

I don’t think Nolan Teasley is going to make any earth-shattering moves before seeing the team out on the field for training camp.

Maybe a Brian O’Neill or Blake Cashman extension could inspire an emergency pod or if they added a veteran right before camp but I’m not sure if those things are going to happen before then.

Everybody should subscribe to the pod and put on notifications just in case.

Bekwelem… I’m seeing that there’s a staff overhaul including in the scouting department. Does the is mean that the new GM felt like scouting needed some freshening up?

I wouldn’t call it a total overhaul of the scouting department. Per Alec Lewis, they moved on from Jamaal Stephenson, who has been with the team for a long time and a college scouting exec and pro scout. And then it was reported Friday that they added two new assistant GMs Andrew Healy and Trent Kirchner.

Interestingly, Healy used to write for Football Outsiders and worked his way up to football research and strategy with the Cleveland Browns. So I guess the idea that Teasley was going to go “old school” with scouting was not the right assumption. Though people who thought that forgot to check his bio in Seattle.

Anyway, as expected, the guy who was the outside hire is getting fresh eyes on the organization. That’s what I liked about the hire from the jump and it’s the right move to get his own people in the building quickly.

I’ll say this over and over: The Vikings didn’t need to be torn down, they needed fresh eyes.

Eldon… Do you think the Vikings keep Murray, McCarthy and Wentz to start the season and if so do we see all three play meaningful snaps?

There’s so many different scenarios that could play out. I would think that KOC would want to keep three quarterbacks because two seasons have been derailed by QB injuries since he arrived here.

What it might come down to is how KOC feels about McCarthy at the end of all this. Assuming Kyler wins the competition, if he believes that McCarthy has shown a lot of growth toward being a starting NFL QB and he’s being a good teammate to Kyler Murray and doing everything he can to help the team prepare each week, then it’s a luxury to have a backup QB who has come in and won games before and has a few years in the offense.

If it doesn’t check those boxes and things get uncomfortable between KOC and JJ’s camp and he wants out of Minnesota, then they might feel that a trade is the best option.

I have no idea if QB1 is going to stay healthy. People are talking about how he’s injury prone when he played 30 games in a row from 2023 to the beginning of 2025.

Bill F… Great work Matthew. Can’t miss for each every day. Isn’t splitting reps between KM and JJM detrimental to KM learning the offense? Won’t doing this delay his progression into KOC’s full playbook? McCarthy at least in theory should know it fully.

It depends on how long they split reps. We get super jacked up for the official start of training camp and then the first three or four days look like minicamp practices without pads on as guys ramp up. I don’t think splitting those reps is going to be problematic and they’re going to design them to work on specific things for Murray.

But the longer camp goes on with split reps, the more I would think that it could hurt Murray. If we’re talking about going through two preseason games and they still haven’t leaned one way or the other, then I would imagine that would be more damaging to Murray than it would be McCarthy.

If I’m KOC, I’m deciding which way to bend the first-team reps by the time pads come on. That doesn’t mean bench the other guy, it just means to start leaning one way or another and then see where it goes. It took Sam Darnold until probably the fourth or fifth padded practice before he really got going in this offense so you want the starter to have all the reps you can but also be ready to pivot if needed.

Jordan D…. It’s time to buy stock in the rookie class. How are you pie-charting up your portfolio?

Here’s mine: Jakobe Thomas-32%, Brett Thorson-16%, Jake Golday-14%, Dillon Bell-12%, Demond Claiborne-9%, Chuck Demmings-8%, Caleb Tiernan-6%, Max Bredeson-3%.

Obviously I want the most stock in my plant-the-flag guys (Thomas and Thorson), but I tried to factor in initial cost vs potential upside. 2nd round picks cost more than UDFAs. Fullbacks get smaller contracts and impact the game less than WRs. Earlier picks have less risk of ruin than UDFAs.

IMO: Safest stock-Jake Golday. Highest upside-Brett Thorson. Best risk-Dillon Bell. Worst risk-Caleb Banks. Intriguing upside-Caleb Tiernan.

Alright, I’m going to tell you the truth: I have zero idea how the stock market works so I can’t say that I’m going to get any details regarding stocks correct but I think I’m following along with what you’re saying here…

If I was given $100 to put on each guy and I’m looking for the most return on investment for future earnings, who would I take?

I’d go with $40 on Caleb Banks. Yes, he’s risky but… is he really? Defensive tackles are at such a premium that even if Banks only becomes 75% of his ceiling then he’s still going to be valuable to this team or sought after as a free agent. Guys like Grover Stewart and DJ Jones are making $13 million. Everyone wants DTs who can overpower offensive linemen.

The next would be $20 on Jake Golday. I agree he’s a safe stock. If he doesn’t become Andrew Van Ginkel, he can still play inside linebacker and be a starter with his size and athleticism. Not to mention that first and second round picks have the best chances at success by a mile. After that I’ll go $10 on Caleb Tiernan, $10 on Chuck Demmings and $5 each on Jakobe Thomas and Demond Claiborne.

If I’m playing the game correctly, it’s not so much about odds to become a starter as positional value. I think a guy like Thomas has a good chance at starting eventually but safeties just don’t get paid very much, neither do RBs. If Tiernan or Demmings hit, they’ll get the bag.

Fun exercise. My first impression of the draft class in minicamp is pretty good. It’s super, super early but I can see the fit for each guy and some athletic traits stand out.

Brent M… Hey Matthew, I just watched your Minicamp 2 Review with Emily (who, I thought, was great, by the way!) and I saw that you started to bring up Hekker, but then realized you had time for a higher priority topic. So, without stealing any thunder away from any planned pieces coming up, what are the under the radar developments that you have seen to this point or are looking forward to watching during training camp?

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback competition has been a bit of an ink blot test already.

You might look at the quarterback competition and see two QBs who had rough 2025 seasons that need to prove that they deserve to be starters via a battle in training camp.

You might look at Kyler Murray as the next Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold — a top talent who was victimized by one of the worst organizations in football.

You might look at JJ McCarthy as a QB who just needs to improve his game a bit in order to become a quality starting quarterback.

You might look at JJ McCarthy as a QB who will probably never be able to sand down his sharp edges.

You might see the truest of competitions coming in camp. May the best man win. Or you might see a competition designed to make sure it looks like McCarthy got a fair chance but the job really belongs to Murray.

At the end of minicamp, nobody knows exactly who is seeing this picture correctly.

Here’s what we do know: Head coach Kevin O’Connell is presenting this as a “true competition” with both quarterbacks getting equal reps in minicamp practices and he said that the same thing will happen in training camp until a winner is crowned.

When will they be crowned?

“We want to make sure by the time we play the Green Bay Packers that there’s been ample time to have the best possible offense we can have to help our football team,” O’Connell said. “The quarterback’s going to play a big role in that. So that’s kind of where we’re at right now as far as the timeline goes. I think to give an actual date would not necessarily be accurate from a portrayal of how we see it, but there is a timeline.”

If this is a sham competition, then O’Connell is doing a great acting job with his commentary and by giving both of them reps in minicamp. But just because there is a competition doesn’t mean both QBs have the same starting point.

Murray has been considered league wide to be a top-15 quarterback in the past, whereas McCarthy struggled mightily during the majority of his debut season. That’s like the two competing in the 100-yard dash and Murray starting at the 40-yard line. Technically it’s a race but one guy’s odds are lower than the other.

But the fact that O’Connell hasn’t ruled out McCarthy despite signing a proven QB means he is going to at least give him a chance to become the starting quarterback.

So, whether McCarthy becomes the player that the Vikings dreamed about him becoming at this time last year is entirely up to him.

Clearly it would benefit the franchise if they could reach the point where they expected to be with McCarthy and still have him under contract on his rookie deal and in line to be the franchise quarterback rather than a veteran rent-a-QB who will need to be highly paid if he has a big season in 2025.

The question is: How high will the bar be for O’Connell to go back to a quarterback who struggled so much as a second-year player?

“There’s obviously data involved, but I think there’s a layer of feel to it from them and us,” O’Connell said. “Some things where maybe we didn’t spend 20 minutes in the meeting that morning, but we’ve talked about that, and they apply it in a period where it’s real football. There’s no scripts. We’re calling plays. Flo’s calling it. He’s the best in the league at what he does….There’s high stress that goes into that with 11 players up at the line of scrimmage on some snaps. And I love every aspect of it because I think these guys are handling it in such a great way that they’re both going to massively improve.”

In the areas that McCarthy struggled the most in 2025, O’Connell was complimentary of him following minicamp. Both he and offensive coordinator mentioned fundamentals and throwing the football with some touch.

“His fundamentals and the way he’s really tried to apply the different types of throws, he now has the experience, and you’re not talking about hypotheticals anymore,” O’Connell said. “He can learn plays based upon reps…he’s worked on a lot of those throws and the rhythm and the timing and the trajectory of those throws. Then he gets to come out and practice them.”

O’Connell will have to see more than just progress from McCarthy in order to give him the job over Murray. He is going to need consistent execution to the point of believing that McCarthy is on track to be a top-15 quarterback in 2025. That’s how high the bar is since Murray has been in that range multiple times during his career.

On the other side, the biggest challenge facing Kyler Murray is learning O’Connell’s offense.

Justin Jefferson noted on Thursday how difficult the offense can be to learn. We saw that with Kirk Cousins when O’Connell got the job in 2022 and it took Sam Darnold until a few days into padded practices before he started to look comfortable.

Murray has a chance to prove that the things that have been said about him based on a “study clause” years ago are wrong. He has an opportunity to come back and be totally locked into the offense from top to bottom and show the potential to be a franchise quarterback and se the bar too high for McCarthy to reach in one summer.

But he will have to master the offense on limited reps, which Murray acknowledged this week was a challenge.

“A lot of the real growth we’ve all probably had in life comes in those uncomfortable times where you work through it and you find a way out the other side and you’re that much better off for it and I know that’s Kyler’s mentality towards it,” O’Connell said.

At the end of minicamp, we got one answer that was pretty unclear going into the spring: That this QB competition is going to last into the summer.

If we know anything from Vikings QB history, we can never predict what’s going to come next.

You could reasonably conclude from looking at the team in minicamp that the roster that they are going to be strong from top to bottom around the QB. The offensive line being healthy is promising and the receiving corps is excellent and possibly deeper than it has been in years if young players step up and there’s reason to think they have an improved run scheme.

Knowing that Brian Flores sets a high floor for the team, the pressure will be enormous on O’Connell to handle the QB competition the right way and to get the quarterback play that they were so desperately missing last season.

Is it over dramatic to say that the way the QB competition plays out in the summer will shape the franchise’s future? Probably not because right now the future is wide open at quarterback and determining the long-term at the most important position begins in late July.

“The limited time you do have… challenges those guys to see who responds, see who handles adversity well, and ultimately see who elevates the offense,” O’Connell said. “Regardless of what we’ve been this year’s version of the offense, because it’s going to look different at times, we’re going to do some different things. And that player that elevates the group as a whole is going to be the guy that’s under center against the Green Bay Packers.”

By Matthew Coller

The Minnesota Vikings held their second day of minicamp on Wednesday. It was a light practice that included only a couple full speed 7-on-7 portions.

Here were the takeaways from what we heard…

Bringing Kyler Murray along in the offense

The fact that the Vikings are splitting reps between their two quarterbacks may be different than in past years where they have had a clear QB1 at minicamp but the process of bringing a veteran quarterback into the mix is nothing new to Kevin O’Connell’s coaching staff.

On Wednesday, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips talked about what he’s learned from teaching veteran QBs the offense after they have been in other offenses during their careers.

“I think if I’ve really learned anything from coming in new with Kirk and with the whole offense is... we probably installed too much coming in,” Phillips said. “It’s like, ‘hey, we got to get our offense in,’ and you’re pushing the envelope, pushing the envelope. I think backing off where there’s still a lot of volume, it’s NFL football, but understanding that, ‘hey, we don’t have to get every variation of every concept in right now.’”

Phillips continued…

“Let’s try to make sure we can come back, hit the play again, make sure that each guy’s getting a rep or two per week of each concept that we’re installing to make sure that we’ve got a good grasp, good understanding, whether we had to learn from a rep prior or whether we were successful.”

Phillips said that Murray has been studying the offense hard away from the facility in order to grasp as much as possible during the “learning phase” of the offseason.

The comfort level with the offense that Murray has by the end of minicamp may play a role in whether O’Connell is willing to name him the starter early in camp or continue to play out the quarterback competition deeper into training camp.

It’s been ‘arrow up’ for JJ McCarthy

Going into the offseason, only one thing was certain about the Vikings quarterback situation: That JJ McCarthy needed to improve in vital areas of his game in order to have any chance to win the starting job.

According to Phillips, the staff has been impressed with the work that McCarthy did over the offseason

“It’s just been a continuous upward arrow for him and it is fun to see guys come back in shape,” Phillips said. “Guys have been working from a skill and fundamental standpoint as well on the things that have been talked about throughout a season and they come back and say, ‘oh, that looks a little better. Oh, look at him. I can tell he’s been working on that, been very intentional in the offseason on his own when nobody’s watching.’ So there’s several things with J.J. that we noticed right off the bat. that were improvements from things that he had done or continuing to grow on some of those techniques and fundamentals.”

Last year O’Connell talked at length about McCarthy’s need to improve his throwing mechanics. His issues with anticipation throws and “layering” the football showed up in his Completion Percentage Over Expected, which was the third worst in the NFL per NFLNextGen stats.

If the Vikings are going to give McCarthy a legitimate chance to win the QB competition in training camp, they will need to believe that he has taken big leaps forward and can throw accurately with great consistency.

It’s very hard to say with any degree of certainty based on OTAs/minicamp whether that will happen. The Vikings will really only be able to get a sense if the improvements are going to translate if he gets first-team reps in camp.

Brian O’Neill wants to remain a Viking

The Vikings Pro Bowl right tackle did not fully participate in OTAs due to his contract situation, per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. But he has been doing everything during minicamp.

After practice on Wednesday, he made it known that he wants to remain a Viking.

“I want to be here and there's nowhere else I want to be,” O’Neill said. “That rings more true now than ever. If you've been around me long enough, you know much this place means to me. There is unequivocally nowhere else I'd rather be."

O’Neill has become the clear leader of the Vikings offensive line room and has continued to play at an exceptionally high level into his 30s. Last year he was graded as the 13th best tackle in the NFL by PFF and he was 11th in 2024.

Normally a player of O’Neill’s talent and performance level would be a lock for an extension but the Vikings’ situation is a little unusual this year because they just hired a new general manager. It’s unclear whether Nolan Teasley will be willing to sign a 31-year-old veteran to a long extension before he has the season to evaluate where he stands.

However, tackles are so difficult to find in the draft or free agency and they have often aged quite well. It makes sense to lock in the tackle position going forward rather than risk struggling to find a successor.

In terms of how much an extension might cost, the top right tackles are making between $22 and $28 million per year AAV and there are eight tackles with more than $30 million guaranteed.

Aaron Jones is happy about the hiring of Frank Smith

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By Matthew Coller

The Minnesota Vikings opened minicamp on Tuesday afternoon and we heard from the quarterbacks and defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

Here’s the biggest takeaways…

Kyler Murray isn’t used to not getting every rep

The practice opened with two interceptions from Murray, one of which was a miscommunication and the other was an overthrow on a deep pass. After that, he settled in and had an overall solid practice, hitting good throws to Jauan Jennings and Jordan Addison and operating a final drive scenario for the first time in the spring. It was mostly 7-on-7 and half-speed 11-on-11s. We’ll see if the intensity jumps up on Day 2 or Day.

In terms of the reps, it was split 50-50 with JJ McCarthy. It was not clear heading into minicamp whether the split was going to continue or if Kevin O’Connell was going to turn things over with the first team to Murray.

After practice, Murray said that it has been a challenge not getting all the reps while he’s trying to learn the offense.

“I think the toughest part is, I was [in Arizona] for seven years, I know I had two different offensive systems, but at the same time, you’re getting all those reps,” Murray said. “Now having to split reps, it’s me already being behind, not getting the amount of reps that you would typically want a guy to get learning in offense. That’s probably the toughest part.”

Murray continued…

“Coming into the new system, learning on the fly, trying to play fast, efficient, and let it loose while learning is pretty — that’s the toughest part.”

Murray pointing out the challenge of getting fewer reps than usual while learning a new offense does open the door to the question: How long will the rep split continue?

Considering the past performances of each quarterback and the circumstances surrounding the team, it would be shocking if Murray was not the starting quarterback. So is Kevin O’Connell continuing to split reps through the spring to get a full assessment on McCarthy’s progress to determine whether there will be a true competition in training camp?

On its face that seems more reasonable than keeping up appearances with hopes of trading McCarthy. The idea of trading him was floated this week by NFL insider Tom Pelissero on an appearance on KFAN.

It’s plausible that O’Connell wants to give McCarthy every single opportunity he can to show that he deserves to be the starter because the team invested so much in him already and saw flashes of quality play last season.

Murray did not seem concerned about the idea that McCarthy is competing with him when the idea was brought up on Tuesday.

“I’m not really too worried about the competition side of things, honestly,” Murray said. “When you do have days where you feel like, ‘I wish I had that throw back,’ whatever it is, the coaches are reminding you, ‘hey, this is the learning phase, you are new to this. You got to give yourself that grace….it’s all a part of the process.’”

We will see whether the rep counts continue this way into Day 2 and 3 of minicamp.

But the QB competition story will be told in training camp, not minicamp. That’s when the “learning phase” ends and every rep between the quarterback and his weapons is important. If they are still splitting reps in camp, then the competition is absolutely on and the two QBs will have to fight it out every day for the job. If Murray takes all the reps from the start of camp, then the result we expected when Murray signed is inevitable.

JJ McCarthy says he doesn’t want to be traded

McCarthy got another bite at the press conference apple after his first one of the spring made waves. This time he was more straight forward in his responses about the competition with Murray.

“Those reps being distributed are something out of my control, and the only thing I focus in on is that next rep, and keep it as simple as that,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy had a solid practice, opening up with a long completion to Tai Felton, who has flashed several times this spring. He also led a “final drive” drill with the starters and was able to move the ball.

“I feel the best I’ve ever felt playing the game of football, especially in this team,” McCarthy said. “I think things being instinctual when you hear it, being able to pop into your mind very clear and very fast. And that helps a lot with just playing instinctual out there and making the right plays when the ball snaps.”

With buzz about the potential for a trade swirling, McCarthy got the question about whether he wants to be moved.

“I think I made it very clear I wanted to be here before I got here,” McCarthy said. “And I love this organization. I love the coaching staff. I absolutely love these players to death. This is where I want to be. I feel like I can thrive in this system. And it’s just everything played out exactly how I wanted it. I wouldn’t want anything else to change.”

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By Matthew Coller

With the hiring of new general manager Nolan Teasley, the Minnesota Vikings will presumably be looking to emulate the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks as the new boss builds the roster.

Key questions that he will have to answer is: How far away are the Vikings now and how can they get to the next level?

For Part 1, we looked at the offense, which was far away in 2025 but has an opportunity to get much closer in 2026. Part 2 focuses on a comparison between the Vikings and Seahawks’ defenses.

Let’s dive in…

Here’s how the 2025 Seahawks defense looked statistically…

PFF run defense grade: 2nd

PFF pass rush grade: 10th

PFF coverage grade: 3rd

PFF special teams grade: 7th

Defensive points rank: 1st

Sacks: 8th

Pressure rate: 6th

EPA vs. Pass: 4th

EPA vs. run: 1st

Turnover percentage: 6th

Blitz percentage: 26th

Two-deep safety %: 12th

It doesn’t get much better than the 2025 Seattle Seahawks defense. They ranked at the top of the NFL in points allowed and were in the top five against the run and pass when it came to Expected Points Added.

How did they get there?

From a performance perspective, it started with their ability to completely eviscerate the opponent’s run game. Ranking No. 1 doesn’t even begin to describe it. They were +41.1 points in EPA versus the run, which is 16 better than the next best team and 30 points better than the top-5 ranked Vikings. They gave up just 3.7 yards per attempt against and allowed only nine rushing TDs.

The impact was Seattle facing 253 of 600 passes on second or third down with more than 7 yards to go. Nearly half the time they were on the field, Seattle’s defense was seeing an obvious passing down, allowing the D-linemen to focus on creating pressure.

The best quarterbacks in NFL history are those who can overcome a sputtering run game and deal with an opponent’s pass rush but most human QBs are made significantly worse by pure passing situations. Of the 32 quarterbacks with over 100 passes on second or third-and-long in 2025, only Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff, Justin Herbert, Drake Maye, Josh Allen, Jordan Love, Daniel Jones, Tyler Shough, Lamar Jackson, Mac Jones and Brock Purdy had quarterback ratings above 95 (Stafford’s was 94.7). Twelve QBs were under 80.

Seattle made things even more unpleasant for the opposition by leading the NFC in quarterback hits and creating a high rate of pressure while rarely blitzing (19% of the time). Not having to blitz worked to the advantage of Seattle’s cornerbacks, who were rarely left on an island. Seattle had the 4th highest Cover-6 coverage rate in the NFL, per TruMedia.

One stat that stood out is that Seattle’s leader in sacks only had 7.0 in 2025. However, they had three players with 7.0 sacks, one player with 6.0 and six players between 2.0 and 3.5 sacks. They had six pass rushers with 40 pressures or more as well.

How they built a deep defense is interesting. They went for explosiveness in the draft. Some examples:

— DT Byron Murphy had a 90th percentile 40-yard dash and a 91.1 PFF grade in his final year in college

— Devon Witherspoon allowed zero touchdowns and had three INTs and 14 PBUs on 62 targets at Illinois

— ED Boye Mafe had a 98th percentile 40-yard dash

— ED Derick Hall had a 94th percentile 40-yard dash

— CB Tariq Woolen ran a 99th percentile 40-yard dash and had a 92nd percentile vertical

— S Nick Emmanwori ran a 4.38 40-yard dash at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds

The Seahawks also picked up a couple quality veteran players for reasonable prices in ED DeMarcus Lawrence and LB Ernest Jones.

And they made one home run swing to acquire Leonard Williams from the New York Giants for a second and fifth-round pick.

Overall, Seattle had 11 players with at least 300 snaps who graded above average by PFF. It was a group that was built over several years, not with one big offseason. It was built at the top, middle and back end of the draft and it was built with free agency and trades.

Now let’s have a look at the Vikings defense…

PFF run defense grade: 15th

PFF pass rush grade: 14th

PFF coverage grade: 19th

PFF special teams grade: 1st

Defensive points rank: 7th

Sacks: 4th

Pressure rate: 3rd

EPA vs. Pass: 5th

EPA vs. run: 5th

Turnover percentage: 16th

Blitz percentage: 1st

Two-deep safety %: 1st

Something should jump out at you right away: The results were better than the PFF grades.

How does that happen? Brian. Flores.

What you can see from the Vikings’ numbers is how unique their defense is. They play more 2-deep safeties than anyone else in the NFL and blitz more than anyone.

Flores’ defense has won by maximizing players’ skillsets more than freaky athleticism. Not to say that Andrew Van Ginkel, Eric Wilson or Josh Metellus aren’t good athletes but they don’t match the freakshow level of Seattle. Flores puts these types of players in situations where they can be multiple, lining up anywhere and everywhere and then working out with each other on the fly the pressures and coverages.

It was beautiful to watch when everyone was healthy and Flores even worked out a way to play more five-man fronts to slow down the opposing team’s run game without sacrificing a lot in coverage.

As brilliant as Flores is, Nolan Teasley’s goal should be to make his job easier.

If the Vikings could create a deep four-man rush around Turner in the coming years, Flores would have to rely less on blitzing at such a high rate and he could focus more on coverage variance and deception. With more freakshow talent, he might be able to play more man coverage as well.

And he’s going to have to get after that job right away because there are a lot of moving parts to the defense going forward. Outside of Dallas Turner and the 2026 draft class, there aren’t many spots that are guaranteed into the future. Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman and Isaiah Rodgers are free agents, two of the safeties are unproven and Byron Murphy Jr.’s deal is expensive.

In terms of freakishness, Banks is a step in the right direction. He may have been short on college production but he had the type of explosiveness that Seattle would like.

The bottom line is that the Vikings’ defense was close to a Super Bowl caliber defense in 2025 but there is a difference between Seattle’s unit and the Vikings. With Flores in place, they can make a transition from one era to the next without completely falling off because Flores sets a baseline with his scheme that will keep them afloat. If they can patiently build over a couple years with Flores in place, the results could be similar to Seattle. That should be Teasley’s goal.

By Matthew Coller

Now that the Minnesota Vikings have hired general manager Nolan Teasley, they will instantly turn into the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and raise the Lombardi Trophy next season.

That’s how it works, right?

Maybe not but the 2025 Seahawks championship team does work well as the bar to reach for the Vikings both in 2026 but also long term.

So we can look at Seattle’s data profile from last season and their roster strengths to determine how much better the Vikings would have to be in order to make their case for being a Super Bowl-caliber team this season and where they have to strengthen themselves into the future.

In Part 1, we look at the offensive side…

The conversation always has to begin with the quarterback but the fact that Sam Darnold, Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy have represented the NFC in the last four Super Bowls and aren’t considered megastar QBs like Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson tells a story. Clearly they meet the standard of being quality quarterbacks but they were supported incredibly well.

Here is how they ranked by passing grade, pass blocking, receiving, rushing and run blocking by Pro Football Focus:

PFF passing grade: 9th

PFF pass blocking grade: 20th

PFF receiving grade: 3rd

PFF rushing grade: 2nd

PFF run blocking grade: 15th

Here’s how they ranked in key offensive categories:

Offensive points rank: 3rd

Passing EPA: 9th

Rushing EPA: 26th

ANY/A: 5th

Rush yards per game: 11th

Average time per drive: 22nd

20+ yard offensive plays: 7th

What can we take away?

— There’s some conflicting data when it comes to Seattle’s pass protection. They only scored 20th by PFF, yet Sam Darnold had the 11th best (out of 45) pressure rate and was only sacked 27 times and had the 10th best sack percentage in the NFL.

How is that possible? From a deeper look at Seattle’s O-line, we can see that four of their starters performed at an average or above average level but their right guard Anthony Bradford had massive issues, receiving only a 40.8 grade, which ranked second worst in the NFL among all starting guards. However, there were still 18 guards who gave up more QB pressures, meaning that Seattle was either able to help Bradford or avoid situations where he was most vulnerable.

The Seahawks had the third fewest pass attempts in the NFL on second or third down with more than eight yards to go. Their 169 attempts on second/third-and-long were only ahead of Los Angeles and Baltimore and were 85 attempts behind the league leaders Cleveland and Arizona.

Offensive coordinator Klink Kubiak was able to limit the number of times that opponents could dial up blitzes in the direction of Darnold.

It’s counter intuitive to what we know about maximizing efficiency that Seattle was No. 1 in rush attempts on second/third and longer than eight yards to go but when we consider that Seattle had the No. 1 defense in the NFL and one of the league’s elite punters, you can see why they would have been less concerned about having to punt and more worried about allowing a catastrophic play like a sack, strip-sack or interception.

The Seahawks also ranked No. 2 in the NFL in conversion percentage on third downs with less than five yards to go (63%). So they could run on second-and-long with confidence that they would be able to advance the ball for a first down in short yardage situations.

There’s another thing to note with their PFF pass blocking grade, which is that generally teams are able to cover up one weakness on the offensive line but not two or three. It’s possible to offer help with extra tight ends, a fullback or sliding protections in a certain way to lend a helping hand to a struggling player. Once you have two or three weaknesses, someone ends up getting exposed.

It was also very valuable for Seattle to have a top-notch backup offensive tackle in Josh Jones, who had a 71.9 PFF grade in 118 pass blocking snaps.

— Seattle’s run game is hard to figure out on paper. PFF loved the performances of RBs Ken Walker and Zach Charbonnet and graded Seattle solidly in run blocking, yet they only averaged 4.1 yards per carry as a team and were 26th in rushing EPA.

We can explain some of the EPA stuff with the high number of carries on second-and-long because that’s an EPA no-no. The reason EPA dings second-and-long runs is because avoiding third down altogether is favorable, even if you are good at third-and-short. However, EPA is also a general metric based on points produced by each down-and-distance and location on the field, it’s not a flawless, catch-all that applies exactly the same to every team and situation.

Short-yardage rushing also brings down yards per carry. Charbonnet carried the ball 24 times on third down with less than five yards to go, for example, and averaged 3.1 YPC on those runs. He was stopped 10 times, which would be a big blow to EPA.

— Seattle’s ability to lean super heavy on Jaxon Smith-Njigba without sacrificing efficiency is one of the most impressive jobs of offensive scheme/play design that you’ll see in the NFL. The Seahawks ranked No. 2 by PFF in receiving grade because Smith-Njigba ranked second in yards per route run despite getting 157 targets. Normally as volume increases, efficiency decreases but that’s not the case for the elites.

The other notable thing about Smith-Njigba is that he didn’t line up in the slot very often. Only 21%, which was in the bottom 25 of all receivers. We love the idea of moving receivers around all the time but if someone can dominate from the outside, then that allows the offense to get favorable matchups for weaker receivers and tight ends in the slot. When Darnold targeted Smith-Njigba, his QB rating was 120.8.

But Smith-Njigba wasn’t the entire passing game. Seattle had a good distribution with other receivers without leaning on a clear No. 2 option. Cooper Kupp and AJ Barner both cleared 500 yards, the RB duo added up to 51 receptions and former Saint Rashid Shaheed had 15 catches for 188 yards after being acquired at the trade deadline. So while they had one clear No. 1 option, there were a half dozen others who were capable of making big plays when their time came. Barner and Kupp both had Success Rates over 58%, for example.

Vikings comparison

PFF passing grade: 31st

PFF pass blocking grade: 14th

PFF receiving grade: 23rd

PFF rushing grade: 12th

PFF run blocking grade: 13th

Here’s how they ranked in key offensive categories:

Offensive points rank: 26th

Passing EPA: 28th

Rushing EPA: 13th

ANY/A: 29th

Rush yards per game: 23rd

Average time per drive: 29th

20+ yard offensive plays: 28th

It isn’t a secret to anyone that the Vikings quarterback play was brutal last year but it puts things into perspective when we look at the actual difference in estimated points produced via the passing game.

Seattle’s passing EPA was +93.2 points whereas the Vikings was -40.3. That essentially suggests that if the Vikings could crack the top 10 in passing, it would be worth 133.5 more points.

It’s more complicated than that but that demonstrates how far away they really were from a top-10 passing game.

The question for both the short and long term is whether Kyler Murray can take them into that ballpark to produce a passing game strong enough to compete for a Super Bowl.

There may be an increase in rushing but the passing EPAs of teams that have reached the Super Bowl over the last five years are: 1st, 9th, 11th, 14th, 1st, 12th, 1st, 9th, 5th, 9th.

The only teams to be outside the top 10 were Mahomes’ Chiefs in 2024 and the 2024 Eagles, who had a 2,000-yard rusher in Saquon Barkley.

In 2021, Murray led an Arizona Cardinals team that ranked 7th in EPA at an impressive +146.6.

The passing environment has changed since then and that may have impacted Murray to some extent. In 2024, Murray’s Cardinals ranked 15th at +81.6.

The question is: How much Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings supporting cast can do to enhance Murray’s performance to the point where it reaches the baseline of Super Bowl contenders?

In 2024, the Vikings had the 6th highest passing EPA in the NFL at +136.8 and in 2022 with Kirk Cousins it was 8th at +109.6. And they still finished 15th in 2023 despite missing Cousins for half the season.

Those numbers are a bit skewed by how often O’Connell dials up passing plays. On a per play basis, the Vikings were 18th in 2022 and 11th in 2024 and Cousins was 16th in EPA/play.

Spamming pass plays probably isn’t the best way to approach Kyler Murray.

That’s basically what the Cardinals have been doing with him though. Since 2020, Murray averages the 6th most pass attempts per start since 2020.

There may be something to be borrowed from Seattle in terms of play calling. When it comes to Murray’s major miscues like sacks and interceptions, Murray’s rates since 2020 are decent. He’s 15th of 42 QBs with at least 1,000 passes since 2020 in sack percentage and tied for 13th in INT percentage. But it seems like he’s making more mistakes than he actually is because his team is leaning on him so heavily.

What if the Vikings were able to lean more on the run game and reduce the high-difficulty attempts from Murray while maximizing his opportunities in favorable situations like first-and-10 and second-and-short?

In 2024, for example, Murray completed 71.8% of his passes with 15 touchdowns, six INTs and a 98.5 QB rating when throwing on first and second down.

On third downs with five or fewer yards to go, Murray in 2024 completed 71.2% of his passes with 8.4 yards per attempt and a 115.5 QB rating and converted 60% of first downs (only counting pass attempts).

On third down with eight or more yards to go, he had a 76.6 QB rating and converted 17% of throws.

Does that mean the Vikings should run the ball when it’s not particularly efficient to do so?

Possibly, yes. Particularly because their run game with Jordan Mason was efficient last year.

In terms of Success Rate, Mason was fifth in the NFL last year and he was 11th in yards per attempt. He may not have the same explosive play potential as someone like Kenneth Walker but he has been a handful for defenses in San Francisco and Minnesota.

In the long run, it’s likely that Nolan Teasley will have to find a running back who is a true difference maker.

Also you can only run the ball in unfavorable situations if you trust your defense and the Vikings showed toward the end of last season that they could play and win that way under the right circumstances.

Ultimately, however, getting the most out of Murray will come down to his connection with Justin Jefferson. When Sam Darnold threw the ball toward Jefferson in 2024, he had a 107.4 QB rating. When Kirk Cousins threw him the ball in 2022, he had a 113.9 rating throwing to Jefferson.

It’s been a long time since Murray had a receiver of his caliber. Between 2020 and 2021, Murray had a 109.3 rating throwing to DeAndre Hopkins and that’s the only remotely close comparison to the best receiver of the generation.

The Vikings have the supporting cast around Jefferson to match what Seattle did last year with Cooper Kupp, AJ Barner and Rashid Shaheed with Jordan Addison, Jauan Jennings and TJ Hockenson.

They also have an offensive line that can match 2025 Seattle. The question is going to be about health. Far too often the Vikings had multiple injuries, which left them with multiple weak points. They could manage their way through Blake Brandel not being an elite center or Will Fries’ ups and downs in pass protection but it would be very difficult to manage more than that, even with improvements in the team’s depth.

From a 2026 perspective, the Vikings have a quarterback and play caller who theoretically should be able to match what Sam Darnold and Seattle did last year with some adaptations and some health luck up front.

From a long-term viewpoint for Teasley, he will have to decide whether Murray’s performance meets the markers of a QB who can compete for a top-10 Expected Points Added offense year after year. He will also have to decide whether he can do it at a certain price tag. Seattle was able to add Kupp in the offseason because they had the cap flexibility to do so. It might not have been possible if Sam Darnold was making $50 million rather than $30 million.

There will also be plenty of questions to answer with the weapons going forward. Does Jefferson sign another mega extension? Does Addison sign an extension? Could Hockenson be retained if he thrives with Murray or will they need a tight end in waiting? Who’s WR3 after this year? Can it all be kept together if they pay Murray?

Combining a talented RB with an offensive line capable of pounding away at defenses that O’Connell can trust is also a significant part of the future as well. That might mean getting some linemen whose talents lean more toward run blocking and asking O’Connell to fill in the blanks as opposed to putting a hefty load on the O-line as he’s done in recent years.

Darnold also proved that you can get there when things go right but a top-10ish passing game only reaches the Super Bowl if the defense is the driver of the team. It’s not possible to run at inefficient times if the defense can’t bail you out.

We’ll look at the defense for Part 2…

By Matthew Coller

Hey everyone! Apologies for the delay on the Friday Mailbag. Let’s dive into your questions….

John… So how real is McCarthy’s discontent? Will he grow up?

Well, I’m pretty sure JJ showed everyone how real the discontent is. We don’t have to guess about that.

On the other part, I don’t know. That’s entirely up to him. Some guys like Baker Mayfield or Geno Smith eventually get it and they became quality starting QBs. Many guys never get it and end up out of the league pretty quickly. It’s up to him which category he wants to fall into. You can improve accuracy and command of an offense but if somebody doesn’t understand that this is their job and thinks the world revolves around them, they will get humbled pretty quick in the NFL.

Noodlesintheface….2026 Kyler Murray performs well, but not well enough, Vikings let him walk at the end of this year, he goes to another team and wins a Super Bowl with them in the 2027 season, aka the Darnold Special. It’s not LIKELY to happen but it COULD. So when it does, I just give up and accept my fate as a fan, right?

What a place to begin. Keep in mind that the Seattle Seahawks also let go a quality yet flawed quarterback go and then won the Super Bowl.

How about we wait and see how things go with Kyler Murray for a couple of weeks before we land on doomsday?

The favorable thing for Nolan Teasley is that he can take the entire year to evaluate how Kyler fits. If things go well with Murray and KOC believes in him and Jefferson connects with him, then they’ll put a value on his services and figure out if they can come to an agreement that allows them to build around him.

The Darnold thing is pretty much unprecedented. Nobody has ever gotten rid of a quarterback who played at the level Darnold did in 2024.

It would be fascinating to know where they set the bar for Murray to have the discussion about keeping him long term. Is it a certain level of team success? Is it KOC’s feeling about whether he can get the job done? Or is it a certain metric level that he needs to meet? Is it going to come down to price?

It will be fascinating to see it play out.

Bradley P…After yesterday’s press conferences, what’s your pie chart for who the quarterback is next year?

I’ll go with 40% chance it’s Kyler, 30% it’s a different veteran, 20% it’s a draft pick and 10% JJ McCarthy or another developing young QB

The reality about the quarterback position is that we never really know how it’s going to play out. If someone told you two years ago that Sam Darnold was a Super Bowl champion, you would have assumed it was like a Trent Dilfer thing or some starting QB got hurt in the playoffs and he played one game. Now he’s a star. Things change quickly.

Even with Matthew Stafford, did anyone think we’d be talking Hall of Fame back in 2020 before he was traded? I wouldn’t have said that, even if I thought he was better than what he did with the Lions.

From Teasley’s perspective, there’s nothing better than being able to draft his own quarterback so if there’s a position where they could pick a QB and have a veteran to start right away, that would be favorable for a longer term roster build.

At the same time, stability at the QB position also allows the GM to focus all of his draft assets entirely on the rest of the roster. We’ve seen this work pretty darn well for flawed QBs in Philly and San Francisco.

It’s a very, very interesting situation that will ultimately define what Teasley is remembered for in Minnesota, no matter how well he drafts.

Matt D…. Will Teasley be the one to finally force KOC to run the gosh darn football?

It doesn’t work like that. The GM does not force the coach to do anything when it comes to scheme or play calling. They can talk about it but the HC is in charge of everything regarding schematics and in-game management and a GM trying to tell the coach what to do wouldn’t go over well with the coaches or ownership. Remember they pay the coach way more than the GM.

There is a way to inspire KOC to run the ball more often and more successfully. That’s to have an amazing running back and an offensive line that dominates in run blocking. I saw a chart the other day that showed a very strong correlation between PFF run blocking grade and success rate for a team’s run game, so it has to start there.

But most of the NFL’s top running backs were drafted in the first three rounds. KOC hasn’t had a top 15 RB at any point since he got here and I don’t think that’s just because of his scheme and philosophy. That’s because he inherited a fading Dalvin Cook and then they were forced to scramble.

I think Jordan Mason is good and Aaron Jones has definitely had his moments but they don’t have a RB who strikes fear into opponents. That’s necessary the way teams are playing defense in the NFL today.

Pickle Enjoyer… Is Olivia Miles the Ricky Rubio that we were promised?

Pretty much, yeah. The difference is that Miles has an amazing team around her. What people seemed to ignore about the Lynx offseason is that they have three All-Star starters and the greatest coach in league history. Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride are incredible players who led them to back to back top-2 seasons over the last two years and Natasha Howard was All-WNBA and DPOY a few years ago. It’s exactly like a quarterback. What you put around them matters. Miles has the best situation in the league and she’s maximizing her talent because of it.

SKOLiosis….Hey Matthew! I feel like the NFC runs through the Rams and Seahawks. What are two moves, practical and feasible, that MN could make before the season starts, or mid season before the deadline to truly compete with those teams?

It would have to be something huge on the defensive side. The first thing that came to mind would be the Sauce Gardner trade that the Colts made last year or another pass rusher to put alongside Dallas Turner and allow Andrew Van Ginkel to play everywhere all the time.

I think they have enough offensively to compete if Kyler is a top-12 QB but always asking your DC to squeeze every ounce out of the talent he has on defense isn’t the same as just telling some freak show elite players to go play ball. I’m not down on the secondary but having a top-10 cornerback who really made life difficult on opposing WRs would make it a nightmare for offenses. Last year they only really got beat when top receivers made plays against them.

I suppose the other position would be running back. If the Vikings are the 15th best run game and then a star RB comes available, that could be a difference maker for an offense whose ceiling is probably limited without a top 10 RB.

The standard has to be very high to make a big play type move because Teasley is here to build for the future but if they were something like 6-2 with a +60 point differential at the trade deadline and we were seeing great play from Kyler and rookies like Banks and Orange shine right away, it might be worth it because this core doesn’t have much longer together.

Dermo Man…. I think the Vikings couldn’t be better set up for success in terms of GM, KOC and Flores (Is this just off season optimism?). What is your view for the next few years .

I tend to agree with this. Everyone outside of LA and Seattle is going to have criticisms for their head coach but O’Connell has already proven that he can win a lot of football games when he has a decent-to-good quarterback and Flores is the best in the business. Teasley presumably emphasizing the draft and a methodical build would seem to give them the best chance that they could possibly ask for.

That said, we haven’t seen anything yet from the GM so it’s impossible to really know how it’s going to go. And it’s all going to come down to nailing the QB.

From a process perspective, I really like the way the Wilfs went with this hire. Outside voice but a proven person at a high level from a top notch organization.

Arin J… Will the upcoming mini camp give a better impression on the cornerback room behind James Pierre or will that have to wait until training camp? Can we see if McGlothern or Vaughn have made strides?

Realistically we always have to wait until training camp. Reporters try the best we can to paint the picture of what things are looking like during OTAs and minicamp but battles are not won and lost during the spring. Nobody has pads on and they don’t allow any type of physical play. So we can see flashes of receivers and defensive backs and we can hone in on where players align and what coaches are saying about them but that’s about it.

I do think that developing the UDFAs over a couple of years is a good play and I’m interested to see how Vaughn and Demmings specifically play during camp.

We all want lots of answers now because we love football and are totally obsessed but we also have to recognize that nobody paid attention to OTAs and minicamp 10 years ago for a reason.

Brent K… I was surprised Teasley did not say anything specific about Kyler Murray in his presser other than the QB room is competitive. But the Seahawks have played Murray many times, so Teasley must have a very strong view on him. Your thoughts? Also, can you and your fellow Vikings reporters press on this? Inquiring minds want to know.

I would also like to hear Teasley talk about what Seattle saw when they traded Geno Smith and signed Sam Darnold in 2025. Rumor has it they won a Super Bowl after that move. Hopefully that’s why Teasley has full roster control.

I wasn’t surprised at all that Teasley didn’t show his cards when it came to the QB situation and I promise you we’ll always be asking about the QB in every single press conference with Teasley for the rest of time.

Why would he say anything that sounded like a commitment when he just got here? Yes, he has an impression of Murray and my guess is that he’s probably pretty skeptical of him as a long-term option because Murray is 2-9 career vs. Seattle and he was available for a reason. But there’s no way in heck that he’s going to tell us that he loves or hates him and then be on record sounding like he’s either questioning whether Kyler can do it when he’s the QB for 2026 (remember when Kwesi did that with Kirk?) or sound like he can’t live without him when you never know how it’s going to go. Teasley answered that Q the right way.

We already know that Geno vs. Darnold came down to money and Klint Kubiak. Smith wanted a big raise and Seattle wasn’t willing to do it and Kubiak was with Darnold in San Francisco and saw him every day for an entire year. It was really that simple.

Also, I just want to point out that anyone blaming the Darnold thing solely on Kwesi is being ridiculous. That was a whole organizational decision. KOC, Kwesi, Wilfs. Everyone involved owns that.

KellyJ…. I’m interested in Teasley doing a “full audit” of the Vikings draft process. Do you think part of that would include comparing where he had the Vikings draft picks ranked in Seattle, accounting for team fit differences, and use that as part of the what were you thinking exercise? Also, I sure hope he brings in some of his top evaluators and analytical experts from his old staff.

I can’t say that I know exactly what Teasley is going to be looking for when he does the audit of the front office. I can guess that he wants to understand the process of how the scouts were directed to do their jobs and then compare that with what they did in Seattle.

I’d assume that looking at previous evaluations by the team and comparing them to what they thought in Seattle is part of that entire assessment along with getting to know the individuals who have been delivering the information is a major part as well.

The plus side for Teasley is that he gets time to get to know everyone during this year and then make determinations about how everyone responds to the way he wants to do things. Then he can decide if he’s going to keep people or move on.

I really liked Teasley’s answer to my question about evaluating players, “anchoring” in analytics and then getting the coaches to figure out the fits and development paths. It hasn’t always felt like that was the way of going about things in the past.

LA Bob… This feels like Year Zero for Teasley, since he has no responsibility for the team makeup (draft, free agency, coaches, etc). Anything that happens this year is due to Rob, Kwesi, KOC. When can we realistically start evaluating Teasley’s impact on the team? 2026 trade deadline? 2027 draft? 2027 QB decision?

We can begin with whatever happens at the end of this summer. Having control of the 53-man roster means deciding on which players to cut out of camp and then trying to elevate your roster through signings or trades like they’ve made pretty frequently in the past right before the season (for better or worse).

Then the trade deadline will be really telling. If they are struggling, does he let it ride or move some guys? If the team is awesome, does he start his tenure with a big move? Something in between?

We really won’t start to see the true vision until next March and April though. You’ll have to be patient.

Basically, DO SOMETHING NOLAN!

Dale S… Any updates on Darrisaw? I like the depth they added but if he is close to 100% I think they have a chance to be a very good offense with Murray as QB1.

Yep, O’Connell said that he’s had a good spring from a health standpoint and he’s been doing pretty much everything in terms of reps. Darrisaw said that he feels the best he’s felt since 2024.

I agree with you, a lot of the offense hinges on Darrisaw’s health.

Matt R…. His agent, his parents, his coaches... Maybe Carson Wentz...? Someone needs to sit JJ McCarthy down and say “bruh, you gotta grow up.” If we don’t see a little maturity, I think his career is over. I already figured to keep his career going as a journeyman, he’ll need to buckle down, work hard, and leave no doubts he is the #2 QB this year (to be #1, he’d have to wow the coaches pants off and I think it’s already clear that’s not happening). #2 isn’t such a bad thing, as Kyler has been banged up recently so #2 QB will get a shot with this team. That said, if I’m Nolan Teasley, JJMC’s lifespan with the Vikings is no longer than after next year, regardless of how Kyler does this year.

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By Matthew Coller

Kevin O’Connell did not add to the QB competition drama

Last week JJ McCarthy gave the debate shows plenty to discuss when he gave some unexpected answers to questions about working with Kyler Murray, including saying that they were sitting on opposing sides of the room during meetings. In his first comments about the “quarterback competition” since the Vikings started OTAs, O’Connell downplayed McCarthy’s press conference, saying that the interactions between Murray and McCarthy had been “very professional.”

“I didn’t make a lot out of it,” O’Connell said. “I know there was some... some reaction to it, and that’s probably not the first time there’s going to be a reaction to those guys kind of answering questions about the situation, and that’s what part of the competition is all about. It’s going to be, look, we’re not trying to, there’s no hiding anything. It’s going to be displayed on the field.”

On the field on Thursday, the Vikings did not have an intense practice and both quarterbacks had their moments. Murray had several anticipation throws that landed as completions but two passes were picked off and McCarthy had a pair of tosses over the middle that whipped between defenders but also airmailed a couple throws. The two QBs mostly split reps while Carson Wentz took the QB2 snaps.

“What actually matters is what I care about: Did we take the right footwork on a play?” O’Connell said. “Did we have our eyes in the right spot? Did we make a protection call against one of Flo’s blitz looks? Did we do our jobs to manufacture the starting point and potential path to success for the offense? And there’s enough that goes into that, that I don’t have a ton of space left over for who says what and how they say it.”

In terms of how Murray has been learning his new role and performing during practices, O’Connell talked about him adapting to the offense and improving with each practice.

“It’s been fantastic just to see the daily growth for a guy that was with one organization, but really two schemes throughout his time in Arizona and our scheme’s a little different than what he’s most comfortable doing from the time on task there,” O’Connell said. “Just the daily growth, just as simple as comparing day one of calling plays versus today. It’s like two totally different guys.”

It has been clear in practices open to the media that Murray’s accuracy is very strong. That hasn’t been lost on O’Connell.

“His physical talent throwing the ball has been on display every day,” O’Connell said. “The ability to throw to all three levels, layer the ball, anticipation that veteran players bring to the position.”

We will see more on display on minicamp next week when three practices are open to media and the practices are more intense than in OTAs. However, we won’t really know for sure about whether the competition is actually ongoing with Murray/McCarthy until training camp.

The wide receiver depth battle is fascinating

I want to couch this in as many ways as possible because it’s only OTAs and the defensive backs can’t play physically against the wide receivers but… the player who has emerged as someone to watch from OTAs is UDFA Dillon Bell. The former Georgia receiver has made a number of impressive catches during both open practices. In particular, he has flashed burst and speed that sets him apart.

Over the years, it has been common to see receivers that shine in the spring end up making a difference when the team gets to training camp i.e. Bisi Johnson, Chad Beebe, KJ Osborn and Jalen Nailor. So it will be worth watching to see if Bell continues to stand out.

As far as the other receivers, O’Connell talked about seeing progress from the presumptive WR4 and WR5 Tai Felton and Myles Price, who were both rookies last year that saw work on special teams.

“You look at Tai Felton and his improvement and his traits that he brings to the room it’s clear every single day…from a speed and explosiveness standpoint,” O’Connell said. “He continues to grow. And obviously Myles Price… he would be right up there as far as impactful springs in his growth and development so far through six days and even beyond that in phase two.”

The element that both Felton and Price can bring to the depth group is yards after catch. Felton has blazing speed and Price showed an ability to break tackles and create with the ball in his hands.

Will that actually translate over to the offense? We’ll get sense for that as the offseason goes along.

Christian Darrisaw health update

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EAGAN — If you look at the best organizations in the NFL, it isn’t tough to figure out who is in charge. The Eagles are Howie Roseman’s outfit. The Rams are Les Snead’s “bleep them picks” squad. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch run the 49ers. Andy Reid and Brett Veach are top dogs in Kansas City.

After Wednesday’s introductory press conference at TCO Performance Center, we know that the Minnesota Vikings are Nolan Teasley’s team.

Owner Mark Wilf was asked who has the final say on the 53-man roster and he responded:

“Nolan is the general manager of the organization. He has final say on the roster of the 53. But in the end, he's going to lean heavily — and he'll say it himself — on our head coach and people like Rob Brzezinski in the building that have deep experience and skill sets that are complementary.”

The power structure and connection between coach and general manager has been a bit of a bugaboo for the Vikings organization in past years. The “Triangle of Authority” was once used in favor of a GM. Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman spent an entire year not speaking to each other. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was fired in late January after the owners discovered that the “collaboration” between the GM, front office and coaching staff was dysfunctional.

The message of Wilf directly announcing that Teasley has command of the 53-man roster was that there isn’t going to be anymore questions about who’s responsible for calling the shots.

That makes sense from a structure perspective because somebody has to hold the final gavel. It also makes sense because Teasley is walking into the Vikings’ building with a big giant Super Bowl ring that he played an enormous role in earning under all-time great team builder/evaluator John Schneider.

During Teasley’s time in Seattle, they had stability and patiently constructed the best roster in the NFL over a number of years of drafting effectively. They enhanced their good draft picks with a couple of key trades and signings and built a squad around the vision of their very good coaches.

All of that is what the Vikings are seeking to bring to Minnesota. They desperately need to improve their drafting. They also must avoid repeating history when it comes to overreacting to pop-up seasons.

Giving Teasley the reins to make up for the sins of the past doesn’t mean that he’s going to toss the idea of collaboration into the Mississippi River and cry out, “I am the captain now!”

Instead the collaboration has a “three pillars” structure.

“The way that we look at it is that we're gonna be guided by evaluation, we're gonna be anchored by data, and then the final piece, as we work through our three pillars of acquisition and evaluation, what's really important is the coach's vision for the player,” Teasley said.

So Teasley’s scouting department is going to evaluate the players, then they will cross check with data/analytics/research and then bring players to the coaching staff to determine how players will fit within their systems.

One of the advantages of Teasley being hired in late May versus back in January is that it gives him time to learn more about the coaches’ vision for players that fit them best.

“We’re going to get with the coaching staff, and we’re gonna talk about what their vision is for the systems,” Teasley said. “The players that they need to effectively operate within the scheme. And it’s ongoing because there’s levels of football, but we’re going to get into the weeds and we’re going to start working together immediately, and when we’re talking about acquisitions, we’re going to meet and communicate.”

What about when there are differences of opinion?

“If we have disagreements, we just go back to the beginning, we start over, we work together until we have that consensus,” Teasley said. “If you don't build that at decision making time, then that's part of our process, right? We're not moving forward with that particular acquisition.”

Put another way: We’re going to figure it out together and get on the same page or it isn’t happening.

O’Connell talked about the “consensus building” process being important to him when he was part of the interview process.

He noted one of the questions he asked to Teasley during their conversations was:

“‘Give me an example of when the collaboration helped a disagreement become a great acquisition in the end that everybody was on board with and 100% in alignment with, and he was able to articulate that in a way that I could envision,” O’Connell said.

The structure of decision making and the fact that Teasley is the one to push the button at the end of the day will become very important in the near future.

If we look down the road about nine months, the Vikings will have some pretty serious decisions to be made. There are a number of key players whose contracts are up and the quarterback position is totally uncertain.

Teasley was deliberate about not making any sort of definitive statement about the QB position.

“In terms of managing [the QB position], we're gonna rely on the coaching staff but I think the goal from the outset of the offseason was to build a deep and competitive quarterback room, and I think that was executed,” Teasley said.

O’Connell acknowledged that he and Teasley have already discussed how they view the QB position.

“We absolutely did…we obviously talked about our quarterback room but it's also the philosophical ways of doing it,” O’Connell said. “You think about how they were able to do it in Seattle, in multiple times, multiple ways. They weren't really ever picking in the top five, number one overall.”

That last part is very relevant to Teasley’s position.

The Wilf ownership has always rejected the idea of total rebuilds that include a team going all the way to the bottom of the league and drafting at the top. While Adofo-Mensah’s “competitive rebuild” tagline may have been tossed in his face when things went wrong, it was incredibly accurate for the way the Wilfs want roster overhauls to happen.

Wilf acknowledged that Seattle winning without tanking was part of the decision to hire him.

“That did have a factor in it but that's got to be along with the person, and I think the way Nolan carries himself, his football acumen, his devotion to process, and working with others, I think all of that combines,” Wilf said.

While the Vikings may be entering the season with a team that was built by a different GM under much different circumstances than we expect with Teasley in charge, Wednesday did feel like the beginning of a new era in Minnesota.

Teasley was the only candidate that had no real connection to either O’Connell or the Vikings in the past. Teasley can use all the resources at his disposal, especially Brzezinski, who set him up for flexibility with the cap and draft capital going forward, but he is going to shape where this organization goes in the future.

This team didn’t need to be blown to smithereens, it needed to find someone who could be an edge with their process, evaluation, data usage etc.

The difficult thing about figuring out whether Teasley’s process works or it is that we won’t start seeing it all come together for quite some time. He won’t draft or sign anyone for many months and won’t face any forks in the road until the trade deadline. There’s time to evaluate and plan.

All we can say right now is that the Wilfs’ decision to hire Teasley and give him final say on decisions was the right one. Where it goes from here, it will take a long time to find out.

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By Matthew Coller

Multiple reports came on Saturday that the Minnesota Vikings will hire Seattle Seahawks assistant GM Nolan Teasley as their new general manager. Let’s take a closer look at the hire…

1 — Draft, draft, draft

The Vikings didn’t just struggle in the draft during Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s tenure, they had issues finding top-notch starters and depth players alike during the second half of Rick Spielman’s regime as well.

The hope is that Nolan Teasley can turn that trend around quickly.

On the other side of the drafting spectrum is the Seattle Seahawks, where Teasley worked his way up from a scouting intern to AGM. Under GM John Schneider, the Seahawks have been one of the best teams in the NFL in recent years at drafting and they built a championship team largely through the draft. Key picks like Devon Witherspoon, Byron Murphy II, Boye Mafe, Kenneth Walker, Derick Hall, Gray Zebel, Nick Emmanwori, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Charles Cross and plenty of other depth pieces as well.

That’s very different from the Vikings, who have relied on hitting the lottery with Justin Jefferson and then using free agency and trades to make up the gap left by poor drafting. They hit home runs on FA signings like Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, Jonathan Greenard, Aaron Jones and Isaiah Rodgers and acquired TJ Hockenson and Jordan Mason via trade but the cost to find players in free agency and trades is much greater than hitting on them in free agency.

Seattle also did a great job at stockpiling picks. They had 14 top-100 selections between 2022 and 2025. The Vikings only had 8 during that timespan.

The differences between how the Vikings approach player evaluation and drafting behind the scenes might be subtle but there’s some things that stand out pretty clearly from Seattle’s draft history.

They have done a very good job picking freaky athletic players. The list of players with over 85th percentile Relative Athletic Score is very long for Seattle, including Mafe (99th), OT Abraham Lucas (97th), Riq Woolen (97th), Derick Hall (94th), Ken Walker (92nd), Byron Murphy II (92nd), AJ Barner (87th).

Seattle has also leaned on players who have been productive in college. The most notable example is Smith-Njigba, who had 95 receptions in 2021 with Ohio State. Byron Murphy II had a 91.1 PFF grade in his final year in college, Witherspoon allowed a 25.3 QB rating into his coverage and on and on.

That doesn’t mean that Seattle hasn’t missed on picks. They had a run during Schneider’s era where they had some draft picks go wrong but their overall process has seemed to produce quality results for an extended period of time.

How much Teasley can carry over Seattle’s success to Minnesota will like define his era here.

2 — Fresh eyes

The Vikings search list included several folks who had either been in the Vikings organization or worked with Kevin O’Connell in the past but they elected to hire the candidate with no connection to the franchise.

While we cannot argue that the Vikings are any kind of mess or disaster from a front office standpoint, it does appear to be favorable to bring in someone who can provide a new perspective on everything.

The team has perpetually been competitive but they haven’t been able to get over the hump, winning just two playoff games since Brett Favre left.

Going with an outside hire suggests that the Wilfs are interested in fresh ideas as they search for the secret sauce to get them over the top.

The ownership appears to also be giving Teasley the reins to do things his way. While there was some speculation that Rob Brzezinski might have a change of title after doing a good job this offseason as interim GM, Jonathan Jones of CBS is reporting that Brzezinski will remain in the same position as before (executive vice president/football operations).

It might have been beneficial based on some previous head butting to have Brzezinski as the team president who could oversee Teasley but it also makes sense to allow the new GM to bring in his own process when you are looking for change.

3 — GM and head coach

An interesting element of Teasley’s hiring is the relationship with Kevin O’Connell.

Having a GM and head coach on two different timelines creates a dynamic in itself. Normally we see HCs and GMs hired together or the GM will fire a coach and then hire someone else. It’s not often that a GM ends up getting hired after a head coach is well established in his position.

In an ideal world, Teasley would use his scouting background to find the types of players that O’Connell and Brian Flores are looking for but team building is much more complicated than that. It will be vital for Teasley and his HC/DC to get on the same page when there is a lot of pressure on the coaching staff to get the Vikings back into the playoffs but the GM should reasonably be given time/space to build the team his way.

If the power structure is similar to years past, then the GM should be the person with final say. How will that work out if/when KOC and Teasley have disagreements?

The thing working in Teasley’s favor is that KOC and Flores have generally had a lot of success with the players they have picked on both sides of the ball. Quarterback draft pick not withstanding, KOC leading the way on Donovan Jackson and Jordan Addison and Flores caping for free agents like Isaiah Rodgers, Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman has resulted in a strong overall roster. Teasley will have to find a way to lean into his coaches’ strengths while also putting his own stamp on how the team makes decisions.

4 — Time to evaluate

The situation with Teasley getting hired in late May is certainly unorthodox but it will work in his favor quite nicely.

Rather than having to onboard in January and then make massive decisions right away, Teasley will have the ability to evaluate everything in the Vikings organization and roster over a longer period of time.

Certainly decisions will have to be made soon i.e. contract extensions and remaining free agents but he will be able to make the move to Minnesota and get to know everyone during the coming weeks and then have a chance to see players up close in training camp for six weeks before making calls on cuts and additions at the end of the summer.

In terms of the long-term plan, Teasley has an entire season ahead of him to evaluate the roster that was built by Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell and then maintained by Rob Brzezinski and then decide to either keep it together or overhaul it. It seems logical that the information for the new GM is going to be better when he can see an entire season play out rather than trying to evaluate everything in a very short window without having been there.

5 — The QB situation

At the end of the day, all GMs’ fates are decided by what happens at quarterback. Teasley is taking over a situation where the quarterback spot is not locked in for the future. Kyler Murray is on a one-year contract and JJ McCarthy’s struggles last year have not locked him in as QB1 for the future.

Teasley can decide whether he wants to extend Murray long term, go with McCarthy or look to next year’s draft to find the future of the franchise. Or if there are other options that pop up between now and 2027, he can evaluate those as well.

He will have 2026 to evaluate Murray and McCarthy figure out which direction the team will go into the future.

By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone! Well, somehow it’s late May and we have a lot to talk about so off we go…

Brian K… Is it too early to say there’s a “feel” or a “mood” for this season? If there’s already a clear tone, what does it feel like and how does it compare with other years?

Oh yeah, definitely. OTAs is always a chill vibe under Kevin O’Connell. To be honest, I’m not sure this team is ever really going to have a mood or feel problem. Even last year when they were losing, I never got the sense that people inside the locker room were turning on each other or that KOC was losing them or anything like that. They just have too many quality veterans who have seen it all to be riding the roller coaster of emotions like you might see from a team with lesser leadership.

Also I thought that the vibes were tremendous in training camp last year and by Week 2 everything was coming apart with injuries and so forth.

The thing about this team is that there isn’t a whole lot to find out about or feel out. We know all parties involved pretty well. Just gotta win.

Bradley P… Congratulations, Matthew, the Wilf’s brought you in as senior consultant. Who’s your favorite for the GM job? Any route you wouldn’t go?

Without being able to talk to these folks, it’s a little tricky to say that I like one guy over the other but I like the idea of Rob Brzezinski and Nolan Teasley as a pairing. Rob brings the institutional knowledge of how the Wilfs, KOC and the building operate and is good with asset management while Teasley brings an outside perspective from one of the elite franchises in the NFL when it comes to player evaluation.

But on paper, there’s a similar argument for all of the candidates. John McKay comes from a premier franchise and Reed Burckhardt has been a fast riser on a team that’s slowly built one of the best overall rosters in the NFL.

Ben… I know things can change rapidly and we can’t get anything from OTAs but at what point can we start to say “ it might be over for McCarthy in Minnesota” or “ McCarthy is definitely our franchise QB”

I don’t see any point unless McCarthy actually plays in a big stretch of games and is fantastic that we’re going to say definitively that McCarthy is the franchise QB. Even if he fills in for a few games and plays well, that’s not going to be enough. There are QBs that have been on teams for years like Bryce Young or CJ Stroud where it’s not entirely clear if they are the “franchise QB.”

There might be a point in training camp where we think it’s not going to work out. That would be if we see Carson Wentz taking more QB2 reps than him.

Michael H… Please share the most encouraging aspect for potential success this season you saw at OTA’s.

Well, Kyler Murray threw the ball really well and looked comfortable with the timing of the offense already. That’s a very, very tiny sample size but it was Kirk-like. Not flawless, just what you’d expect.

My thought watching him drop a dime to Jordan Addison was: Yeah, this is gonna work.

I know a lot was made of McCarthy’s press conference but Murray’s was very Sam Darnold-ish. He seemed totally comfortable and excited to be there with Jefferson/Addison/Jennings/Hockenson and he lit up when talking about communicating with KOC. There wasn’t any hint of arrogance or treating this like it’s just a stop off.

Also I’d say that the depth wide receivers all made plays. Tai Felton, Dillon Bell and Dontae Fleming all stood out. They could definitely use one or two more guys to stand out.

Robert S… In McCarthy’s press conference, he mentioned building on his last quarter of last season. This seems to reflect some feeling he has that he was on a good trajectory and may shed some light on his obviously negative feelings about the competition’s arrival. Is there anything, statistically or otherwise, to his apparent feelings about his performance in the last quarter of last season?

Yeah, he definitely played better over the final four games of the season. He completed 64% of passes with 5 TD 2 INT with a 100.4 rating and ran for a couple touchdowns. His PFF grade was 13th over the final four games.

But those numbers come with a bunch of caveats. The Packers weren’t playing their starters. Washington, Dallas and New York all fired their defensive coordinators after the season and were legitimately the three worst pass defenses in the NFL last year.

The other thing is, he threw for 703 yards in that stretch, 25th in the NFL. They “dumbed down” the offense, focused on running the ball and limiting what he had to do at the LOS. He never threw 25 passes in a game in that stretch. Plus, he didn’t finish two of the games due to injuries, so calling it “4-0” isn’t even really accurate because Max Brosmer came in to finish out the Giants game.

So, is it statistically significant? No. Unless you think Christian Ponder’s 4-0 start to finish 2012 was predictive.

However, he did show some signs of progress to the eye during those games. He was more under control and didn’t turn the ball over or take as many sacks. There were things to build off, which is where he should put his focus — playing in control and commanding the offense.

Brad L… Assuming McCarthy is back up how does he improve over the season when he’s not getting the reps he would get as a starter?

Oh there’s a million ways that he can improve even if he’s not playing. When you’re running scout team, you’re getting throw after throw after throw against the starting defense. That’s where he needs to make the most gains. Practicing those same details over and over and over until it becomes a habit.

The other thing is learning offenses. When you run scout team, your job is to master the key concepts and tendencies of the opponent so your defense can be prepared on Sunday. That means getting a lot of X’s and O’s work. The more concepts you can understand and practice, the more you can see the whole picture.

Not to mention practicing against the defense that everyone in the NFL is trying to copy. He would see all sorts of blitzes and coverage disguises day after day after day.

Would it help a young basketball player to practice vs. Rudy Gobert and Anthony Edwards every day? Would it help a better to practice against good pitchers?

We have seen example after example after example historically of QBs who got better without playing, the most notable recently is a fella named Sam Darnold, who has consistently cited his year as a backup playing for the 49ers as the point that turned around his career.

Jordan D… Not a question, but just saw a clip on Reddit comparing the QB answers to the competition question. And general consensus from a huge majority was, “Bad look for McCarthy. He sounds foolish.” Fascinating to contrast this reaction to the reaction from the McCarthy Mob.

Probably the most frustrating thing about the situation is that the fans have become a story.

I can completely understand the folks who want to believe in McCarthy’s ability to eventually become a starting quarterback but I’m appalled by the idea that Vikings fans would be against Kyler Murray because they like JJ. That makes zero sense to me. Are you Vikings fans or only McCarthy fans?

I felt that during Sam Darnold’s time, there were a lot of Vikings fans rooting against him. They wanted him to come apart in the playoffs so the team would go to McCarthy. I guess they got their wish but…

I can’t tell anyone what to root for, it has just never made any sense to me that folks would disparage a QB like Kyler who seems genuinely thrilled to be a Minnesota Viking. He grew up as a fan of the team and he seemed really happy to be playing with Jefferson, Addison and working with KOC. I would expect that to resonate with folks and I’d think you’d want to win no matter what, not just win if it’s your favorite QB.

Axel P… Hi Matthew ! I feel McCarthy’s comments are leaning slightly toward a bad attitude regarding the QB situation/competition. Last year it was supposed to be “JJ McCarthy’s year” and it ended up being “the year in which the Vikings let Darnold go and be a Super Bowl Champion elsewhere”. That’s on the franchise but also on McCarthy. Do you think that the kid gets the full picture or that he still feels he’s being anointed (and in that case bringing in Kyler doesn’t make any sense for him) ?

I’m not sure it’s possible for someone to get the “whole picture” at 23 years old. It’s crazy, Fernando Mendoza is only 10 months older than McCarthy. Bo Nix is three years older than him. And when it comes to the maturity in terms of scar tissue that gets built up from playing many games and fighting many battles over the years, McCarthy has just about none. He hasn’t gone through much adversity before now and he has never been knocked down a peg, which the NFL does to literally everyone.

It’s only a guess but based on his statements I’d say that JJ probably feels like he deserved more time before the team ran out and got a Pro Bowl quarterback who obviously was acquired to be the starter.

I’ll always say this: Nothing can prepare you for how harsh the NFL really is. At any other point in star football players’ lives, the entire world revolves around them. Now it’s a completely different story and that’s not easy to deal with.

The Vikings are worth billions of dollars and there’s careers on the line every year. They can’t wait around until a very raw player figures it out. It’s a lesson being learned the hard way here.

Walt K… Matt, first off, thanks for the recommendations for my trip to Minny. Everything was fantastic. Went to my first ever NBA game for game 6 against the Spurs. They got hosed by 30 but I made the Jumbotron! Looks like I’ve got an additional team to root for in Minnesota.

On to football, and everyone’s most anticipated camp battle, the punter’s job. I know Hekker is the favorite but Thorson is highly regarded however he has no holding experience from what I understand. How rare is it in the NFL for punters to not contribute in that role? I know some teams use their backup QB but it seems that it’s usually left to the punter.

Also, how strange is it to see some of the hate directed towards the participants of the other lesser known position battle with the QBs? What I mean is the sides taken against either player. As a fan, although I’m partial to JJ, I want both players to play well and make the decision as difficult as possible for KOC. At the end of the day that helps the team no matter who wins the competition. Not just for this season but beyond as well.

Great to hear that your trip worked out, even if the game wasn’t good.

Back in the day the backup quarterbacks used to be the holders pretty often but I can’t remember seeing it much recently. I found a way to look at last year and PFF didn’t have any QBs taking field goal snaps in 2025. So it seems that every punter in the league has to be a good holder.

I’ll be interesting in Thorson. Punting in the NFL seems like it should be the same as college but it really isn’t. It’s not just about kicking it a long way, it’s about hitting the exact right trajectory so the coverage unit can reach the returner at the same time that the ball is arriving. It has to be in the right spots. Not to mention that coffin corner kicks are becoming more and more valuable because the starting field position for teams with the new kickoff is basically within range of burying it inside the 20. The Super Bowl was great evidence of punters’ value now.

As for the QB competition, Walt, you are a rational person, so that’s why you are comfortable wanting the best QB out there even if you like McCarthy. I’m not sure that goes for everyone on the internet.

Jason… Does it make sense to start working on a Will Reichard extension soon? What would that look like?

It probably makes more sense to do an extension for him after this season. He’s set to be a free agent following 2027. Even as great as Reichard has been, kicker is a position where guys have to prove it every year, so I’m not sure they need to do an extension before they have to do it. Not that I think it’s a bad idea.

When it comes to the cost, the top kickers in the NFL are making around $7 million per year and Harrison Butker is the highest in terms of guaranteed dollars in his contract with $15 million.

Patrick G…. I have heard you talk about if Harry doesn’t return of potentially Metellus playing more of a traditional deep safety role. what are his coverage grades, and how do you think he’d perform? it seems like a traditional deep safety/coverage safety is the weakest part of his game, and being the swiss army knife, move around chess piece up at the line is where he is most effective. does the data back up my intuition?

to add on to Walt’s question with regards to holding for placekickers, when I was young, it seems like the holder was always the backup QB, and now it’s usually the punter. when did that shift take place, and what would be the reasoning for that? seems like the backup QB would be a better choice for fakes and improvising with a bad snap.

Metellus has never had great coverage numbers but he also doesn’t have large samples of playing a traditional safety spot. In the first half of the season when he had to fill in for Harry, he was OK. He ranked 38th of 67 by PFF coverage grade and gave up a 93.3 rating into his coverage.

The thing about the Vikings defense that’s interesting for Metellus is that Flores plays more two-deep safety looks than almost anyone in the NFL. Harry would line up at the LOS pretty often but usually end up in two-deep. So Metellus will have to take on that type of role and they might end up being susceptible to some deep shots against him if that’s where he’s playing for most of the season.

The thing about Metellus is that he is such a high IQ guy that his preparation is going to be Harry-like and he plays fast. He can also go get the football when there are INT opportunities. I wouldn’t be surprised if tehre’s a lot of mixing and matching based on down-and-distance.

I’m not really sure why the QB being the holder has gone away. I’ll try to remember to ask Matt Daniels. My guess is that it’s because if the backup QB has to play, then you have your starting QB as your holder. Everyone remembers the Tony Romo thing. Maybe that was the play that killed it.

Jordan D… Ignoring McCarthy’s attitude, if he doesn’t show vast improvement this offseason, is there no timeline where this works out with the Vikings? I think if everything went perfectly he still needs 5 more years to develop into a Super Bowl caliber QB. Sounds like some other team’s project to me.

Five years seems like a long time. If it’s going to take that long, then yes, he’ll be starting elsewhere in 2031.

But if there was a scenario where McCarthy came in for Kyler Murray due to injury or poor play and ended up having a great season, the Vikings can use the fifth-year option. Or if he even played just OK and they didn’t want to stick with Kyler, they could have him compete for the job in 2027 and see what happens and then use the franchise tag if they absolutely needed to do that. There are ways to buy time if they want to buy time. That’s what we’re going to find out.

And just in general, I’m less afraid of having to pay a QB now because things have changed in the NFL. The way teams can manipulate the salary cap and the fact that the cap keeps going up by wild amounts every year has made it way more manageable than when Kirk was here. Kirk’s deals were short term, almost completely guaranteed and always carried huge cap numbers vs. the cap. Now, nobody’s QB contract looks like Kirk’s did.

Andrew C…. I’m a big fan of the move to bring in Kyler, and think this can only help JJ to sit a year and work on his craft. I feel the mistake of moving on too soon from Sam Darnold (which I was on board with at the time) and going with McCarthy site unseen may work out to be the BEST mistake the Vikings could make for a few reasons.

1. We are able to move on from Kwesi for a better GM (even if the blame wasn’t squarely on him and he’s just the scape goat)
2. We brought in a 1st overall drafted QB with great ball accuracy and amazing mobility
3. We still have a cheap QB room with a cap space to build a strong roster moving forward
Am I crazy for thinking this could be a great Vikings team with a better future than if we signed Sam Darnold, with Kyler working out to be a top 12 QB?

If you’re trying to talk me into it being actually good that they let go of Sam Darnold, then I’m not going to be able to get to that level of rationalization there with you. I’ve heard over and over, “no way the Vikings win with Darnold last year!” …Which is odd because for big parts of 2025 they looked like a team that would have been super scary if they only had a really good QB. If Darnold had played great again, they could have signed him to a long-term extension and traded JJ McCarthy while his value was still high or put him on a Jordan Love plan. That’s better than hoping Kyler works out because you already know how great Darnold was in this offense.

However, could they get away with one of the biggest blunders in NFL history? Yes, yes sir they could. There is an issue with having to pay Kyler after this year if things work out but I think they’ll be able to do that in a manageable way.

I’m also convinced from watching a lot of Arizona Cardinals football that Kyler is going to feel like he’s in a totally different universe playing in this offense and we’re going to see the best from him that we’ve ever seen.

Gary A… Do we know if Jefferson or any of the receivers are working with Murray or McCarthy outside of organized training?

Jefferson talked about working with McCarthy. Someone said something about Addison throwing with Murray but I haven’t stalked social media to see for sure.

It’s nice if these guys can get together and throw. Does it really mean a whole lot in the big picture? Probably not.

Florian K… From your latest article I just read concerning JJM’s presser, I know you’re a just a guitar slinging sportswriter and not a psychologist but, do you think he’s mature enough to handle the load of an NFL QB right now? He has the skills. He’s competitive for sure. He’s also dealt with depression and such and he’s seems like a good kid. But he’s also never really felt much football adversity. And adversity is where you learn and grow the most. You know what I would hate? I would hate if the Vikings gave up on him only for him to be the next Sam Darnold somewhere else. And that would be great for him but suck as a Vikings fan.

I try not to overdo it when it comes to the psychology but I do agree with your point about growing through adversity and you’re probably onto something when talking about how he hasn’t faced much of that in his career to this point.

I am obligated to point out that Sam Darnold is a pretty insane outlier in a lot of ways. In terms of sheer arm talent, he’s in the top five in the NFL. It’s probably easier to solve problems with being overly aggressive or struggling to identify certain defenses than it is to solve the issue of being super inconsistent with accuracy and touch on top of dealing with learning to handle an NFL offense and weigh when to be aggressive.

We live in a world where the rookie contracts have opened the door to more reclamation projects than every before though, so it’s fair to want to see this play out here.

Yesterday I saw a bunch of people saying “just trade JJ now!” I’m not subscribing to that line of thinking right now because the QB position is so fickle. We never know what’s coming next.

Bradley P… How far away are the Vikings from the rest of their division? What has to happen for them to take the north?

There’s probably a five point checklist of things that would need to happen for the Vikings to win the NFC North.

1 - Kyler Murray is really good. You’re not winning the North without a top-10 offense.

2 - The defensive line holds up and some young dudes on defense rise to the challenge.

3 - Chicago regresses a little after a year of freaky turnover luck.

4 - The Lions never get back to the same level as 2023 and 2024 because they can’t block for Goff the same way.

5 - Green Bay is just mid on offense with a questionable run game and lack of top WR and they struggle on D until Micah Parsons returns.

How possible is it? I’d give the Vikings as good of odds to win the NFC North as any of the other teams in the division.

Robert S… I assume someone’s asked this already, but when before has there been a qb room of three top ten overall picks?

In 2024 when Daniel Jones arrived. There’s probably quite a few examples of two guys like Michael Penix Jr. and Tua or Josh Allen and Mitch Trubisky or Eli Manning and David Carr.

Three of them is pretty darn rare. KOC might have to call Tim Couch and see if he can get something going.

Jimmy B… I am wondering why the Wilfs have not hired a GM yet? Stalling to make it look like it is thorough? The main question is? Are the OTAs broadcast somewhere?

The timeline has made sense to me. They started the process after the draft, cast a wide net, settled on five finalists and then did their interviews this week. We should have a GM soon.

OTAs are not broadcast anywhere and it would be hilarious if it was. I know people desperately want Vikings football and I love every single one of you for that but watching OTAs is like watching a shootaround in the NBA. There is not a ton of action, folks. We try our best to take as many notes as possible and point out when certain guys make plays but these are sllllooowwww practices. It’s a lot of teaching, 7-on-7 and individual drill stuff. The intensity is about a 3 out of 10. It’s not training camp.

Jeffrey S… Can I say I am excited to see a punter competition? And should Thorson win, does it free up a spot on the roster as he is an international player (Ie, we effectively have 54 roster spots on the team)?

I know too early to tell, but do let us know which guys look intriguing (we know Jordan Addison is good).

Very reasonable to be excited about the punting competition. I’d be disappointed in you if you weren’t, Jeffrey. If Thorson makes the 53-man roster, he’s on the 53. It’s not a cheat code to get an extra player. But if he doesn’t make the 53, they can keep him around.

The guy on Day 1 who stood out to me was Dillon Bell, the UDFA receiver from Georgia. There’s some jolt there.

Keep in mind, it’s in shorts with zero contact being allowed but every so often we get a hint from the spring who’s going to be good in camp.

Arin J….Matthew, I have been a McCarthy supporter. As long as I have been a fan Kramer, Cunningham, Culpepper, Bridgewater, we all want a franchise QB. After last season, there is no doubt McCarthy needed to improve. Murray is the starter deserves to be the starter and if he is as good as I expect he will be we will likely be talking about playoffs with only the Ram and Seahawks as better contenders.

Not saying we are better just equal to the other contenders. Lots to go and the Defense is my biggest concern with all the new people. Would love your opinion on McCarthy this camp vs others and vs Murray. Vikings fan forever regardless of the QB.

In my latest podcast with Drew Dinsick of NBC Sports Bet, he said that he feels like the NFC is as “flat” as it’s very been, meaning that the parity is crazy. There’s a ton of proven quarterbacks, really good coaches and strong rosters, making it anybody’s race. Certainly LA and Seattle are the favorites but after that it’s totally up in the air.

The way I look at McCarthy in training camp is that it’s McCarthy vs. McCarthy, not vs. anyone else. He has to take advantage of every rep and focus on himself every day rather than worrying about the QB competition. If he makes strides and commands the offense, they’re going to feel pretty good about the QB room. If he isn’t doing the extra work and is treating this like he’s waiting to be done in Minnesota when Kyler gets the first-team reps, then it’s not going to go well. It’s truly up to him how this goes.

Jeffrey S… Also, your gut feeling... Let`s assume KM does not get hurt. How good do you think he needs to be for the Vikings to give him a long term contract (I know it should be done in buckets but to keep it simple) Would he need to be a top 10 QB? Top 15?

The markers that I’d set are winning at least 10 games with a top-15 performance from him in terms of PFF grade and the team finishes in the top 15 in passing EPA and he scrambles for another 400 to 500 yards.

I know that ideally we’d like to set the bar at Murray being an MVP candidate or you move on but they’re not likely to be in a great position to draft another QB. If they can lock into place someone who’s good enough to get them in the conversation, then it becomes a Jalen Hurts or Sam Darnold type thing where the onus is on the front office to build an elite roster and the coaching staff to elevate everyone.

That’s a much better place to be than chasing, chasing, chasing when it comes to the QB position.

The fact that there is a middle class of QB contracts really helps in this discussion. If it was either pay $60 million or he walks, that would be different. But Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith, Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones really set a precedent.

jcphitman… I’ve read about the contract dispute between Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals. My prediction is he will get some sort of salary bump to help them tank in 2026 (although I do think he can steal a couple of games for them in the right situation).

I heard some Cards commentator take a shot on Murray when watching a video discussing Brissett. Would it have been better for the Cardinals to simply keep Murray his final year and forego whatever tank plans they have? They’re paying him anyway. How bad will it look for them if Murray takes off for the Vikings this season? It’s hard enough to find even competent QB play in the NFL. The Vikings clearly regret letting Darnold walk. Do you think the Cardinals will follow with Murray (I wonder if they regret letting him walk if they had known Brissett would be holding out like this?)?

It was better for Arizona to move on from Murray. Let’s say he was his usual self and they went 7-10 with him in 2026. Then the Cards would have had a choice to either give him another big contract extension or have him play on an insanely high salary cap hit in 2027. Both of those options aren’t ideal for a team that’s trying to totally rebuild from the ground up.

They won’t regret moving on from him in terms of when they did it. They will regret not being able to give him the defense and supporting cast he deserved.

Quick crazy fact: Kyler Murray NEVER had a top-10 defense in Arizona and they ranked 28th or worse three times during his time there.

Arizona is also 23rd in net EPA on special teams since 2019.

Baaaaad team.

They couldn’t keep bumbling around Kyler and wasting everyone’s time.

Chris C…. Could you please rank these WR from best to worst in your opinion?

Devonta Smith
Jordan Addison
Jokobi Meyers
Brian Thomas Jr.
Marvin Harrison Jr.

Thanks to you I have been going down this rabbit hole of trying to see if I actually think Addison is a top 20 wr and why by trying to tier them in pools. I think how I have them ranked above is how I would do it but you know more about football than I do and I would value your opinion. It’s because of your takes on MHJ that I have him in this pool. Quite honestly would have had him higher based on perception had I not gone watched the film like you suggested.

Yep, I’ll go with the exact order you have. Smith, Addison, Meyers, Thomas Jr. and Harrison Jr.

When Addison is at his best, I’d definitely say he’s a top 20 wide receiver. There’s a little bit of burden of proof in that when it comes to this year because he struggled so much last year (and it wasn’t all JJ’s fault).

Harrison Jr. reminds me a lot of Laquon Treadwell. A super strong guy that overpowered everyone in college but it’s just not the same in the NFL. He struggles to separate, he hasn’t been great catching the ball and there were a lot more miscommunications than you ever see with top receivers.

ThePurplePlague… I would bet the over on “amount of QBs starting for Vikings in 2026 season” all the way to, and including, 2.5. You?

One thing I know for sure is that there’s nothing more unpredictable than injuries. I guess I’d go under because most teams don’t end up playing 3+ but who knows.

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By Matthew Coller

A much-discussed development in this year’s NFL Draft was the lack of FCS players that were selected.

For the first time since 1978, no FCS player was taken in the first three rounds of the draft and by the end of Day 3, 239 of the 257 draft picks came from the FBS schools.

What happened? In past years, the third day of the draft was often a treasure trove of underdogs from schools who don’t often play on network TV.

The explanation is simple: The combination of players being able to transfer at will, NIL money and revenue sharing has created a situation where it makes sense financially for very good FCS players to look for FBS opportunities where they can make more money. The FCS level is being treated like a minor league by power four schools.

One of the few players drafted in 2026 that didn’t chase a bigger stage and more dollars was Minnesota Vikings fifth-round draft pick Charles Demmings, a cornerback from Stephen F. Austin who elected to stay at his FCS university for five years despite having opportunities to move up.

Only a few minutes after getting the phone call from the Vikings that he would be joining Minnesota’s secondary, Demmings explained why he elected to stick with the Lumberjacks for his entire college career.

“NIL is getting super big around college football and I had those opportunities, but I had to ask myself, ‘what meant the most to me?’ And that was leaving the legacy and being a fountain, not a drain,” Demmings said. “Instead of looking for greener grass, build your own garden. Everything that SFA gave me…it was part of my story and I don’t look anywhere else or look at anyone else’s story.”

The interesting thing about Demmings ending up at SFA is that it wouldn’t have happened under normal circumstances.

When the Vikings’ fifth-rounder was in high school, he didn’t play varsity football until his senior year.

When Demmings was a junior, he decided that he was going to focus on track. The football program at his high school Mesquite Horn had been struggling so he chose the sport that could potentially net him a Division I scholarship. At the NFL Combine, Demmings’ track background was on display with his 42-inch vertical and 4.41 40-yard dash.

He was talked into playing as a senior and immediately Mesquite Horn co-defensive coordinator Cody Alexander, who now runs the popular X’s and O’s Substack Match Quarters, knew he was dealing with someone with unique traits.

“He comes out and it’s just like, he’s an alien,” Alexander said on the Purple Insider podcast. “He’s just an absolute alien. And this was in a conference that had Division I players all over the place and he definitely stood out.”

Once Demmings got on the field, his natural talent was unmistakable.

“He definitely stood out,” Alexander said. “He made a one-handed grab falling backwards where he was completely parallel to the ground and just snatched it out of the air. I mean, the kid is an absolute freak.”

But it wasn’t just Demmings’ physical gifts that were noticeable to Alexander in high school, it was also his attitude.

“He’s a big believer in manifesting things by talking about it,” Alexander said. “He’s always been that way. He’s been one of my favorite football players I’ve ever coached. I only got to coach him for a year, but it was like, man, he’s such a special kid.”

During Demmings’ senior year, Alexander tried his darndest to help the explosive defensive back get a scholarship to a Division I university.

“The only reason why he went to SFA is because he did not play his junior year,” Alexander said. “I begged everybody. I called everybody that I know in Power Four, and even some smaller colleges and I was like, ‘you have to sign this kid, he’s going to play in the league.’”

The offers that Alexander was begging for never arrived, so Demmings chose to attend the FCS school that believed in him.

When he first arrived as SFA, however, he didn’t get on the field much. He only saw 15 plays in his first year (2021). His first season getting more work didn’t go seamlessly either. Demmings allowed a 110.7 passer rating into his coverage in 2022 and had a 49.3 PFF coverage grade.

The reason so many folks believe in the Vikings’ new cornerback is that he’s always getting better. Following his rocky start as a sophomore, Demmings took off.

In 2023, he emerged as a full-time starter for SFA and began making plays. He was targeted just 38 times in 273 coverage snaps and had two INTs and four pass breakups while allowing on 18 receptions and a 72.7 passer rating.

When Mike Mutz arrived there to take over the defensive coordinator job in 2024, it was already clear that SFA had an up-and-coming player. Under Mutz, he took his game to a new level. In 2024, Demmings was incredibly good, giving up just 18 receptions in 43 targets with five PBUs and two INTs.

Following that season, Demmings put his name into the transfer portal but ultimately withdrew and decided to stick with SFA and play out his final season.

“Stephen F. Austin was the biggest school that had offered him [out of high school], so he always felt, ‘Stephen F. Austin believed in me when really not a lot of other people did,’” Mutz told Purple Insider over the phone. “I think he deep down, leaving the legacy and having an opportunity to win a championship burned so much hotter than taking a bunch of money from these quote-unquote bigger schools.”

Part of the equation for Demmings was that the Lumberjacks team had gained momentum and it appeared going into 2025 that their team might be near a breakthrough. In 2023, they only won three games and zero in conference but in 2024 they saw a major turnaround with a seven-win season and four Southland Conference wins.

Mutz believes that Demmings saw the potential in what the team could do in 2025 if he stuck around.

“The thing that resonated was, he wanted to be talked about at SFA for the next 40 years,” Mutz said. “It was really important to him that he could leave footprints in the sand, essentially like the dinosaurs did millions of years ago. We’re still talking about that now, right? That’s what he did, he left footprints in the sand that will be talked about at SFA for probably the next 40 years.”

The 2025 season turned out exactly how Demmings hoped it would, both for himself and for the program. They went 11-3 overall, 8-0 in the Southland Conference and defeated Abilene Christian in the second round of the playoffs in an epic 41-34 game.

You’ll never guess who put the bow on the victory with an epic play to close the game.

“We talked about all we need to close the game out is one takeaway, just one takeaway — everybody was talking about it on the sidelines, and sure enough, they were foolish enough to throw on him,” Mutz said. “The final play of his career, he goes up and picks the ball off in the playoffs, and unfortunately landed and knocked his shoulder out. But the final play of his career won the biggest playoff game that had been played to Stephen F. Austin since 1995. So, I will never forget that memory as long as I live because it was such a great way to close out a career.”

Demmings’ final stat line for 2025, per PFF, was 37 times targeted, 18 receptions allowed (48%) with one touchdown given up, four interceptions and six pass breakups and a 39.8 QB rating allowed. So he either had a PBU or interception once every 3.7 passes in his direction.

On draft night, Demmings mentioned having played in different defenses throughout his college career. By the time he was a senior, Mutz gave him an island role as a boundary cornerback, a role inspired by some of the greats at the position.

“Growing up, I watched in 1994 what the 49ers did with Deion [Sanders],” Mutz said. “They pretty much said, ‘all right, Deion, you’ve got so-and-so, everyone else were playing 10-on-10. That allows you to double somebody else, add a guy to the box to play the run, account for the quarterback if it’s a quarterback run-driven game.”

Mutz said that teams often use formations with three receivers to one side and put their best receivers on the boundary in college so Demmings’ job would be to take that player out of the game.

That doesn’t mean teams didn’t try to get something going against him.

“We knew we had an attack dog there and so wanted to press him up and basically dare people to try and throw a deep,” Mutz said. “Every once in a while they may have completed one, but most of the time it was incomplete pass and it was the end of the road for those guys… a lot of people tried it early in the game. ‘Oh, is he as good as advertised?' Two incompletions, yeah, he’s better. Okay, let’s do something else.’”

While his career ended as the Deion Sanders of the Lumberjacks, the benefit of Demmings developing over a number of years and growing from a part-time player to the No. 1 shutdown corner was that he saw a number of different roles during his time at SFA.

“Throughout my whole career at SFA, I went through a couple different schemes but it gave me a lot of tools in my toolbox,” Demmings said. “But I love press-man [coverage].”

As important as Demmings’ dominant performance when any QB dared to test him, his leadership stood out just as much to his coach.

“That senior group was just so special and so spectacular but he was the voice on that team,” Mutz said. “Nobody knows the commercial anymore, but it’s like when EF Hutton talks, people listen. When Charles spoke, you could always hear a pin drop.”

Where does Demmings’ attitude come from? It’s one thing to stay with the school that brought you but another to become that team’s unquestioned leader and driving force of energy.

“He completely trusts God’s plan for him and when you do that, it’s not that you don’t have troubles, it’s just you get over them quicker and that is his superpower,” Mutz said. “It’s his faith in God, his faith in himself, and his family. And he walks it and lives it every day. His attitude, his energy, they’re infectious.”

Mutz continued…

“Some people are energy vampires. He is an energy giver. He electrifies the room and the people around him. Because not everyone’s going through something but he positively affects all the people around him.”

Demmings’ remarkable disposition was on display on draft night. Everyone is excited to be drafted but he displayed a controlled enthusiasm that suggested he views reaching the NFL as just the beginning of his journey rather than the final goal.

So how did a player who was focused on track until his senior year end up with this type of leadership and commitment to improvement?

“I can tell you exactly when I knew that football went from a habit to a love and a passion: It was April 14th, 2022. And that was the day I surrendered my life to Christ because I understood from that point that I was going to, I was never going to live my life for me again,” Demmings said. “I was going to do everything I could to serve the person next to me.”

The Vikings spent a lot of time in the pre-draft process getting to know Demmings and his memorable personality. They saw him at the Senior Bowl, met with him at his pro day and spent time with him via Zoom call leading up to the draft.

“His personality kind of jumps out at you, his energy,” Vikings director of college scouting Mike Sholiton. “I’ve already gotten a text from my wife that wants to buy his jersey. So, you know, there’s just a lot of excitement and bringing in new energy, a lot of talent…we’re feeling good about the person as well as the talent.”

While it does speak to Demmings’ character that he elected to stay with SFA, there is a drawback, which is that he will have to make a bigger leap in terms of the talent that he’s going against than players who went to colleges like Florida or Michigan.

In terms of where he will need to make his biggest gains, Mutz said:

“I would think probably the sheer volume of the X’s and O’s. In college, you’ve got to carry a lot of defense, but nowhere near what the strain is on the NFL guys because they do football all day long. Our guys still have 15, 18 hours of class to go to. So I think that’ll be really, really big to learn all the packages. I’m sure that they’ve got a nickel, a dime, a dollar, a penny and all that.”

He continued…

“So there’s different roles and different jobs in all of them. So I think that’ll probably be the biggest change. And then, of course, competition. You were covering really good Division I athletes at SFA. Now you’re covering the most elite athletes in the United States. And so the adjustment there of covering [Justin] Jefferson every day is only going to make you better.”

Demmings’ former coaches agree that he’s going to take on the challenge with the same exuberance as he did in college and his game will continue to elevate.

“I just think his best football is way ahead of him,” Mutz said.

By Matthew Coller

The Minnesota Vikings will open OTAs this week at TCO Performance Center and spent the next four weeks in the spring program, which includes a handful of practices open to the media.

Here’s a look at the Vikings roster and the biggest questions for OTAs/minicamp for each position…

Quarterback

Kyler Murray, Carson Wentz, JJ McCarthy, Max Brosmer

Biggest OTA/minicamp question: What does the “QB competition” look like?

Kevin O’Connell has often referred to OTAs and minicamp as being the “teaching phase” of the season, so it’s hard to expect to come away with any answers about the quarterback position. Normally we see a lot of rotating between starters and backup wide receivers and there aren’t many 11-on-11 full-speed reps.

If there is any extreme rep difference between Kyler Murray and JJ McCarthy, then it will be notable.

That doesn’t mean we can’t get a sense for how the quarterbacks look. This will be Murray’s first time throwing to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and Jauan Jennings and it will be our first viewing of McCarthy after he spent the offseason working on his throwing, including 1-on-1 sessions with Jefferson.

Conclusions absolutely can’t be drawn from this time of year but it will set the stage for training camp. The assumption would be that if Murray gives KOC confidence in his command of the offense that he will open camp as the starter. We’ll see if there’s any evidence to the contrary on the way.

Running back

Jordan Mason, Aaron Jones, Zavier Scott, Demond Claiborne,

Biggest OTA/minicamp question: Can we get a look Claiborne?

While Mason and Jones will be in the process of learning an adjusted run game, the guy to watch is the sixth-rounder who ran a 4.37 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. Claiborne flashed some of his athletic prowess at rookie camp but will it translate over to when the entire team is on the field?

Without pads on, we can only get a feeling for how a running back moves and whether they are catching the ball out of the backfield but we’ll look to check those boxes with the rookie.

Wide receiver

Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Jauan Jennings, Tai Felton, Myles Price, Dontae Fleming, Jeshaun Jones

Biggest OTA/minicamp question: Chemistry between Jefferson/Addison and the QBs, the depth battle

Both QBs are in different spots coming into their first real throwing sessions with the Vikings top receivers. Murray is just starting to learn about how they run their routes in relationship to the concepts in KOC’s offense but he has a long history of being one of the most accurate QBs in the NFL (9th best on-target percentage since 2020) whereas McCarthy has played with both receivers for a year but struggled to find the timing with either last year.

In the coming weeks of OTAs and minicamp, we’ll be looking for how the early connection between QB/WR looks.

While we know the WR1/WR2/WR3 starters, it’s totally unclear what the rest of the depth chart is going to look like. We should expect second-year receiver Tai Felton to make a case for taking a step forward. Minicamp is the time that we saw previous breakout draft picks KJ Osborn and Jalen Nailor start to show signs.

Will anyone else grab our attention? Last year Fleming flashed a few times in training camp and the Vikings brought in a herd of UDFAs to battle for position. As we saw from Myles Price last year, we shouldn’t write those guys off. Dillon Bell from Georgia and Marcus Sanders Jr. are two UDFAs that stood out in rookie camp.

Tight end

TJ Hockenson, Josh Oliver, Ben Yurosek, Gavin Bartholomew, Bryson Nesbit

Biggest OTA/minicamp question: Will Kyler Murray treat Hockenson like Trey McBride? Can McCarthy find him? What does Bartholomew look like?

Because of his production drop, there has been some thought that Hockenson has dropped off but in 2024 and 2025 he showed at times that he can still be an impact player — when the quarterback could find him. Can McCarthy show signs of leaning more on the tight end position when underneath passes present themselves?

In Arizona, Murray helped McBride become a prolific tight end. Will he have the same type of effect in Minnesota with Hockenson? We can expect Hock to be moving around a lot within the offense, just as McBride did in AZ.

In terms of intrigue from other players, Gavin Bartholomew is at the top of the list. Last year he suffered a back injury in rookie camp and did not appear in a game for the entire season. So it’s like gaining a draft pick. Will we see some flashes of athleticism that we expected last year?

Tackle

Christian Darrisaw, Brian O’Neill, Ryan Van Demark, Caleb Tiernan, Walter Rouse

Biggest OTA/minicamp question: Darrisaw health update, first impressions of new players, and is Rouse still at tackle? O’Neill extension?

At the end of 2025, the Vikings shut down Darrisaw after a season of him battling to get his torn ACL injury fully back to 100%. While judging his knee from OTAs/minicamp practices is impossible, we may get an update from him or KOC about his recovery process this offseason.

The Vikings made two big additions to their tackle depth so it will be interesting to see where they fit in. Also there was some chatter of Rouse playing guard. Will he be inside now that Van Demark and Tiernan are here?

Will the Vikings address an extension for Brian O’Neill? He’s more than deserving based on his play but a new GM will be in place soon and they will have to make a call on a very good veteran leader.

Guard

Donovan Jackson, Will Fries, Joe Huber, Henry Byrd, Vershon Lee

Biggest OTA/minicamp question: Will the Vikings add a veteran in June?

Even if they are planning to have Rouse compete at guard or Tiernan get cross trained, it would be pretty surprising if the Vikings left the backup guard spots entirely up to inexperienced players.

Will they add a veteran free agent after some cap space opens up post-June 1? There are a handful of proven backup types still on the market like Greg Van Roten, Michael Jordan and Alex Cappa.

Center

Blake Brandel, Michael Jurgens, Gavin Gerhardt

Biggest OTA/minicamp question: Same question — is a veteran on the way?

The Vikings seem comfortable with Blake Brandel and Michael Jurgens at center after Brandel played reasonably well down the stretch considering the circumstances in 2025. Jurgens also got his feet wet at the position last year. Will they look for an insurance policy in the spring with another center or are they rolling with the three that they have on the roster?

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone! We’ve got GM finalists so let’s dive in…

Ben… Talk me out of the fear that the new GM will more of an overall football program evaluator and not KOC/ Flores lap dog?

The next GM will absolutely be working closely with KOC and Flores and that’s not a bad thing. I just saw a list somebody made of the top 10 GMs in the NFL and half the list was from teams where the head coach has the power.

In an ideal world, you want them to be working together on everything. Coaches are always going to want to spend more, get more veterans, have less development required and sometimes the GM is going to need the credibility in those rooms to make final decisions and have everyone respect them.

We do have to remember that there was a time where Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer built a great team together. Zimmer laid out what he wanted in terms of the types of players and Spielman and the front office went into the draft and free agency and acquired the talent.

That’s how it would work ideally. But there’s no doubt that when you have strong personalities and HC/DC with top-of-the-market contracts and proven backgrounds that you’re the GM will have to work their way through potential disagreements and it’s going to matter whether the HC or GM has the final say on decisions.

Brad L… You highlighted the strengths of each GM candidate well. Now, how would you handicap each of their chances?

I’ll take a wild swing at it while adding that the Wilfs might not even have a favorite until they sit down with the finalists.

I will go with Rob becoming president and them hiring Reed Burckhardt as GM as my prediction.

If you want odds each person gets the job under a traditional structure, I’d go with Rob as the favorite, then Nolan Teasley, John McKay, Burckhardt and Terrance Gray.

Again, total guess. My only logic would be that if they didn’t want to have Rob do it, then they’d go with the most different candidates.

Matt D… Am I crazy to think that the timing of the GM hire is actually beneficial in a lot of ways? Assuming they don’t just hire Rob, the new GM will have an entire season to evaluate the staff and the players on the roster before having to make any major changes. Seems preferable to coming in and having it be a mad dash to get everything in place before the draft and free agency begin.

It has its benefits and drawbacks. If it’s a different GM, they have to live with the way the interim GM handled the offseason. In this case, Rob set up the spot in a preferable way with cap space and draft capital but I’m sure a new person would have rather done the first draft themselves and gotten a head start on reshaping the front office, whether that’s with new hires or new directives.

But I certainly see what you’re saying. The new GM can ease into the job, evaluate everything for an entire year rather than scrambling to get acclimated to a new building while suddenly calling all of the roster shots and making long-term plans.

Bradley P… Is there anything differently that you’d have done as interim GM this year? A free agent signing they missed out on? Held onto Greenard?

If I was trying to avoid contract restructures in the way that Rob did, it would be pretty difficult to make many more signings but if I were taking a few more liberties with the salary cap without being ridiculous, the two positions that I would have aimed for improvement would have been running back and safety.

There were some really solid safety free agents like Alohi Gilman, Nick Cross, Jaquan Brisker and Jaylinn Hawkins who all signed for under $8 million per year.

I understand they’ve been developing Theo Jackson and Jay Ward and drafted Jakobe Thomas because he’s a high IQ player, but that position has a concerning lack of experience if Harry doesn’t come back.

At RB, there’s no questioning Aaron Jones’ career or his heart/leadership/toughness but that position historically ages quickly. There were some very solid RB2 types on the market like Tyler Allgeier ($6.1 million), Rachaad White ($2 million), Chris Rodriguez Jr. ($5 million) and Keaton Mitchell ($4.6 million) who were the same cost as Jones. This franchise has a lot of loyalty to its special players but in a ruthless world I would have gone a different direction.

The Greenard trade is complicated. I don’t like the idea of not having Jonathan Greenard on the roster but when you look at what Philadelphia did to fit an extra $50 million guaranteed into their salary cap, it’s not something I would have wanted to do.

With Jake Golday in the draft and then maybe pick up a Kyle Van Noy or Leonard Floyd type along with Turner getting more opportunity off the edge and then maybe plan to draft the edge position high next year, I can see the vision there.

Chris C… Any chance we see a return competition between Claiborne and Price? I have been thinking about roster construction and potentially needing to use Price WR slot for someone more useful on offense. Plus it’s a way to get Claiborne (a draft pick) on the field more. Price was better than Powell but I don’t think that bar was very high so it shouldn’t make Price a roster lock.

Non vikings- Is the guitar tracking in all your intros you playing or someone else?

Usually teams put two guys back there to return, so it would make sense to have Price and Claiborne both be used as returners.

Price does have something special when it comes to the return game. His numbers were good but we also have to remember how many times he broke one and then had a ticky-tack holding penalty bring it back. He is more of a running back type back there than receiver, so he ends up being tougher to take down.

That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have a competition. I definitely would. I just think Price is pretty good at it.

As for the guitar stuff, yes, the podcast intro is a portion of a song that I wrote and recorded back in like 2018. When my old show on 1500ESPN was canceled and I started the Purple Insider podcast, I didn’t have anybody to make an intro so I did it myself.

Dermo M… My rip off the band aid proposal at the end of the season is to go all in on the 2027 draft , where QB and WR classes are supposed to be special. Would involve trading 3 and, reluctantly, 18. Would hate to see JJ go but I think we need a shock and awe approach. Highly unlikely Vikings will do it, but interested to hear your thoughts and alternatively what your splash move would be.

As the Director of Tanking for all American sports, I don’t think trading Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and tanking makes much sense in this situation, especially if Kyler Murray is good and they want to keep him longer term.

Unless, of course, they go 5-11 and the entire thing is a complete disaster and there’s really no other path. That doesn’t seem particularly likely to me.

My thought for 2027 would be more along the lines of a roster refresh where they move on from the older group of core players, add some younger free agents, develop players, have a robust draft with as much capital as they can get and have Kyler Murray on a fairly reasonable contract (i.e. Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield) and then look to remain as flexible as possible so when game-changing players become available that you’re in position to pounce.

I’m not sure this calls for shock and awe. The word that I’d use is “methodical.” That’s what the Rams did over a few years to get back to the top and that’s what we saw from the Seattle Seahawks.

The complete rip down can work but Justin Jefferson is just turning 27 this year. The all-time great wide receivers have routinely made Pro Bowls into their mid-30s. Larry Fitzgerald had 109 catches at 34 years old. Bailing on a guy like that at 27 is not on my radar unless they’re forced to do it.

Roger N… What are the most likely reasons that you would change your expectation for the Vikings win total for the season between now and the first game against the Packers?

Injuries within the team or the division might change the outlook. The Vikings have better depth in certain spots but are pretty light in others. And if Micah Parsons has a setback or one of the key players or quarterbacks goes down during the offseason, you might move the needle a little bit.

I’ll definitely be doing the “pick the schedule” bit more times on the podcast in order to see where I stand, especially in training camp. There are some things that could go right that might make me think they are going to be really good or some things that could give me serious pause. That all starts with the QB position.

If Kyler Murray looks awesome in camp, I probably won’t change my mind. I expect him to look very polished and prepared. If it’s a real struggle, then I might be concerned about how it’s going to come together.

How Caleb Banks and Domonique Orange look might shape the opinion a little bit.

JB… Is there anything that changes after June 1 if we don’t hear from Harrison Smith?

They will have more cap space after June 1 so it’s always possible that they would want to wait to have more flexibility to work out a contract before getting something done.

The thing about the Harrison Smith situation is that he doesn’t have to make a retirement announcement. He can just hang out and decide whenever he wants to decide. He could come back right before training camp so he doesn’t have to go through all the OTA/minicamp stuff or he could wait and see if there’s a key injury or if they’re 8-1 to start the season and then come help. Or he could just decide that he’s retiring and not tell anyone because he’s Harrison Smith.

We’ll just have to see how it plays out.

Bradley P… Hi Matthew, what’s your pie chart of odds for the new GM?

Considering Howie Roseman’s path to GM was very similar to Rob’s should that increase his odds?

I’m not sure you can use a pie chart for this but if there’s anything that would increase Rob’s odds it would be that the Wilfs and the rest of the front office and coaches got a preview about how he was going to do the job. The other four candidates have to sell a vision about how it’s going to work.

Howie Roseman is the ultimate example of a cap person turning into the premier asset manager in the league. That doesn’t have to mean that none of these other guys will understand that concept though. The Rams and Seahawks have been very crafty with the way they’ve built and been very good at valuating players. I’d say the same for the Broncos.

Being good at that side might also have a lot to do with trusting the right members of your front office to guide those areas, just like with scouting and pro evaluation.

Evan… Is there any data to show a correlation between when a bye week is and how far teams go in the playoffs? I get liking the bye before the gauntlet, but I’d rather have a bye week 8-10 in the middle of the gauntlet

Also, is there any data to show a correlation between injuries, team record, or playoff wins and distance traveled during the season? The 49ers traveling 38,000 miles seems like it has to be a disadvantage that will show up on the field compared to the Panthers, Bears, or Browns, who are all traveling less than 11,000 miles

On the second part, the head of analytics for the NFL Michael Lopez tweeted out a study that was done on the travel and the findings were basically: “meh.”

Teams are really good at travel these days, so its impact isn’t anywhere like what it might have been back in the day.

As far as the bye week, the hard part about looking at it through the lens of the Super Bowl is that Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes won most of the Super Bowls in the last two decades.

Logically speaking, it doesn’t seem favorable to have your bye week in Week 6 and then have to go the rest of the season without a break. But the Seahawks’ bye week was in Week 8 last year and the 2024 Eagles was in Week 5 so it’s probably not that significant.

Jason… You are a hall voter presenting Harrison Smith. Make the case to the other voters.

I wrote this in 2023, which included interviews with Andrew Sendejo and Anthony Harris about why Harry is HOF worthy.

The two things that voters will need to understand is that the advanced data has to be used to demonstrate how effective Harry really was and that his impact on the entire defense is incalculable.

So when we look at Smith’s usage, QB rating allowed on throws in his direction, tackling grades, pass rush pressures and all that, they tell a better story than Pro Bowls or All-Pros or box score stats like sacks, INTs, fumbles forced (though he’s great in all those areas). They show the complete impact.

But you can’t put a number on the number of calls where he totally messed with the opposing QB’s mind or adjusted into the right coverage or blitzed all by himself. We’ve really seen it over the last few years but he was doing all of that stuff during Zimmer too and it was a driving force to defenses that were consistently really good between 2015-2019.

It’s a tough road for defensive backs and the HOF seems to be intent on making it harder for anyone to ever get in, so I’ll be interested to see how it goes but he’s got a good case if you know ball.

JeffInSeattle

Looking at the GM second-round interview list, I was surprised, shocked actually, to see Brzezinski’s name on it. He’s a lawyer, a businessman, an experienced contract negotiator and a loyal employee. None of these things show the ability to run football operations. He did a good job managing the cap this off-season, but then that’s been his job for 26 years. We need a GM who knows ball and ball players. He has to have the guts to revamp a front office that has proven incapable of building a champion. The Wilfs should forget their “high floor” philosophy and go for a “high ceiling” guy. That said, I don’t think they have the stomach, or balls, for that gamble.

Don’t you think that reading someone’s LinkedIn and making an assumption about what they can and can’t do is unfair? Rob is way more than your summation of his resume, man.

He’s been one of the top front office executives on this team for many years and worn a lot of different hats along the way. He has built relationships throughout the front office and with the coaching staff and his ability to manage the cap and add additional draft capital can’t just be tossed away.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the GM position, it seems. Yes, a lot of GMs have backgrounds in scouting but there are dozens of people involved in the evaluation process, which is largely led by the director of college scouting. Forming the draft board and making draft decisions isn’t a GM picking his favorite players, it’s a complete team effort (when done the right way), and that includes getting the coaches on board as well.

I totally get fans wanting new blood and fresh ideas, but I’m not sure I fully understand why people think that if you don’t fire everyone in the front office, you’re bound to mediocrity. They have consistently been competitive for a very long time and haven’t been able to get over the top. That has a lot to do with the quarterback situation and decision makers being prisoner of the moment with reactionary moves.

We can also pretty clearly point to poor asset management as a reason they’ve been a day late and dollar short. It’s probably not a coincidence that the best GM in the NFL Howie Roseman comes from a similar background as Rob.

Jeffrey S… With the start of OTAs, is there anything particular you like to watch/focus on?

When do you think Harrison Smith declares he is back or is retiring?

OTAs under Kevin O’Connell is really a QB/WR/CB/S camp. You can definitely get a sense for whether some younger wide receivers and corners have something there.

I do want to see some of the UDFA receivers because I thought a couple of them looked intriguing in rookie minicamp.

In terms of veteran players, there isn’t much to take away. If Kyler or JJ was absolutely terrible, then maybe we might have something to say about it but it’s really hard to be terrible in a 7-on-7 camp.

On Harrison, it’s not like there’s a rule that he has to declare whether he’s coming back or retiring. He can just wait and see what he wants to do. I’d guess that if he wants to play 17 games, it would be right before training camp that we’ll know but he might just hang out and not make a clear decision right away.

Anglo Vike… Am I right to be concerned about the effect of a new holder for PATs and FGs? Reichard has been good in his first two years, especially last year but it’s a hard ask to expect such high levels this year in my view. Are you expecting his stats to drop down this season, if so what would be an acceptable level?

Yes, Ryan Wright was a really good holder and he built chemistry with Reichard. If they had a new punter with zero previous experience, yes I’d be worried. Johnny Hekker has been around for a really long time though and has always been a good holder so I wouldn’t expect any problems there.

Brent M…. Hi Matthew, I have two questions:
1) How do you view potential impacts from the latest Flores’ lawsuit updates? Will he be Vikings DC for as long as he is successful? Or might some team still hire him? Or Door C?
2) Is there anything on the horizon over the next 2 months that we can be looking forward to, prior to Training camp?

With the new development that 25 teams have been subpoenaed, this thing is getting real. There’s probably going to be some stuff that comes out that’s going to make some folks around the league pretty embarrassed. I don’t expect Flores to get any opportunities to become a head coach again any time soon because of that. He’s making a big sacrifice to fight the fight for deserving coaches to get a fair shot.

As far as the next two months, other than the GM hiring, there’s nothing much to discuss outside of some potential additions. I could see some free agents being added in the first couple weeks after June 1.

Other than that, enjoy ranking and speculation season. I’m going to try to create some unique stuff for you here. Try to soak it in. The season gets intense and this one won’t be any different.

And then there were five.

On Wednesday, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reported that the Minnesota Vikings have their five finalists for their open general manager position and they will be doing in-person interviews for the group.

Let’s dive into each candidate’s case for becoming the next GM…

- Vikings interim GM Rob Brzezinski

Heading into the offseason, it was totally unclear how Brzezinski would operate as the interim general manager. Would the Vikings’ salary cap expert hunt down every single cap dollar that he could find and sign free agents like it was going out of style? Would his actions reflect the team’s desperation to get back to the postseason and win in the playoffs, where they haven’t had success since 2019? Would we come away from the offseason thinking that Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores got everything they wanted, regardless of the consequences?

Turns out none of that happened. Instead Brzezinski managed the offseason like he was protecting the franchise from long-term harm while still keeping alive the idea of winning with this group of core players.

The Vikings re-worked contracts for Aaron Jones and TJ Hockenson to keep them on board, moved on from expensive defensive tackles Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen, traded veteran pass rusher Jonathan Greenard for two third-round picks and $34 million of cap space over two years.

They made quiet moves outside of signing Kyler Murray to a $1.3 million deal. They added a little depth in the secondary that was lacking with DB James Pierre. They waited out the crazy free agent market to sign WR Jauan Jennings and used restricted free agency to bring in a quality backup tackle in Ryan Van Demark.

In terms of running the draft, Brzezinski appeared to lean heavily on the coaching staff. It isn’t difficult to see the path for any of their selections and where they fit in right away and long term. We never know how any draft is going to turn out, particularly with a “risky” player like Caleb Banks at the top but they aimed to improve their interior D-line, found depth and a long-term option at linebacker, grabbed two players to help the run game and got a quality cornerback prospect.

While many of the draft analysts didn’t grade them highly (note: draft grades have not proven to correlate with draft success), there was clear logic in every pick.

When the Vikings sit down with each candidate, they should be asking: Where is the edge? What is the advantage to hiring this person?

With Brzezinski, the advantages are his emphasis on understanding capital, whether that’s in the form of draft picks or cap space. His experience in the front office also has the respect of others that are likely to remain in the building and he already has a strong preexisting relationship with Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores.

Brzezinski also has the trust of ownership to be their liaison in Minnesota and understands the dynamics of working with them.

- Broncos AGM Reed Burckhardt

A year ago at this time, the Denver Broncos promoted Burckhardt to assistant general manager under GM George Paton.

When we talk about familiarity with how things are done in Minnesota, Burckhardt certainly checks that box. He spent 13 seasons with the Vikings, starting off as an intern and then working his way up through the scouting side. When Paton was hired by the Broncos, he took Burckhardt with him.

The upside to bringing Burckhardt back to Minnesota is his background in player evaluation. He was a college quarterback who made his bones on the road scouting players and separated himself within the Vikings and Broncos front offices for having a good track record with his evaluations and strong voice in the room.

Combining the things that the Vikings did to build their strongest rosters under Rick Spielman between 2012-2017 along with the Broncos’ approach of putting together an offense that fit with an inexperience QB and a monster defense.

The downside would be inexperience. While he certainly knows the business and the franchise inside and out, Burckhardt has only been an AGM for a year.

Overall, the edge to hiring Burckhardt is bringing on a younger leader who can push the franchise forward and grow into the role. If the emphasis is going to be heavily on the draft, the Vikings will need someone who can hit more than they miss and have the approach of stockpiling capital.

- Bills AGM Terrance Gray

The Vikings’ owners clearly were interested in candidates that know the interworking of the franchise, which hints that they are happy with a lot of the executives inside TCO Performance Center but want someone who can work with them effectively.

Gray was with the Vikings for 11 years until 2017 when he moved to Buffalo, where he served as director of player personnel and then was promoted in 2025 to AGM.

Gray has been on the radar as a potential GM over the last two years, getting interviews with the Jaguars, Chargers and Raiders between 2024 and 2025.

You could certainly argue that Buffalo has been blessed with finding a top-three quarterback in the NFL and that’s largely driven their success but that wouldn’t be fair to Brandon Beane or the front office. They have navigated Allen’s contract and put together strong rosters around him, particularly on the defensive side, where the Bills have been in the top half of the league every year since extending their elite QB.

Is there an edge? Well, Gray brings credibility to the front office as someone who has worked his way through multiple successful franchises, beginning right out of college with Kansas City. His earliest work in the NFL included player development. With the Vikings rarely picking at the top of the draft, they will need to focus on finding talent that they can hone over a number of years.

- Rams AGM John McKay

The familiarity aspect in this case is with O’Connell rather than the Wilfs. McKay started in 2016 as a scouting assistant. Before being named AGM in 2025, he was the director of pro personnel and also served as assistant director of pro scouting.

The Rams’ website describes his role as:

“He also evaluates all 32 rosters prior to free agency, writes advance scouting reports for upcoming opponents and evaluates college players prior to the draft.”

Having only been in the business for 10 years, it seems like a pretty large leap to general manager. However, McKay has football in his blood. His dad is Rich McKay, who was the Atlanta Falcons GM in the early 2000s and then president and CEO until 2025. His grandfather coached USC in the 60s and 70s and the Tampa Bay Bucs in the late-70s and early 80s.

While the Vikings’ focus has seemingly been on the draft side (and McKay has some experience there), the edge to hiring him would be the relationship with O’Connell and bringing over more of The Rams Way to Minnesota.

The Rams have a very good argument for being the most innovative franchise in the NFL along with the Philadelphia Eagles. They not only won the Super Bowl in 2021 but they tore down and rebuilt the roster to reach the NFC Championship last year. When you talk about “forward thinking,” the Rams are one of the first teams that comes to mind, whether it be from coaching methods, drafting, free agency decisions or trades.

In making this hire, it has to be part of the thought process that the Vikings have perpetually been a stuck-in-the-middle franchise with some pop-up seasons. How can they get to a place where they are in the mix every year? Can McKay borrow processes from L.A. that have worked and bring them here?

- Seahawks AGM Nolan Teasley

You could argue that a franchise might be able to have a hot run of drafting and then land the right quarterback and end up with a Super Bowl ring. But the Seattle Seahawks GM John Schneider has built two Super Bowl winning teams. One with Russell Wilson and the Legion Of Doom and in 2025 with the NFL’s best defense and an offense led by a physical O-line and top-notch No. 1 wide receiver around Sam Darnold.

Teasley started with the Seahawks in 2013 and worked his way to pro personnel scout and then director of pro personnel in 2018. He has been the AGM for two years.

Seattle describes his role on their website as:

“Teasley oversees football operations while working collaboratively with President of Football Operations/General Manager John Schneider in all aspects of player acquisition via the draft, free agency and trade proposals.”

The advantage to hiring Teasley is that he has no connection whatsoever to the Vikings. He would bring a fresh pair of eyes to a team that has been good for a long time but needs something more to push them over the top. He played a key role in a rebuilding process in Seattle post-Wilson that saw the Seahawks crush the draft and nail free agent and trade acquisitions to build the strongest roster in the NFL.

But they didn’t do it quickly or in a panic. It was over several seasons of methodically adding and adding to the point where they were ready to win and found the right mix of coaching and QB play.

Schneider should be considered one of the best at roster construction and evaluation in the NFL over the last two decades. It would make sense to bring on board someone that he’s been working closely with.