By Matthew Coller
The Minnesota Vikings are turning their attention to the winless Miami Dolphins. Let’s have a look at what coordinators had to say…
When will the passing game tides turn?
Since Week 14 of 2025, the Minnesota Vikings are 8-0. They also have the second fewest passing yards per game during that span.
For seven of those wins, we attributed the lack of success through the air to the quarterback. JJ McCarthy did have some moments down the stretch but was still not relied upon to post big passing numbers and Max Brosmer mixed into three games and was largely ineffective.
The eighth win was supposed to be different. The Vikings signed Kyler Murray because he had been a good quarterback in the past. In his 22 games before suffering a foot injury and then getting benched by the tanking Cardinals, Murray averaged 218 yards passing per game with a strong 49.9% Success Rate and threw 27 touchdowns to 14 interceptions with a 68.7% completion percentage and 92.4 passer rating. He also had 745 yards rushing and six TDs on the ground in that span.
Murray’s first full performance as a Viking looked nothing like that player. Out of all games he’s played in his career with at least 10 attempts, the win over Tampa Bay ranked 85th of 86 in completion percentage, 73rd out of 86 in yards and 83rd of 85 in passer rating. Murray has also had 66 games with more rushing yards.
There’s two ways you could look at those numbers. One would be that it was an outlier game with very weird circumstances. The team lost Justin Jefferson early and Murray was coming off an injury and has never played in this offense before. They also had no run game to speak of and 11 of Murray’s passes came on third down with more than five yards to go. Not ideal.
On the other hand, you could also ask if there is a trend within this offense that is concerning. Is there a lack of easy-button stuff? Is there too many moving parts?
“This is really the first full game for Kyler in a while as far as just playing football,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said on Tuesday. “So I fully expect the comfort level to continue to improve. We’re going to do everything we can to give him the cleanest. best plan we possibly can to make sure that everyone is crystal clear with the expectations for each individual play. And we’ve got to play each play as its own, no matter what the outcome was.”
The concept of the offense being too complex has come up almost every year. Kirk Cousins talked about it in 2022, Jefferson mentioned a conversation with Kevin O’Connell about it in 2024 and last year there was the famous “dumbed down” offense down the stretch.
Phillips said that the early part of the season is still about figuring out what works and they are going to go through that process in the coming weeks.
“I think you’re learning about your team and your offense throughout a year, and particularly you’re learning a lot early in the season,” Phillips said. “I also think that’s why you have a lot of plays that you install throughout an offseason, throughout training camp…You’re trying to run enough schemes, concepts, protections, all those types of things to figure out, ‘hey, what are we really good at?’”
The answer has been hardly anything since Week 17 of 2024.
But O’Connell said on Monday and Phillips reiterated on Tuesday that there is confidence in the building that it’s coming.
“We just need to make sure that all of us are on the same page and we’re playing to his strengths, and he’s operating the way we see the plays being executed,” Phillips said.
The Miami Dolphins are not a bad team to be facing when you need to get things going. Thus far they have allowed a 118.9 passer rating to opponents’ quarterbacks.
If Murray doesn’t bounce back, then we’ll really be wondering when it’s going to happen.
What happens with Josh Oliver out?
On Monday, O’Connell announced that Oliver was having surgery on his injured bicep, which will keep him out for a long period of time.
Next man up is Gavin Bartholomew, who missed last season with an injury but had a strong training camp this summer.
“I’m excited to see Gavin play in the football game,” Phillips said. “The preseason snaps that he’s had and then getting in a little bit at the end of this past game, I really like his play demeanor. He’s got a good way about him. He’s excited about being out there. He was physical on the snaps that he was playing and he has twitch in the pass game. So I’m excited to see him go out there really for the first time with some significant snaps.”
Oliver’s role will also be missed on special teams.
“We used him from a field goal protection standpoint, but also on kickoff return as well, so it’s going to be a huge void that we’re going to have to fill,” Daniels said.
Bartholomew has been working into the special teams units and Daniels has liked what he’s seen from him.
“I want to start utilizing him a lot more because I do think he has a ton of versatility… he’s a lot more savvy than he might appear,” Daniels said. “He can work edges. He’s strong at the point of attack. He can get off of blocks.”
Familiarity is fueling Flores’ defense
Something that has stood out about Brian Flores’ remarkable defense is that everyone in the starting lineup currently has played for him for multiple seasons. There are only a couple of contributors who haven’t and they are rookies. Even Kyle Van Noy has previous experience with Flores.
I asked Flores on Tuesday how the familiarity with the players shows up on the field. He said that it’s in their ability to communicate.
“I think what happens is there’s a lot of dialogue there’s a lot of dialogue there’s different ways we we can do it… between myself, Cash, E. Will, Ginkle, Telly, Murph and Harrison. We get hit with a play and there’s a lot of corrections that are being made by them. ‘Hey, we need to get to XYZ.’ Also our staff understanding our players’ skill sets is obviously vital and them understanding their skill sets and the different ways we can either attack or thwart something that an opponent is doing.”
Flores gave an example of how players understanding the system inside and out gives them an advantage, pointing out that this group doesn’t have to wait to get to the sideline to make adjustments.
“Sometimes they take care of it on the field on their own,” Flores said. “They know that they can make an adjustment because if an [opponent] is [doing something that is] working, a team may do it within a drive so that you can’t make the correction. That’s happened where they’ve kind of nipped it in the bud on the field.”
The Vikings are currently No. 2 in the NFL in points allowed and No. 1 in opposing passer rating.
Myles Price’s vision
The Vikings’ kick returner has turned in an outstanding performance so far to begin the season. Price has a 68-yard kick return and punt return for touchdown.
On Tuesday, Matt Daniels explained why Price is different with his returning ability despite not having the fastest 40 times or the biggest size.
“He’s really good at setting up returns, but the other piece of it is that he’s really good at seeing the backdoor cut,” Daniels said. “Really, really elite vision being able to set up second level blockers, but also being able to see that backdoor cut well before [it happens. He has a way of anticipating that cut in a way and being able to set up not only first level blockers but the second level blockers.”
Price currently leads the NFL in punt and kick return yards.