The ULTIMATE Minnesota Vikings 2025 Preview

The ULTIMATE Minnesota Vikings 2025 Preview

Minnesota Vikings up next to wrap up the NFC North coming off of a huge season. They’re one game away from the number one overall seed in Minnesota. Um what a bizarre year. Is the overunder only eight and a half for them? We talked about this a few weeks ago. That’s the uh the JJ McCarthy, the drag factor of the unknown quarterback. Um we didn’t know how it was going to play out, but I’ll say Quazi Adolf Mensah, the general manager for the Vikings. If um per my numbers here, if you look at value added to the team, like what um from from non-draft picks over the last couple years, the Vikings are number one. And even if you just like let’s just think about think about what they’ve brought to the team between Jonathan Grard and Andrew Van Ginkle off the edge and um the way they’ve worked their quarterback room when they’ve needed to. They’ve brought a ton of value in TJ Hawinson trade a couple years ago on from non-draft picks. Um, and that’s put them into, you know, not only playoff contention, but, you know, team that could have gone on a Super Bowl run if things, you know, Sam Darnold didn’t collapse down the stretch. They’ve built a good enough roster that Sam Darnold could get out go out there and put up this incredible season and, you know, sign a big contract with Seattle. So yeah, I think they’ve it’s been an interesting run, I think, for Quasy and Kevin O’Connell where it’s not uh it’s not a build through the draft operation at the moment, either in volume or in actual hit rate, but they’ve built I think one of the deepest rosters in the NFL over these last couple years. It Yeah, it is a very complicated um analysis for Quazi because I think you’re right in terms of free agents and those types of things, he’s done a really good job. Um, I don’t know how much credit you can give him for the Sam Darnell thing on the basis that it was like it was theoretically just a bridge quarterback signing who somehow put in a insane season out of nowhere. Like I’m not sure that was a realistic prediction. I know. So I know it was because there’s a bunch of psychotic Sam Darnell stands that were always like he always had this in him. Like it it was the Jets the whole time, right? even though it would have been the Jets and then the Panthers and then you know like anyway so there’s always like there’s a bunch of people that always had faith in Sam Darnold. I still don’t think that was realistic heading into last year but then also you add in the draft and you’re like well like his first draft was almost a disaster in terms of Lewis scene didn’t look like he was going to be an amazing pick and then had a very early catastrophic injury that probably changed the course of his career. Second pick was Andrew Booth Jr. corner who’s been a disaster and is now on to different teams. Um, second draft, Jordan Addison first round that looks really good. Mai Blackman could be really good. He was looking good before he got injured and now he’s a bit of a question mark. Kind of it from that year. And then last year you’ve got JJ McCarthy, you know, immed like there’s so many of these picks where you have to immediately put an incomplete on them because of injury. JJ McCarthy an incomplete. The trade up for Dallas Turner. We didn’t see that much from him. So that that’s a big year from him. So not a lot has come from the drafts. Quite a lot has come from free agency and then you have this weird dynamic of last season was almost like a like this time a year ago really uh almost exactly. We were we started training camp. McCarthy gets hurt. It was preseason. He you know goes from oh his knee’s a bit sore to actually he’s done for the year within like 24 hours. And at that point, you know, I go on Matthew Coller show and I’m like, I mean, it’s basically a write-off year for Minnesota. It’s like, yeah, they’ll probably win, you know, the same standard six, seven, eight games, but it’s it’s a waste of time now. Uh cuz the season just went up in smoke and then Darnell has an amazing year right up until the death and then chokes, collapses, capitulates, the whole thing spirals out of control, and they move on from it. And that’s where I think the combination of Quazi and then Kevin Oonnell. We talk about head coaches and having multiple opportunities to have different types of quarterbacks and win. Uh Kevin Oonnell has now elevated Kirk Cousins to his best season as far as wins and losses go. He’s uh brought Sam Darnold back um and had that massive season last year 14 and three. And now can he do it with JJ McCarthy, right? And if there’s more evidence of that Kevin Oonnell, we’re going to start I’m going to start putting him into this Kyle Shanahan. Um, not that you can make every quarterback great, like Kyle Shanahan didn’t make Trey Lance great, but he’s made all he’s elevated a lot of quarterbacks statistically and Okonnell has a chance to do that now. Um, with JJ McCarthy and I think part of the Sam Darnold analysis, it goes back to the team building effort. They dropped him into Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawinson as a trio of pass catchers. That helps quite a bit. Um, the offensive line had their issues last year, especially on the interior. really nice group of um pair of tackles with Christian Darasaw and Brian O’Neal. They, you know, lost Darasaw, replaced him with Cam Robinson, but the interior was an issue. But now coming into this year, you bring in Ryan Kelly, Will Fry, both from the Colts. Um theoretically shoring up uh two of those starting spots and then Donovan Jackson with your first round pick. I just think they continue to add talent on both sides of the ball. We’ll talk about the defense in a minute, but I think JJ McCarthy now with his red shirtish type of year dropped into this situation where the O line looks good, the playmakers might be the best group in the NFL or at least a top three group, he is set up for success. Yeah, it’s a great situation for him. There’s no doubting that. Um, between the playmakers they’ve got, there’s talent in the backfield. Kevin Oonnell is a fantastic coach. On paper, the offensive line could be one of the best units in the NFL. Now the only caveat there is you know we know there is power to just continuity which means almost the reverse of that is true as well. Just because you upgraded at on paper at you know three different spots doesn’t mean you’re not going to lose something by the lack of continuity in those three different spots. Like every single player on that offensive line will now be playing effectively next to somebody new. Even the two guys in the Colts were not playing together for a lot of that time. So, it’s it’s it’s a very new unit on the offensive line. Even if it’s better on paper, it might not be as good as people think it will be just because it’s going to take some time to gel, but in theory, that’s an amazing situation for a young quarterback to step into. Plus, the defense was a nasty last year and b has had a lot of upgrades as well. So, the defense could be amazing. Um, the one not caveat, but the one sort of question mark. So, you’re like, look, it’s it’s a great spot for a young quarterback to come in, hit the ground running, and be amazing and repeat what Sam Darnold did. The one thing that’s a little bit different, though, is like remember what JJ McCarthy looked like in Michigan where it was like at times it was almost a joke how little they let him pass the ball. It’s like you’re we’re going to run the ball, we’re going to dominate, we’re so good, you’re just a glorified, you know, handoff merchant. You’re like, you barely need to do anything. The ideal Harbaugh game for JJ McCarthy was like, you know, 17 for 21 or whatever, right? If you look at what Darnold had to do last year, it wasn’t that, right? Every game except two, he had more than 30 dropbacks. In 1, two, three, four, five, six games, he had more than 40 dropbacks. And in one game, he had 50. McCarthy’s basically never done that. So that’s the one thing we don’t know is whatever about his efficiency and his poise and his accuracy and all those kinds of things. We don’t really know what happens if you ask him to drop back 40 times a game more than once. Yeah. I mean, you go back to your pre-draft, what did you think of JJ McCarthy? You know, good athlete, throws well on the run. Um, like the way he maneuvered the pocket, goes through reads, never had to carry the team. And not only that, but they again, I go back to that Penn State game that year. Literally didn’t throw the ball in the second half of the game against Penn State. Drop backs in the game. Yes. And there’s there’s elements of, well, they were so loaded on the offensive line and with their running back room and they just that’s how they wanted to win. The other hand, okay, fine. Even if that’s the case, even if it’s only because the rest of his team, it’s you haven’t seen it. It’s because you haven’t seen it. It’s not saying like they believed in him so little that they never let him throw the ball. It doesn’t have to be that. It’s simply because they did that. Even if it had nothing to do with JJ McCarthy, it means that we have no idea what happens if you say for the next 3 weeks you’re going to be passing the ball on average 42 times a game. We’ve no idea what that looks like for him. Hey guys, real quick. Only 40% of our viewers are actually subscribed. So, let’s change that. Hit that subscribe button. And now, let’s get back to the action. So, yeah. So, I look, I can’t wait to see that one, too. I get so excited at this time of year because all of these storylines I’m as as a fan I want to see how this unfolds. The Vik but the Vikings are set up. I mean JJ McCarthy might be in the best situation a young quarterback’s been in in a long time including the the the the red shirt year, the year to learn that we always talk about. Well, Mahomes had it and Brady had it and Drew Brees had it and you go back through the list. Aaron Rogers had it and it doesn’t mean it always works. Carson Palmer had it. You just remember all the guys who had that pretty much full season or more to sit and learn. Well, JJ McCarthy has it another data point in the do you sit the quarterback even if it’s because of injury. So, we had that. Andy’s got this theoretical good line, great group of pass catchers and KOC running the show. Um, defensively, I love this story, too. I mean, you’ve got um a defense that’s been crazy aggressive, uh blitzing out of this world and Brian Flores, you know, changing the game, his his own unique style that no other defense is really employing around the NFL. And we thought it may have just been because of it was personnel driven in 2023 because they had no pass rushers. Then they loaded up on pass rushers last year, still did it, and they’ve loaded up on more pass rushers this year. So, I think on paper, this is probably the best defense Brian Flores has had. Does he still, you know, keep coming after defenses, keeping uh keep coming after offenses and keeping them off balance with this group? Yeah, it’s a fascinating group. I’d kind of forgotten until watching that uh Jared Goff Netflix thing that like, you know, the first two times that he went up against Flores defense with, you know, in New England that he he got wrecked. Well, Flores was his kryptonite, right? This was when they went up against Flores, it was like zero blitz, Jared Goff. It was like he had never seen a zero blitz in his life and he would just throw the ball up to Stefan Stfan Gilmore in the Super Bowl right and he had a stinking game against him in Miami as well. It’s like and then then Ben Johnson and Detroit sort of figured they became the team that figured out the Flores defense at least as as well as anybody has. But other than that, I mean this defense has caused absolute fits for almost anybody that’s gone up against it. And it’s done that with I think a relative lack of personnel talent on defense. like they have not had one of the best personnel groups in the league in the last couple of years. They’ve improved it, I think, year on year. And as you said, you know, Jonathan Gernard coming in, Andrew Vankel coming in, even with even balance with the loss of a guy like Dell Hunter, you know, is an upgrade, I think, and moving in the right direction. They’ve drafted some good players. They they brought in other good uh free agents. Um, as Ben says, you’ve got uh NFL spotlight guest tomorrow, Josh Matelis, who’s, you know, also been a really important part of the defense. But like there is talent on the group, but I think every year they’ve added more and more talent to the defense and sort of bridge the gap between what Brian Flores defense schematically has been doing and what the group is able to do one-on-one. fascinating this off seasonason because you add Javon Harrave, Jonathan Allen, two guys who in their or on their resumes have been two of the most disruptive defensive tackles in the NFL. Now, the caveat there is certainly in Allen’s case hasn’t really been for a while. Hard Graves case, you know, not coming off his best year and been injured. But if those two guys could recapture anything like that form, this defense could be scary. Well, that’s why I wanted to see how Allen and Hargrave are deployed because even Allen last year, again, the PFF grades need context. They’re 56 for Allen, 60 for Hargrave. Sure. I don’t think either one’s great in the run game the way they’ve been deployed. I think Allen still has enough quicks and juice to to rush the passer. And I think Hargrave does as well. And remember Allan like he suffered what was termed a season ending pectoral injury I think at the time and then came back and his first game back was like nine pressures or whatever. But he generally just doesn’t hold the point really well or whatever it might be. But the Vikings as I I mentioned last year they didn’t have any great PFF grades from any of their defensive linemen. But they were still because they stacked the box they were still very good against the run. Both guys are still capable I think of high-end play. So this is I think just from a team building standpoint just a fascinating story to see okay you know you’ve got this schematic advantage against the run you don’t need to invest in great run defenders necessarily just send them all after the quarterback let the scheme take care of the run with the um extra man in the box because you could play that way so now uh but you also have the ability to just rush with four um you can send Allen and Hargrave and my guy Jaylen Redmond as part of the rotation who was outstanding last year and you’ve got Van Ginkle You have Gernard and oh by the way you have Dallas Turner your first round pick last year who you didn’t really even need was already a developmental prospect. He heads into year two um with his length and speed and ability to move around. So you have I would say five to six pass rushers that defenses have to account for and the blitz before you get into the blitz right before you have Ivan Pace is one of the best blitzing linebackers and Blake Kman’s really good in that role before you even get into the schematic aspect. And that the reason why Mattelis has been signed is because he’s versatile, too. He could play deep safety, play in and around the line of scrimmage. And uh he’ll be on Spotlight with Arirov. Go check that out. Subscribe wherever you’re listening to us to NFL Spotlight, our friends and partners over here at 33rd Team. So, um this is one of the most fascinating defenses in the league. Once again, it is. I And I think that that front seven in particular could be really really good. I my question for them is a corner. Um you know, they bring in Isaiah Rogers. I you know he’s solid maybe as a number two. Uh the number one like who was their starter on the other side. Mai Blackman I think is the guy that looked like the best corner they had before he got hurt and tore his ACL. He’s got to come back and show he can be that guy again. Jeff Akuda is now on this circuit of just bouncing around the NFL as a former top five draft pick who’s never been good in the NFL but will get endless opportunities to try and rescue his career because he was such a high draft pick. I mean, you know, if they have to start Jeffrey Akuda at one spot, that’s a problem based on his career so far. Um, they’re similar to the Packers, though, where there’s not a whole lot of just pure one-on-one opportunities for the corners. So, I think and that’s why I think Blackman should be the guy. I mean, I would be surprised if he’s not a starting corner for them based off what we’ve seen from him in the NFL. Um, it’s and of course, you got Byron Murphy who can play outside if they need him to. When we talk corners, we always put them into the two outside guys in the slot. Murphy has been one of the better slot corners in the league. So, but again, I don’t like him as much outside nearly as much. So, the the question I have for this defense coming in, uh, Flores, it wasn’t like this was Flores’s style with New England or with Miami. Like, this has been unique to Minnesota, how often, um, he’s moving around, uh, rushing three, rushing six. Um, how does he evolve as a coordinator? And as we said in all of the individual matchups against the Lions last year, the Lions continue to torch him. Jared Goff continues to torch him. Does he change? Does he stop blitzing? And so this year, was that a Ben Johnson scheme thing? Will they do it with Will they still have the answers with John Morton as offensive coordinator in Detroit? So I want to see how Flores handles this season as they have he has a second straight year of an influx of of pass rushers here. So, if they want to be more traditional, fourman rush, play cover two, do all the scheming on the back end instead of at the line of scrimmage, I think Flores has that ability to change the scheme even more to put pressure on the offense in a different way. It’s a fascinatingly unique defense because you got a lot of defenses now that are that sort of can trace their lineage back to some degree to Rex Ryan. You know, this that kind of where you used to put Rivas on an island and then be psychotic blitzing everybody else from all over the place. Flores does it slightly differently and I don’t think has any ties to Rex Ryan, but in a way it’s a similar dynamic and he’s almost at the forefront of this like anti- um Vicio type of scheme that’s starting to proliferate. It’s a really interesting and good defense. All right, man. Overunders eight and a half. When we did the uh overunder the win total show, we said, “Here’s a team that won 14 games returning many of the same players, but you just there’s uncertainty at quarterback.” And that has to affect the number, right? It definitely makes me feel like, man, I I love this defensive line. I I love what KC’s done. I love the pass catchers, the improvements on the offensive line. I mean, instinctually, I’m thinking this has to go over. Yeah. But JJ McCarthy, we don’t really know what we’re getting from JJ first year as a starter. We don’t. But it feels like he won’t be six games worse than Sam Darnold was last year. Even, you know, giving him full credit for how fantastic Sam Darnold was last year. I mean, that’s a lot to get worse. You know what I mean? I I’m going to go over even if McCarthy is not amazing. I will also take the over for the Vikings. Thanks for watching all the way to the end of our video. Check the mic is live every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. 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Steve Palazzolo and Sam Monson are back in the studio to preview the ENTIRE 2025 Minnesota Vikings season! 💜💛

It’s a huge year in Minnesota. After an injury cut his rookie campaign short, J.J. McCarthy enters Year 2 as the unquestioned starter under center. With a full offseason to prepare and a roster loaded with talent — including stars like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson — the expectations are high.

Brian Flores returns to lead a feisty defense that showed serious promise in 2024, and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah continues to build one of the deepest rosters in the league. But can McCarthy stay healthy and deliver in a loaded NFC North?

Steve and Sam dive into the full season outlook — from breakout candidates to win projections — in this must-watch Vikings preview.

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