Minnesota Vikings vs. New York Giants Preview, Injury News & Analysis | NFL Week 16

Coming up on today’s show, I have a preview of this week’s 16 matchup between the Vikings and the Giants with my guy Marshall Green. But if you guys want JJ McCarthy to have his third game in a row of playing good football, go down there, hit that thumbs up icon. [music] Yo, what’s going on everybody? joined by my guy Patrick Seamman, the host of our Vikings channel here at Chat Sports as we preview this game between the best two young quarterbacks in the NFC. That’s what some are saying. >> Experts are saying, actually, experts are saying that. But yeah, fired up to be here. Marsh and I back chopping it up about our two favorite football teams and the battle of 6 verse N this weekend at Metife Stadium. >> All right, nice. Let’s dive into it. One of the things I’m immediately looking for, we’ll talk about JJ McCarthy coming up here in a little bit. Mike Cafka. Um, great words from him at the podium as always. He owns that podium. The greatest. Um, I’m looking at Jackson Dart versus Brian Flores defense. LA last week I got to watch the Minnesota Vikings up close and personal. And I’ll just toss it to you here, Seeps. What can Jackson Giants fans, this Giants offense expect from Flores and what they do over there? Yeah. So, his bread and butter is just lining either six, seven, eight guys up on the line of scrimmage. I mean, you guys will probably see this look almost every single second, third, and long pretty much throughout the entire game. Obviously, he’s got the highest blitz rate in the NFL. NextG stats been uh counting this since 2014. So, that’s the highest rate that we have seen since or third highest rate since we’ve seen since 2014. But he’ll line up six, seven, eight guys on the line of scrimmage. And Jackson Dart like his job is one to determine who’s coming, then what coverage Vikings are running on the back end. like Flores has just had a field day against young quarterbacks since becoming the Vikings defensive coordinator. Now, I will say no Jonathan Gdard in this matchup and also no Josh Matelis. And Josh Matelis, he is a Swiss Army knife just like Andrew Vano in this defense. He’ll play free safety. Will hop play some nickel, even hop, play some edge defensive line. But I mean, Flores is just going to change all the uh challenge the processing side of the game for Jackson Dart. Obviously, young quarterbacks, they’re a little behind the eightball as of late in the processing side of the playing the quarterback position, but he’s just going to challenge them. And I will say the one thing about the Vikings defense where they are susceptible attack in the middle of the field and also if you can establish run game we have seen quarterbacks like the Jared Goffs of the world. Those guys have always had more success against Flores compared to like a guy like Jaden Daniels this past year. Those mobile guys or even Lamar Jackson. Flores has a field day on those types of quarterbacks. So I think it will really kind of pressure Jackson Dart’s ability just to hey get the ball out on time, be accurate, just take what the defense is giving you. Um, but Flores, in my opinion, and you guys will see this on Sunday, he is my favorite defensive coordinator to watch in the NFL. Obviously, I’m a little biased towards that, but I just love the way he’s calls the shots, lining everybody up on the line. He could send three, he could send all eight. And also, I think he does that, too, because Harrison Smith, he is uh, he’s an old man at this point. He is pretty much either dropping into a deep half or he is coming after the quarterback. But it’s just pretty much the hellfire Brian Forest defense is what we like to call it. >> Yeah. and how Jackson Dart is going to be able to fare against that blitz. Some of these playmakers the Vikings have on defense. I this is going to be a big test for him. And you talked about the Vikings defense being kind of susceptible to give up plays over the middle of the field. That’s one of the areas that Jackson Dart has had the most success. The thing is over the last couple of weeks, the amount of times he’s thrown over the middle of the field has dwindled. They just don’t really have a guy that can kind of just set up shop, find the holes in the defense, and dominate in between the hash marks. This year, when Jackson Dart targets the middle of the field from 0 to 10 yards, he’s 44 of 54 for 391 yards and he has an NFL passer rating of 95.3. You move to 10 to 20 yards down the field, 13 to 25. Those are good numbers, two touchdowns, but only 25 targets to that spot. Then you talk about having to deal with the pressure of the defense that Flores is going to roll out this week. And you can see that Jackson Dart has had some success this year against the Blitz. When he is blitzed this year, he’s completing 62.1% of his passes for 700 yards, eight touchdowns to three interceptions, a PFF grade of almost 71. Five big time throws, just two turnover worthy plays when Blitz this year. I think that he’ll see a defense he hasn’t seen so far this year. And how Brian Flores is going to be able to try to take the ball away from Dart will be critical. And we’ve all seen the Hard Knocks clips. We saw um Dan Quinn talk about you got to treat Jackson Dart as a running back. You want to put hits on him. I can promise you this and I’m sure you could speak to it as well. Brian Flores is pounding the table saying if Jackson Dart moves past that line of scrimmage as a runner, let’s take him out of the game and let’s get the football off him. >> Yeah, 100%. I mean, the Vikings have been a just physical defense. Even though Kevin Oonnell, he’s kind of got more of a finesse feel to his football team. You know, beat you on the outside, but that side of the football, the defense, they’re going to hit you. I mean, they hit everybody. And I will say the one thing about Jackson Dart, and I’m curious to see how he’s going to do this weekend, is the Vikings, they generate pressure extremely extremely well. They have one of the highest rates in the league, but they don’t get the quarterback always down. Their pressure to sack ratio has not been up to par as what it’s been over the last couple years. So maybe Dart, if he’s got Dallas Turner, Van Ginkle coming in free, or maybe even a guy like Harrison Smith comes in free, if he can just kind of evade the pocket, make one guy miss, then that opens everything up because you think about it, you’re lining up seven, eight guys, let’s just say six of them come, the one guy comes in free, but he kind of gets away from him, then it’s just kind of you’re playing backyard football. And that’s where I do feel like Jackson Dart, I mean, obviously, you know, that when he’s playing backyard football, he has had some big time success this season. >> Yeah. And we’ll see if the Giants try to maybe scheme up some quarterback draws. They’ve been a little bit hesitant to do so because the big bad national media has ting up the narrative that Jackson Dart takes too many hits. Um, I’m just kind of over it at this point. Let’s transition to the other side of the football. JJ McCarthy’s looked great over the last two weeks. was a player that the Giants heavily scouted on Easter. Brian Dable and Joe Shane flew to Ann Arbor to do a personal workout. What have you seen from him over the last two weeks that is different and has resulted in more success outside of the fact that he played two lousy NFC East defenses? >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s number one here. I mean, let’s see if he can keep stacking these games. I mean, the Commanders Cowboys, obviously, you guys know this as Giants fans, bottom of the barrel in terms of just defenses he has played. But the one thing I’ve liked, and this kind of goes back to Kevin Okonnell, he’s been getting JJ McCarthy confidence early in these games cuz he is a very up and down player. I mean, when his confidence when he loses it, and he kind of loses that swag or the whole alter ego nine, like he can completely unravel. But early on in these games, like Kevin Oonnell, he never just goes five wide, at least normally as the head coach. Past two weeks, he’ll just go five wide all hitches just to get McCarthy an easy one. But also once he started to stack those, he’ll start get some easy completions. We have really seen him rip the ball down the field. I mean, right now he’s tied with Matthew Stafford in terms of big-time throw percentage this year, 7.2%, but he also he’ll put the ball in harm’s way. His turnover worthy play percentage is 4.6. 16 big time throws, 12 turner uh turnover worthy plays on the season. He is just a very volatile quarterback. Like he will take the top off the defense. He is not afraid to push the ball down the field. That is the one thing like KOC has been harping on it like dude just go play some more backyard football. Stop overthinking. Now, the one downside of McCarthy this year, and it’s been talked about a whole lot, the mechanics, like the lower body not being connected to the upper body, he has that back foot. It would just fly up in the air and >> a pitcher almost. >> It is like a pitcher. And then we’ve seen like I’m sure you saw in that Cowboys game, the one ball he sailed to Jefferson on that deep crosser. He did get hit late, but that back foot is just flying up and he can just rip these, you know, over the defense. Now, I also will say on uh Justin Jefferson, um JJ McCarthy last week against the Dallas Cowboys, he had a perfect passer rating when targeting everybody else besides that guy right there, Justin Jefferson. When he targeted Jefferson, he was two of eight for 22 yards and an interception. So, clearly those two haven’t been able to >> why I don’t I mean, JJ, I will say, doesn’t throw the most catchable football. I mean, he has a ton of velocity on his throws. And also, Jefferson has had a couple of uncharacteristic drops this year. I don’t think he’s playing at the level that he did in 2022 where he was top five in MVP voting or 2024 last season where he was absolutely fantastic. But those guys, I mean, Jefferson was banged up during training camp with a hamstring injury. JJ’s obviously been, you know, hurt for majority of this season. But he’s got a great connection with Jaylen Naylor. Really good connection starting the bill with TJ Hawinson. But still, even Addison, he’s had some drops from JJ’s throws. It’s just sometimes JJ, it’s just those loft and touch throws that, you know, he just hasn’t been really able to figure out uh yet at the NFL level. >> Don’t worry, Paulson, Adbo, Cordell Flaw, and Andrew Phillips uh will draw the assignment of slowing down Justin Jefferson. So, I’m sure this will be a big game and one for him and McCarthy maybe to get back on track and build that chemistry. Look, neither team is playing for anything at this point, but there is still so much to play for. Mike Cafner, a head coach, trying to put his best foot forward and put his hat in the in the ring of trying to be the next head coach of this football team. And whether you’re team tank or or you want to win games, like this game is critical. And I I remember I was talking to you the other day and I was like, we expect for the Vikes to be five and a half, six and a half point favorites. And you wake up on Monday morning and it’s one and a half and it’s two and a half and I think it’s at three. >> It’s three right now. But also 90% of spread bets on draft kings are on the Vikings. So maybe Vegas. >> If the Vikings lose this game, it is because blank and it looks like what? >> I think it’s probably because JJ McCarthy spirals like we have seen so far this season. Now listen, Christian Darasol is probably not going to go all world left tackle for the Minnesota Vikings. Brian O’Neal, their right tackle, should be able to go out there. But I mean, the Giants, even though their defense has struggled a lot this year, you still got Brian Burns, you still got Abdullah Carter, and Kavon Tibido should be good to go this weekend. >> We’ll see. I think it’s trending towards no, but we’ll we’ll see at this point. Who knows? >> And if they just hit McCarthy early, we can see his confidence get shaken a little bit. And, you know, also one thing with the Vikings that they have changed about their offense the last couple weeks, they never ran 13 personnel throughout the uh up until the last two weeks. The past two weeks, they’ve been running it. I think they had five plays heading into that commander game. They ran it 10 times against Washington, eight times against >> one back, three tight ends for all the non-nowers of what that is. >> And that kind of is now the new meta, the new personnel. I mean, uh, the Los Angeles Rams, they run 13 personnel a quarter of their snaps. This year, the Vikings still only run it about 2 and a half% of the time. So, watch out for that. Kevin Okano, he also lives out of 11. They run that 68% of the time. So, you know, and obviously like the Vikings have some really, really good wide receivers. But if the Giants do win, I don’t think it’s going to be a shootout. Like, you know, Dart’s awesome. I love his game. It’s just a really tough match up. Now, if the Giants had neighbors, if they had Scatteraboo and they could run the football a little more, maybe could find some success. But I think the Giants win this game is, you know, if the defense shows up and they just get McCarthy off the spot early and he starts just completely unraveling, which we have seen him do. Like that Packers game the Vikings had up until some garbage time. They had negative 25 offensive yards in the second half. followed that up in Seattle. Different quarterback goes Brosmer, but they got shut out. Like this offense can go through spurts where they are just completely incompetent. >> What is one thing that you maybe want to see from McCarthy in this ball game? >> Uh from JJ. I mean, the one thing I’ve been looking for, you know, all season is just the touch throws and him laying the football. We saw him on a couple of plays um against Dallas. He had one fourth and three. The Jaylen Naylor threw him a nice little back shoulder ball which was really good. He had one corner route to TJ Hawinson. He was just running a naked corner. He was holding his block peeled off after a couple seconds and that was a good throw. But I just want him to keep building on what he’s been doing because, you know, you talk about people playing for their jobs. JJ McCarthy’s playing for his job. I don’t think Jackson Dart’s playing for his job. MOST LIKE MOST YOUNG >> COLIN Coward said they should go draft Fernando Mendoza. >> Yeah. I mean, the easiest scout in the world is Fernando Mendoza. Pro style offense. But, you know, he is playing for his job because Kevin Oonnell, Quy Dimens, like I’m not saying they’re on the hot seat, but KOC is going to be the first head coach to get his fifth year since I believe it was a uh Washington head coach in 2018 to get his fifth year without getting fired, without winning a playoff game. Wow. So, there is some pressure on Kevin Oonnell. >> He’s been to the playoffs, right? >> Uh I don’t really remember. I don’t remember last time. >> Did they play Who did they play? >> We don’t talk about it. We could talk about another show. I just I can’t remember. Maybe in the chat you guys let me know the score of that game. >> I think that was AI, but >> that was AI. Blame it on Blame Josh Hart. It was AI. >> I don’t know. It definitely wasn’t Daniel Jones out there, but that’s for sure. But >> Viking always a Viking. >> I mean JJ’s playing for his job. Like you know these last three games Vikings are out of playoff contention. Like you could say this doesn’t matter, but it matters for number nine. Like he’s like if he spirals out here or even if he has a good game against the Giants, but then he’s terrible against the Vikings finish the season against the Packers and the Lions. If he’s terrible in those two games, too, I don’t know if he’s back next year. Like, could they go get a M. Jones? Could they go get some bridge guy? I have no idea. But he is playing for his job every single week, which, you know, makes it a little more exciting as >> How is the How has the run defense been for for the Vikes over the past couple of weeks cuz one thing Mike Cathy likes to do, he likes to establish the run. He is a big run pass guy on first and second down. And I know he’s talked about wanting to be uber aggressive and JMS break this piece down. Um even when the Giants are down by two or three scores in the third or fourth quarter, he’s still running the football last week. Third and goal from the 12 yd line. They they hand it off to Tyrone Tracy. So I’m curious, how are the Giants going to be able to run the football against Flores in this defense? >> I’m actually happy you brought that up. So the one thing and Ben Johnson kind of figured this out back in his days at Detroit. Flores like when it’s third and seven, third and eight, he’s not given an ounce to the run game. And now we have seen even this year like if it’s third and eight, teams will just run inside zone, especially if they’re in that four down territory. They’re like, “Hey, we’re cool. If we get five yards, we’ll just go for it.” But most of the time, I mean, the Vikings defense, as good as they have been, third and long, they do struggle this year. like even in, you know, pass plays, like they’ll give up some big time plays, but in terms of running the football against this defense, they completely sell out on first down. Like you were going to have to be aggressive on early downs, but you will find success. Like, I mean, Javvante Williams, he found some success last week running the football. Um, Jonathan Allen is a complete shell of himself on the defensive line. One guy you guys should look out for, Jaylen Redmond, number 61 of the Vikings. He’s having a great year, but they just haven’t been the same run defense. Like last year, they’re top three against the run. This year, more about middle of the pack. So if you are going to run the ball, it’s kind of like pass when you’re expected to run, run when you’re expected to pass against Brian Flores. >> That is the Mike Cafka way. There was a a stat, one of those x-axis, yaxis charts where it was like passing over and underexpected. The Giants were 31st and passes over expected. They run the football. That’s what they want to do. doing. I don’t really understand if you’re going to be playing Jackson at this point, you should be trying to grow him and help him evolve as a passer and not a guy that hands the football off a couple of different times. Maybe one more thing I’m looking in this ball game for is how Kevin O’Connell fares against a brand new defensive coordinator and Charlie Bullen. This is going to be his third game as a DC. And one thing that is different with him calling the shots instead of Shane Bowen is they are much more aggressive and he comes from the Vance Joseph tree in uh Denver and they like to blitz very similar to Brian Flores. So how we’ve talked about Jackson Dard is going to have to adjust and I think the Giants could look to run the screen game a little bit more. They like to get Juan Delale Robinson as well as Theo Johnson working in that but how JJ McCarthy they’re going to try to make him think before the snap just like that. And I love that type of defense even though it hasn’t been successful. Like when I was watching that Vikings game against the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah. The Cowboys put up what 21 or 23 points in that ball game. Every Rard was earned though. Every drive has to be earned. And while you are susceptible to giving up certain things when you blitz, you’re at least making that quarterback think. Mike Cafka talked about he loves being in the helmet of Jackson Dart voicing what he’s seeing until you get to that 15 seconds on the play clock. So look for the Giants to go a lot of no huddle this week that way that Kafka can try to try to communicate with Jackson Dart at the line. And I want to see how JJ looks against this new Giants defense where they kind of play more of a downhill style of game. >> Yeah, I think for JJ, I mean it starts with the whole offense. It’s just winning early downs with this kid because again, and this is with any young quarterback. you get them in third and eight, third and nine against an aggressive defensive coordinator, I mean, they’re just going to struggle. And now, I will say JJ’s got a huge advantage over Dart in this matchup as he’s throwing the Jefferson, Addison, Hawinson, and he’s not going against Brian Flores and that defense. But I mean, the thing is with JJ is just get your confidence early in the game. Like, I mean, that has been the one thing even though it’s been such an up and down year for him. If he gets hot early, he can, you know, keep that rolling. But if he starts spiraling a little bit, unless it’s the the last drive of fourth quarter, like he can just completely unravel and then he looks like an unplayable quarterback. But in terms of that, like getting the ball out quick, like that’s why I’ve liked Kevin Okonnell finally added. I mean, Jefferson caught a slant last week. That was the first slant he’s caught this entire season. Like, thank God. Like, it’s been driving me crazy this year. But when he even just spreads it out, all hitches, get TJ Hawinson an early touch, get Addison an early touch. like just using JJ McCarthy more of like that Brock Pery mold of quarterback where he’s just getting it out quick instead of like KOC like he wants to have a throw ball downfield. >> He wants to throw the ball down there and I’m not saying that’s wrong like obviously he’s had a ton of success doing that but I’ve liked over the last couple weeks he’s catering to his young quarterback a little more and we’ve actually seen the growing pains with McCarthy. He’s starting to shake him a little bit. He’s starting to feel himself. Um, and he’s also the one thing about JJ and KC raves about this when the Vikings have been using play action a lot more. His ball fakes and we saw it on the one against the Cowboys. Looked like Pton Manning back >> gritted in the end zone. Everyone heard about it. They’re actually calling that the nine now. >> Yeah, I was not the biggest fan of that, but >> it wasn’t even the gritty. >> No. Well, he tried to make it the gritty, but it wasn’t the gritty. Just run the ball in that zone, dude. But he’s a quirky personality. Mike C, what did he say? He said uh he’s like he’s an interesting character or something but he says he flips that switch on game day and I was just like gez can we stop bringing up the freaking alter ego about JJ McCarthy. But I’m just hoping when it’s all said and done after this game I’m hoping my guy here Marshall Green tweets out the JJ McCarthy edit with Joe Shane. I think that’s the number one thing I want to see on my timeline is that Joe Shane’s face on JJ McCarthy. That’s >> he’s got a unique personality, laidback, chill, but when the lights turn on, the ball’s out there. He flips a little bit of a switch. >> Unreal. Let’s close with this. Do you have a score prediction and a winner in this one? >> Um, yeah. I think it’s going to be a little closer than I think you would hope. Um, I just think I think Dart’s going to do enough where he’s going to get them to around 17 20 points. And I just think JJ, even though he’s been great the last two weeks, I think the Giants defense is a little better than the Cowboys and the Commanders, like just with the personnel they have. I had 2320. I think the Vikings will take this one. Um, but I would not be shocked if this is the typical Giants end of the year win. Culture win. >> Culture win for Mike Cafka’s Mike Cafka’s culture. But I got 20 through the 20. What do you >> I I think that I think that’s probably right about where I am. I I’ll go I’ll go 24-7. 24-7. And I could see it being 24-10. and the New York Giants kind of scoring a late touchdown so Joe Shane can go to the podium after the season’s over and be like, “Man, we just keep on losing these one-score games. We got to find a way to do it.” Um, no, but this was a lot of fun. Appreciate everybody that tuned in. If you have, hit that thumbs up icon if you made it this far in the video from Seeps, myself. We’ll see you later. Let’s go Jams. >> [music]

Vikings vs. Giants preview: The Minnesota Vikings travel to MetLife Stadium to take on the New York Giants in NFL week 16. The Vikings are coming off of victory against the Dallas Cowboys while the Giants lost their 8th straight game to the Washington Commanders. The latest Vikings injury news is not looking good as LT Christian Darrisaw, C Ryan Kelly, and DT Javon Hargrave all did not practice on Wednesday. Vikings Now by Chat Sports host Patrick Siepman breaks down this Vikings-Giants game with Giants Now host Marshall Green as J.J. McCarthy and Jaxson Dart look to end the last stretch of the 2025 NFL season on a positive note.

Make sure you are subscribed to Vikings Now to stay up with everything around the Minnesota Vikings: https://www.youtube.com/VikingsToday?sub_confirmation=1

Follow Sieps on Twitter if you want real Vikings talk:
https://x.com/PatSieps

Be a REAL ONE and follow Chat Sports for all the latest on the NFL, NBA & CFB:

https://www.facebook.com/chatsports
https://www.instagram.com/chatsports

Join the conversation in the comments below:
– Who ya got? Type ‘V’ for Vikings or ‘G’ for Giants

Don’t miss out on our LIVE Vikings coverage & NFL YouTube videos! Hit the 🔔

SKOL! Watch more VIKINGS YouTube videos as Justin Jefferson highlights this Vikings offense:
– LATEST Vikings Rumors On J.J. McCarthy & Justin Jefferson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v8R2-B0_og
– This MOVE Would Change Everything For The Vikings…: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fitfpf0rK_s
– This NFL Trend Has A MAJOR IMPACT On The Minnesota Vikings…: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Utv57-DhaM

Spread the word about our channel by sharing today’s show!

Subscribe to @chatsports for not just NFL news for the best coverage on the NBA and college football: https://youtube.com/chatsportstv?sub_confirmation=1

Hit the 👍 if you LOVE the Minnesota Vikings!

#MinnesotaVikings #VikingsNews #VikingsGiants #CSB

6 comments
Leave a Reply