Credit: Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings
Between the bevy of injuries and individual failures across the roster through seven games this season, the Minnesota Vikings desperately need something to come along and stabilize what’s starting to feel like a sinking ship.
It’s now official — per head coach Kevin O’Connell — J.J. McCarthy will resume his role as starting quarterback on Sunday in Detroit, now that Carson Wentz is out for the season. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of hope going in that he’s currently equipped to wear a cape as powerful as what the MN Vikings need to turn this thing around.
Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images
Because the Vikings entered 2025 with Super Bowl aspirations. Whether those were realistically legitimate or not is another conversation. But when an NFL teams with high expectations falls on its face out of the starting gates, frustration is bound to set in.
And that’s what makes the timing — heading into a Lions matchup Sunday that they haven’t won since September, 2022 — of reports dropping on Tuesday so interesting.
Fractures revealing themselves in Minnesota Vikings locker room?
According to multiple local insiders — including Alec Lewis (The Athletic) and Matt Coller (Purple Insider) on recently released podcast episodes — there is “an underlying tension” bubbling beneath the Minnesota Vikings locker room that may or may not be one loss away from boiling over.
Is Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell on the brink of losing the locker room? 👀@MatthewColler talks to his connections of people within the league.
One person:
“This is more evidence of a *bleep* show with the training staff this year. So many mismanaged injuries…”
Another… https://t.co/6dwrnnakCh pic.twitter.com/ekWaqOJDxZ
— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) October 28, 2025
“I spent the last couple of hours just talking to a few people that I know…in the league…and your reactions are a lot like their reactions.
So, just I’ll tell you one note that I got from a person — we’ll just say with knowledge of the situation — said to me, quote, “This is more evidence of a bleep show with the training staff this year. So many mismanaged injuries, Van Ginkel, O’Neal,Darasaw, Wentz, and McCarthy.”
And another person that I talked to in the league said, “This is how you lose a locker room. Everyone is going to be in the cold tub saying, ‘what the heck are we doing?’”
Matthew Coller – Purple Insider Podcast
Here’s @alec_lewis on his latest podcast episode reporting about the “underlying tension” in the Vikings locker room and how the joy that they normally have under KOC just isn’t there this season… 👀
“It’s felt to me…that there’s been like an underlying tension with this… pic.twitter.com/K1T3eWCxzj
— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) October 28, 2025
“It’s felt to me, really going back to the spring, that there’s been like an underlying tension with this team and in its staff…You just get the sense that the the joy that has been there in the two of the three seasons, where they have won double digit games, you just don’t feel that.
You just don’t feel like every day is as downhill as it seemed like days in the past were. There are multiple people, kind of familiar with team dynamics, who have talked about this.
Part of what has made Kevin O’Connell so great in his role, is just the feeling that there’s always an underlying joy. There’s an awareness, there’s a calm within the storm. And you just haven’t felt that as much. I thought it was important to mention.”
Alec Lewis – The Alec Lewis Show
There’s only one solution to fixing tension: Winning
Without a doubt, the Minnesota Vikings have a ton of problems. But you want to know one thing that fixes just about any problem in professional sports? Winning.
If Kevin O’Connell can somehow lead his team into Detroit and find a victory with his redshirt rookie QB, amidst all of this controversy, I have a feeling the vibes in the locker room next week would be quite a bit different than what they are right now. The same is true on the other side of the coin, however.
Related: Polarizing Day for Former MN Vikings Quarterbacks
This isn’t the first time rumors of this “tension” have come up. Star Tribune reporter Andrew Krammer reported the same thing weeks ago. However, the Minnesota Vikings won their next game and the story morphed into Jonathan Greenard calling Krammer out postgame, instead of about how real the tension was.
If the more likely scenario happens this weekend — the Vikings lose to the Lions like they are projected to (by 8.5 points) — then, at 3-5, I have a feeling these “tensions” happening in the locker room will no longer need the “underlying” portion of the phrase.
Mentioned in this article: Kevin O’Connell
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