The 53-man roster is now set, so the focus has to be on beating the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 13 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. How will Kyler Murray and the “Minnesota Moving Company” handle the Green Bay Packers defense?
— Brandan Fiedler in Chisholm, Minnesota
Everybody is talking about how good Kyler Murray, our WRs and TEs will be in 2026. That only happens if our OL plays well and stays healthy. I did not see much of anything this past preseason to make me confident, except for maybe a few plays against the Giants. If we can’t run the ball on third-and-2, or Kyler is on his back or running for his life against the blitz, it all won’t matter. It all comes down to our OL (again) so LETS GO!!! SKOL
It’s hard to say how any season will go, but the Vikings should be able to answer some internal and external questions right out of the gate.
Murray is looking forward to making his first start for Minnesota after playing just nine offensive snaps in this year’s preseason opener at the New York Giants. He and the Vikings first-team offense pivoted to Week 1 preparations when training camp finished.
The starting offensive line hasn’t appeared in a game together since popping an 18-yard run by Aaron Jones, Sr., on the inaugural snap of the preseason. The group was able to log substantial work in individual and team drills when Minnesota hosted Baltimore for joint practices.
While there are sure to be plenty of eyeballs on Murray, I’m among those highly intrigued in seeing what the revamped run game looks like. I want to learn whether the offensive line is able to play on Green Bay’s side of the line of scrimmage on run plays and provide a pocket that will keep Murray from needing to dip into his scrambling ability too often.
Spoiler alert, we’ll have a feature on Vikings.com this week about the revamped running game, so be on the lookout for that in addition to other content to get you prepared for the game.
The group expected to play the most on Sunday has a very limited sample size in the public view this year, but I get the feeling the offensive line is eager to harvest the results of its hard work.