{"id":799941,"date":"2026-03-08T07:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T07:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799941\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T07:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T07:17:15","slug":"offseason-outlook-minnesota-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799941\/","title":{"rendered":"Offseason Outlook: Minnesota Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One year ago, the Vikings found themselves at a crossroads. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/McCaJJ00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-07_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">J.J. McCarthy<\/a> was coming off a rookie season spent entirely in recovery, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DarnSa00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-07_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sam Darnold<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JoneDa05.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-07_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Daniel Jones<\/a> approached free agency.<\/p>\n<p>Both Darnold and Jones wound up landing starting positions elsewhere on the open market. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2025\/10\/vikings-submitted-daniel-jones-better-offer-than-colts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">not entirely averse<\/a> to keeping one of the two veterans in place, but he and the Vikings were ultimately prepared to hand the reins over to McCarthy. On every front \u2013 the play by Jones on an impressive Colts team prior to his Achilles tear, Darnold\u2019s contribution to the Super Bowl champion Seahawks and McCarthy\u2019s struggles \u2013 that decision backfired.<\/p>\n<p>Adofo-Mensah is now out of the picture, while Minnesota faces the unenviable task of finding a starting-caliber passer amidst a challenging cap situation. The team\u2019s offense will have a high floor if the right one can be acquired, and another year of strong defensive play should be expected in 2026. But the central question in the Vikings\u2019 case remains unanswered on the eve of the new league year.<\/p>\n<p>Coaching\/front office:<\/p>\n<p>Hired during the 2022 offseason, Adofo-Mensah joined the Vikings at the same time as head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell. The latter\u2019s reputation has steadily gained steam over time, but that was not the case regarding Minnesota\u2019s front office leader.<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"landing-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/landing-logo.png\"\/><br \/>\n  Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription<\/p>\n<p>  &#13;<br \/>\n    Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Sam Robinson&#13;<br \/>\n    Join exclusive weekly live chats with Sam&#13;<br \/>\n    Remove ads and support our writers&#13;<\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/membership?ref=396847\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year ago, the Vikings found themselves at a crossroads. J.J. McCarthy was coming off a rookie season&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,67247,233,259,2529,6,43967,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-799941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-front-office-originals","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings","12":"tag-minnesotavikings","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-offseason-outlook","15":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116192336490957701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}