There is no such thing as holding your ground in the NFL. The Minnesota Vikings finished the 2024 season with a 14-3 record and were one of the most impressive teams in the league, but they simply can’t “run it back” in the 2025 season. If a team is not moving forward and figuring out a way to improve, it is moving backwards.
Even though the Vikings started the season with a 5-game winning streak and then rebounded from consecutive losses with a 9-game run of victories, the team has multiple moves to make before the 2025 season kicks off in September.
The first is obvious, and it’s clear the Vikings are leaning towards a big change at the quarterback position. J.J. McCarthy is slated to take over as the team’s starter. He was the team’s top pick in the first round last year, and the plan was for him to take over as the starter whenever he was deemed ready by head coach Kevin O’Connell. Instead, McCarthy tore his meniscus in the team’s first preseason game and was unable to play.
Veteran Sam Darnold made the most of his opportunity and had a brilliant season for the Vikings. He was a relative bargain after signing a one-year, $10 million contract, but the Vikings want to go back to their original plan for the 2025 season. They would like McCarthy to become the team’s QB1.
Darnold may or may not figure in the team’s plans. If he gets a free-agent offer to start elsewhere for $35-40 million per season, the Vikings are not interested. However, if they can get him back into the fold at $20 million, they may be willing to give him a new contract.
Vikings have multiple issues
Despite their brilliant record, a couple of major problems surfaced in the last game of the regular season against the Detroit Lions and the Wild Card game the following week against the Los Angeles Rams.
They were unable to protect Darnold adequately in either game, and the biggest issue was weakness on the interior portion of the offensive line.
The Vikings have to address this situation in free agency or the draft, but one of the players they have to avoid in Teven Jenkins of the Chicago Bears.
Jenkins is a talented blocker and the Bears believed in him enough to make him their second-round selection out of Oklahoma State in 2021. However, Jenkins has a hard time staying on the field.
He played 14 games last season and that’s the most he has played in any season. Injuries have been a factor in allowing him to play effectively at either tackle or guard. Jenkins suffered an ankle injury against the New England Patriots in Week 10 last season, and previous injuries have also knocked him out of the lineup.
The Bears have made moves to improve their lineup in the offseason, acquiring Joe Thuney from the Kansas City Chiefs and Jonah Jackson from the Rams. Those are moves that may have also been on the Vikings’ radar.
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah should not be interested in signing a player whom the Bears may have already replaced.
Jenkins is just another player at this point due to his injury history and average-to-slightly above average performance. The Vikings need to do better than that when signing an offensive lineman.
Secondary help is also needed
One of the reasons the Vikings were so successful last season was the improvement in the defense. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores has turned a unit that was one of the worst in the NFL when he was hired after the 2022 season into a unit that finished fifth in scoring defense a year ago.
The Vikings can get better on defense this season, and they can do it by improving their pass coverage. This has been an issue for several seasons, and while there has been some improvement, it can still be significantly better.
The Vikings should not be looking at 30-year-old Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis if they want to get better in coverage.
The seven-year veteran started 13 games last year for a Cowboys defense that was one of the most disappointing in the league. He had 71 tackles, 8 passes defensed and 1 interception.
The former 3rd-round draft pick from Michigan is a decent player, but the Vikings need much more than decent. They need to avoid him in free agency.
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