Morning Joes

The state of Minnesota experienced temperatures north of 90 degrees this past week, so that must mean it is the dead days of August and training camp begins, right? Well, not exactly. It is May and has been unseasonably warm and the Vikings have assembled—but it’s just the rookies and their minicamp at TCO Performance Center. Still, the new football year has begun. We haven’t had too many headlines yet as the Rookie Minicamp is just a way for the newbies to come to town, meet their prospective teammates and Vikings staff and get oriented to the way Minnesota does things. There are a few tidbits that have surfaced—such as undrafted rookie CB Zemaiah Vaughn picking off undrafted QB Max Brosmer along the sidelines and rookie linebacker Kobe King making another pick. But we aren’t yet hanging any banners nor making any proclamations about who will be Mr. Eagan (nee Mankato). Still, we will talk about it. The fellas at Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast—Joe Oberle, senior writer at vikingsterritory.com and purple

The NFL sent an email explaining that the schedule release is “almost here!” Not that it was released, but that it is almost released. (It’s almost like the email saying the Draft was almost here.) You can register and “be the first to know when the 2025-26 schedule drops.” Well, this NFL observer is all atwitter.

With an eye toward protecting their sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy, the Vikings put a major emphasis on the offensive line during free agency (Matt Fries and Ryab Kelly) and continued that with the Jackson pick. There will likely be a competition at left guard, but the versatile and intelligent Jackson could step in and start and solidify a formerly middling line.

But the NFL Draft is a crapshoot. A first overall pick can get the call from the Hall (Peyton Manning, 1998) or flame out in epic fashion (JaMarcus Russell, 2007). Then again, Tom Brady can go in the sixth round and become the best QB ever to play, or Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant in 2022, can take a team to the Super Bowl and have folk rethinking that moniker for the last person taken in the draft.

Will the Vikings, who have only four picks (plus a compensatory pick) in the draft stay put at 24 and select a player who can impact the 2025 season, or will they trade down, as been general manager Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah’s MO in the past, and acquire more picks to fill out the draft class.

One of the most persistent Purple queries this offseason is who will start at QB and who will be his backup.

The Vikings have other needs that they could address in free agency (or in the NFL Draft), but what are those needs and who is left to grab? The fellas at Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast—Joe Oberle, senior writer at vikingsterritory.com and purplePTSD.com and Mark Craig, NFL and Vikings writer for the Star Tribune and startribune.com—are on hand to dissect and discuss all that. In addition, they will take on some of the new rule change proposals proffered at the NFL Winter meetings. Some good news and some bad news there—so tune in and check it out. Skol!

The Free Agency ride continues for Vikings GM Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah and the Purple. After a huge opening salvo in FA, the Vikings were on the move again last weekend. Kwesi had a busy first week of FA, when he made some big signings to the offensive and defensive lines, and finished up the week by making two big trades to help the Purple.

The Vikings (along with the 31 other NFL teams) launched headlong into the legal tampering portion of free agency and boy did they tamper. When it looked like the Vikings were going to sit out Day 1 on the sidelines, suddenly things started cracking the morning of Day 2. Their biggest Day 1 headlines were the loss of quarterback Sam Darnold to Seattle and the resigning of running back Aaron Jones—but Day 2 in the morning resulted in the signings of DT Jonathan Allen, Colts guard Will Fries and Niners DT Javon Hargrave.

Thus begins in earnest the Vikings’ QB questions, regarding what to do with Sam, do you bring back Daniel Jones and is JJ McCarthy physically ready to become the new starting signal caller.

Do the Vikings tag Darnold (which would cost them approximately $40 million dollars in that tagged season? Do they begin negotiations on a multiyear Darnold contract (which would likely start around $40 million mark)?

The 2024-25 NFL season came to a crashing climax (at least for the fans of the Kansas City Chiefs who were hoping for a three-peat), as the Philadelphia Eagles (whose fans may have made things come crashing down after the game) walloped KC in a good old-fashioned blowout of a Super Bowl. The final score was 40-22 and it did not fully represent just how one-sided this game was (until the stalwart Philly defense that made cream cheese out of the Kansas City offensive line let up on the gas). Patrick Mahomes looked lost, Travis Kelce was irrelevant, the Chiefs dynasty crumbled and a new dynasty appeared to be born before our eyes. The Eagles are world champs.

We have a Bowl MVP in Purple! Vikings cornerback Byron Murphy, Jr., had two interceptions in the Pro Bowl (including one of them for a pick six), which helped the NFC hold off the AFC in the annual Pro Bowl competition. So, does Murphy have a Pro Bowl MVP clause in his contract? Does he need one? Regardless, if nothing else happened on Sunday, perhaps a few more general managers around the league know a little bit more about him when he hits the free agent. Then again, it’s flag football, so perhaps not.

It has begun. Like moving pieces on a chess board, the personnel around the NFL is headlong into the second week of transition while the final two teams are prepping for the big game. The reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs will return to the Super Bowl and will try to defeat the NFC champ Philadelphia Eagles to earn the first three-peat in NFL history during the Super Bowl era.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell said last week that he will be focusing on the interior offense line during the offseason—in an attempt to better protect whoever becomes the team’s signal caller next year and give the running backs more room to roam between the tackles. The offensive line may be the first place the Vikings look to begin building back for the 2026 season (although they did re-sign defensive lineman Jalen Redmond earlier this week), but there are plenty of other personnel units to examine as the go forward: quarterback, secondary and defensive line among them).

After most professional sporting event, participants need and are granted a cooling off period before the media is allowed to enter the locker room and interview them. It’s because emotions are raw and the players need some time to collect themselves before talking to the media/public. Well, following the Vikings lost to the Los Angele Rams in the Wild Card playoff game 27-9 last Monday night, Purple Nation needed a cooling off period before looking forward to next season . . . again. And the writer of this piece counts himself among them.

It could have been different. The Vikings made several marches into the Red Zone, but they came away empty-handed after two failed fourth down conversions that put them behind the 8-ball of the near-best offense in the league. It was still a game early into the third quarter despite the conversion problems (the Vikings 3-for-16 in 3rd- and 4th-down conversions), but the Vikings’ lack of finishing drives caught up with them and the Lions ran away with it.

The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers 27-25 on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium, and as is their fashion, they turned a dominating performance into a stomach-churning, nail-biting, last-minute win to keep pace with Detroit Lions atop the NFC North division. At 14-2, the Vikings now must beat the Lions next week at Ford Field and they will become the top seed in the NFC and have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. But it almost didn’t happen.

If (at the season’s start) you didn’t have the Vikings at 13-2 on your wish list when Santa comes calling, it’s okay, nobody did, but we all got it anyway. The Vikings travelled to Seattle and outlasted the Seahawks 30-27 in a hard-fought (sometimes ugly) game on Sunday afternoon. The win keeps the Purple in a tie with the Detroit Lions atop the NFC North Division with two games remaining, and they pulled ahead of the Philadelphia Eagles (who lost to Washington) in the race for homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. Let’s go!

There was a white-out in Minnesota on Monday, but it was inside U.S. Bank Stadium rather than out. And it turned into a blowout, as the Vikings hammered the visiting Chicago Bears with a sluggish but ultimately dominating 30-12 performance. It was always pretty, but in the end, the Vikings, newly minted 2024 playoff participants, handled Caleb Williams and the Bears and took care of business pulling into a tie atop the NFC North with the Detroit Lions.