NFL
By Steve Rogers
Wow, the Minnesota Vikings regular season is finally here. That’s right the greatest time of year has arrived. It’s September, which means it is the end of summer and the beginning of fall. It also means it’s football season in all of its forms and glory from high school to the pros and all the fun of Fantasy Leagues as well. The Vikings organization and much of their fan base have to be breathing a sigh of relief that this offseason and preseason have come to an end.
Let’s be honest the Vikings have had one of the trickiest, most tragic tumultuous off-seasons / preseasons in recent memory. This is really saying something as the Vikings unfortunately over the years have a rather lot of scar tissue when it comes to preseason tragedies and dilemmas. Going back 20-plus years tragically in 2001 Vikings lineman Korey Stringer suffered a heatstroke during practice and was rushed to the hospital but the doctors were unable to save him and he passed away at age 27, in the wake of Stringer’s passing that led to major changes mandated by the league putting restrictions on the level and amount of practice to protect the players. In 2006 the Vikings hired a new head coach Brad Childress.
Childress and would-be starting quarterback Daunte Culpepper disagreed over either his rehab from a major knee injury and/or his contract as there are conflicting reports as to what really happened. The result was Culpepper being traded before ever playing in purple again. You can’t say quarterback and knee injury in Minnesota without instantly being reminded of Aug. 30th, 2015. When on the last day of the preseason second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater who was coming off a strong rookie season and was looking poised to elevate to even higher levels during training camp tripped while going back to pass and somehow in NON-CONTACT fashion he dislocated his knee which severed his ACL as well as several other ligaments. Sam Bradford was brought in to fill the void. That lasted all of one season as his knee injury history caught up with him.
Now fast forward to today. The Vikings traded up from 11 to 10 to draft quarterback JJ McCarthy. They also signed young veteran Sam Darnold to be the “Bridge” starting quarterback to allow McCarthy time to develop and acclimate to the NFL. During the first preseason game, McCarthy was looking like he might be closer to being ready than anyone had anticipated. That was short-lived as he and the Vikings discovered after the game he had torn (you guessed it) his knee specifically the meniscus which is the cartilage in the knee. This required season-ending surgery. Why can’t the Vikings have a quarterback without knee problems? In all seriousness, McCarthy will be the day-one starter in 2025 barring some kind of out-of-body 4 to 5000-yard breakout season by Darnold.
The Vikings also addressed their need to add to their cornerback’s room. So, in the 4th round, they drafted Khyree Jackson. Jackson was projected to be one of the starting four cornerbacks this year. Tragically before training camp started on July 6th, 2024 Jackson was killed along with two of his former high school teammates in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. As the shock of such a loss was felt across the league it was like a full gut punch to the purple and gold locker room to which Jackson had already endeared himself during OTAs. To honor Jackson the Vikings players will have helmet decals with his KJ initials and the staff will have lapel pins. Just a week later Vikings second-year wide receiver Jordan Addison was cited for a DUI after he was found passed out behind the wheel of his car on a highway!?! Not a good look for Addison or the Vikings.
Let’s pause the football talk for a moment. We all as a whole have to do better. It’s 2024 people there’s NO EXCUSE FOR ANYONE TO BE DRINKING AND DRIVING ANYMORE! There are too many options for us to NOT get behind the wheel after drinking. Far too often it proves to be a a costly error. In this day and age, there are just too many other options than putting yourself and anyone else on the road around you at risk. Every city has several taxi companies, there’s Uber, as well as other ride-share services and of course, there’s always family friends, and neighbors. So, please next time you are out having a good time and it’s time to go home DON’T PICK UP YOUR KEYS PICK UP YOUR PHONE. Let’s all put our hands on driving down drunk driving by taking our drunk hands off the driving. Heroes save lives so let us all be heroes by bringing drunk driving deaths to zeros. Alright, that’s my PSA.
Back to football. The Viking’s preseason woes continued as another torn ACL on the second day of practice prematurely ended second-year cornerback Mekhi Blackmon’s season. In a position of need, the cornerback’s room took two big hits before they were even hitting in practice. In need of serious help in the secondary, the Vikings reached a deal with All-Pro free agent Stephon Gilmore. At 33 Gilmore brings a savvy quality veteran leadership to this Viking’s secondary as well as the experience of being a Super Bowl champion. Gilmore joins fellow 12-year vet safety Harrison Smith in the secondary. These two old wise men will be executing as well as teaching the younger players the wizardry that is this Brian Flores defense as if they are Gandalf and Dumbledore.
What to Expect from the 2024 Vikings Season
Well, here we are we finally made it to the regular season. Does anyone else feel like it’s more like week 13? Sam Darnold is not only the day-one starter but presumably will finish the year as such. Do I expect Darnold to become Tom Brady after bouncing around his first few years? No. What I do expect we will see is a much more confident and poised Darnold. I guess you could say he’s got every tool you could ask for here with the Vikings. The Vikings have a solid offensive line in front of him full of continuity to protect him.
The Vikings have one of if not the best wide receivers in the game in Justin Jefferson. Add in Jordan Addison who jumped onto the scene last year as a rookie and ascended to wide receiver two opposite Jefferson. The Vikings have one of the best one-two punches at the wide receiver position in the NFL. Third-year wideout Jalen Nailor has emerged this preseason looking as good as Jefferson or Addison and has earned the number three wideout spot on the roster.
With two incredible guys requiring most of the double team attention look for him to be open a lot and potentially blow up across the NFL realms including fantasy(hint hint). Not done there the Vikings have discovered a possible fourth threat from which Darnold can distribute the ball to Trishton Jackson. Jackson put together one of the strongest preseason performances not just at his position but across the whole team. Jackson and Nailor went toe-to-toe in a fierce battle over the third receiver spot. The Vikings look like they might have one of the strongest complete wide receiver cores in the NFL.
When you add in Pro Bowl tight end T.J. Hockenson who won’t be available for the first four weeks as he completes his rehab from his torn ACL/MCL. This becomes easily the most complete and talent-heavy skill position offense that Darnold has ever had to work with. Darnold has only barely crossed over 3,000 yards once in his career. With the ability to survey the field because of an above-average offensive line to protect him and the plethora of weapons to get the ball to 3000 yards ought to be easy this year. The bar has been lowered so far on Darnold’s expectations by the media that having an average year might look like a breakout season. When the dust settles this year I believe he will finish in the top half of quarterbacks in the league. He will become known as “Darnold the Distributor”. If he remains healthy he is one of two players on the Vikings that might be contenders for Comeback Player of the Year.
The addition of Aaron Jones should add stability and maybe even force defenses to adjust to try and shut Jones down. Being able to pair him with Ty Chandler gives the Vikings a one-two in the run game that presents different challenges as they have different styles and skill sets. This also allows the Vikings to not overuse either running back from in-game to week to week. Keeping guys healthy and fresh is paramount to succeding in the NFL. Balancing the workload of the run game between the two could prove beneficial to the players and the team’s success this year.
Don’t forget about the D defense that is. The Vikings spent the majority of the offseason retooling the defense to better suit Brian Flores’s defensive scheme. The Vikings brought in a trio of free-agent linebackers Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, and Jonathan Greenard to go along with rising undrafted free-agent star Ivan Pace Jr. The Vikings also spent most of their draft capital on addressing defensive needs. Such as first-round steal Dallas Turner who looks to be the replacement for Danielle Hunter who signed with the Houston Texans. Turner is an absolute stud from the University of Alabama.
Turner earned SEC Player of the Year honors. If he can bring that kind of success to the Vikings from the get-go Turner’s name should be in the Defensive Rookie of the Year conversation. The Vikings might have found another defensive playmaker late in the draft in Levi Drake Rodriguez. He showed that he has one of those motors always running at 9000 RPM throughout the preseason. It’s reminiscent of Hall of Famer John Randle. If Rodriguez can be half as good as Randle the Vikings will have something cooking into the future on defense with Turner and Rodriguez. The Viking’s defense might just be the big surprise story of this 2024 season.
The Vikings are not being given much of a chance by most media “Experts”. The consensus is that the Vikings will have a sub or near sub-.500 winning percentage. Well, let me be the one to stand up against the establishment and say take the over on the Vikings winning MORE than eight games. That’s right the Vikings are going to rise and be one of the better NFC teams. The Viking’s offense and defense will win five or six games on their own. The Vikings will win an additional three or four games on the strength of the right leg of my X-Factor. Yet another rookie kicker Will Reichard. In his first year, he will become the most consistent and trustworthy kicker in Vikings history. The Vikings will win nine or ten games. That will be good enough to claim at least one of the NFC wild-card spots in the playoffs.
