The Vikings Calendar Is about to Heat Up
Dustin Baker
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The Minnesota Vikings regular season kicks off in less than two months when the purple team hosts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on September 10th at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Experts and oddsmakers peg Minnesota to win about eight or nine games in 2023.
The Vikings Calendar Is about to Heat Up
And while there are 55 days before Week 1, business is about to heat up for the Vikings. These are the notable events around the bend.
Training Camp
This is where it all starts to come together — position battles, players vying to make the team, and an indicator of how good the Vikings can be in 2023.
Training camp kicks off this Sunday as rookies report to Eagan, with everyone else arriving two days later.
Among notable position battles are QB2, RB2, WR2, NT, CB2, FS, and kicker. Because the Vikings are ‘competitively rebuilding,’ more competition per position will be present. Nobody knows if Jordan Addison will win the WR2 job out of the gate or if Lewis Cine will snag the free safety job, for example.
Indeed, it’s a traditional training camp but with a side dish of extra battles — and it starts in mere days.
Extensions — but When?
The Vikings have plans to extend two vital and famous playmakers — Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson. Mystery has not shrouded Minnesota’s intent regarding the extensions, but as July trickles to a finish, folks are wondering, “What’s the hold-up?’
Minnesota’s brass has insinuated all offseason that Jefferson and Hockenson extensions are utter no-brainers. So, Vikings fans have merely waited for the cellphone notification as a formality. But it’s crickets on the extensions’ finality. We wait.
The questions are twofold — when and how much?
Hunter Watch
Perhaps the most telling aspect of the Vikings summer, especially pertaining to unresolved matters, Vikings loyalists will eventually learn if superstar pass rusher Danielle Hunter is extended or traded.
Hunter turns 29 this autumn, and his team-friendly deal from 2018 is winding down. He’s scheduled to earn just $5.5 million in ‘new money’ this season. Therefore, he wants a new contract, and rightfully so.
Throughout the first half of the summer, the Vikings have played word games with Hunter’s status, saying they want to be ‘solution-oriented’ with Hunter. To that, many said, “Of course, you do. What else is there?”
On the whole, if Hunter is not on the 2023 roster and a big-name pass rusher is not obtained in a theoretical trade, well, Minnesota might be leaning heavily into the ‘rebuild’ part of the competitive rebuild. How can a team improve the NFL’s third-worst defense from 2022 per points allowed by trading the two best EDGE defenders, Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter? The strategy would certainly be bizarre.
All eyes are on Hunter’s extension or trade.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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