ESPN held the annual ESPY Awards on Thursday night, a spectacle honoring the previous year’s finest sports achievements.
These Are the Vikings Version of the ESPY Awards …
But what if the Vikings had their version of the ESPYs? The vESPYs? We digress.
These players would win the following applicable awards if the vESPYs were a thing.
Best Player
Danielle Hunter
Justin Jefferson would’ve won this faux award if he remained healthy, but because of various injuries to others, Hunter was the Vikings’ best player in 2024.
Hunter ranked fifth leaguewide in sacks and first in tackles for loss. He acted as Minnesota’s most consistent player and didn’t really fire up quiet games.
The 29-year-old now plays for the Houston Texans.
Best Breakthrough Athlete
Ivan Pace Jr.
Ivan Pace Jr. talked a lot of … smack … after the 2023 NFL Draft and then backed it up. His undrafted status will remain bizarre, as the young linebacker immediately broke out into stardom for the Vikings.
Pro Football Focus ranked Pace Jr. as the 16th-best off-ball linebacker in all of football. Not bad for an undrafted guy.
Jimmy V Award for Perseverance
Justin Jefferson
Watch any episode of Netflix’s Receiver, and one will learn the scope of Jefferson’s injury recovery. The malady was actually more serious than fans knew last year.
But he battled back and still fetched over 1,000 receiving yards, a Jeffersonian achievement, indeed.
Arthur Ashe Award for Courage
Jordan Hicks
Jordan Hicks battled back from this injury in less than a month.
So, yeah, he gets the courage award. Hands down.
Best Play
Jordan Addison
vs. San Francisco 49ers, 10/23/23
Joshua Dobbs might disagree for his performance in the win over the Atlanta Falcons, but this one just has to take the cake. Before Kirk Cousins fell injured, this was the moment that signified Minnesota’s midseason turnaround.
Best Record-Breaking Performance
Kevin O’Connell
Close Games
Since taking over the Vikings in 2022, Minnesota has produced 25 games with a score margin of less than eight points. It’s the most in the NFL. That means that 74% of all Vikings games are fingernail-biting thrillers.
Thankfully for O’Connell’s sake, his team has a 17-8 record (.680) in such games.
Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award
Harrison Phillips
This large human is always right in the middle of a do-good mission, so Phillips wins the vESPY by a mile.
Best Comeback Athlete
Brian O’Neill
O’Neill tore his Achilles tendon near the end of the 2022 season, and it wasn’t even really a storyline last summer whether he’d return on time for the regular season. He just did, and that was that.
He wound up playing 14 of 17 games.
Best UFC Fighter
Dalton Risner
The Kick
No, the Vikings don’t have UFC fighters, but for fun, if they did, Risner would win the vESPY for this maneuver against the New Orleans Saints last November.
Vikings Have a “Distressed Asset”
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 MIN 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.