The Long Wait Is Over for Vikings Fans
The Minnesota Vikings concluded the 2025 NFL Draft over the weekend, notably onboarding a new offensive guard and wide receiver in Donovan Jackson (Ohio State) and Tai Felton (Maryland), respectively.
The Long Wait Is Over for Vikings Fans
The club will now set sail on the spring and summer, with three months before training camp in Eagan.
And with the draft in the rearview, the long wait is over for Vikings fans — their Super Bowl contendership era is here, with assured stakes of falling short of the Super Bowl a faint memory.
QB on a Rookie Contract Era
While quarterback Kirk Cousins stabilized the QB1 spot for the franchise from 2018 to 2023, he never shoved the team over the hump. Often, Cousins-led Vikings teams didn’t have the juice on defense, or put more plainly, “something was always wrong” with the team when one side of the ball played wonderfully.
When Cousins would cook, the defense would stink. When the defense would hit on all cylinders — the 2018 season — Cousins hadn’t quite acclimated to the Vikings’ offense.
Along the way, Minnesota usually paid Cousins at a Top 8 clip, so team-building wasn’t easy.
Now, however, the Vikings have J.J. McCarthy in the house for the next four seasons, and his second contract won’t kick in until the 2029 season. The Vikings have four years to get this thing right. They can use his affordable contract and lofty upside to pursue a Super Bowl, not unlike the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, and Kansas City Chiefs in the last half-decade.
With Cousins gone, fears of paying one too much are vanquished. The ideal roster construction era is here.
Offensive Line Fundamentally Repaired
McCarthy will need help and protection, right?
That’s why general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah wholly repaired his offensive line in one offseason, signing Will Fries (guard) and Ryan Kelly (center), while drafting Jackson last Thursday night. It’s in with Fries, Kelly, and Jackson — and out with Ed Ingram, Garrett Bradbury, and Blake Brandel.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell’s offensive line actually played quite well for most of the 2024 season — it ranked ninth-best in the NFL per Pro Football Network — but totally crumbled in the playoffs in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams, allowing 9 sacks on former passer Sam Darnold.
Adofo-Mensah recognized the need for offensive line reform and fixed the trenches systematically in seven weeks.
Fans bemoaned the offensive line during the Mike Zimmer era — arguably the loudest criticism — but those days are over. The Vikings have the OL personnel to thrive. No excuses.
Prioritized Defensive Tackle Spot
After the 2013 season — yes, that long ago — the Vikings watched a long-time defensive tackle and eventual Ring of Honor member, Kevin Williams, vamoose for the Seattle Seahawks. Mind-bogglingly, thereafter, the franchise never replaced him with a proficient three-technique defensive tackle.
The team tried in 2013 with Shariff Floyd, but after injuries ruined his career, DT operations always felt half-measured. Nose tackles normally excelled; Linval Joseph and Dalvin Tomlinson can attest. Yet, the “other” DT spot was always held down by players like Jonathan Bullard, Shamar Stephen, and Armon Watts.
This offseason, Adofo-Mensah signed two premier defensive tackles: Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. The club is serious about getting pressure up front from the defensive line’s interior after 12 years of middling solutions.
A Mostly Trustworthy Kicker
At this time on the calendar, purple fans generally wonder about the kicker spot, expecting a two-horse battle around the bend in the summer.
That’s not the case in 2025, as the Vikings have Will Reichard on the roster, a player who banked a commendable rookie season, for the most part, in 2024.
Reichard started the season like gangbusters but slowed down a bit after a midseason injury. Most trust him to return to his pristine form in September, which will be a welcome sight because nothing causes angst among fans like kickers.
Steam of a 14-3 Season
Listen, Minnesota isn’t embarking on the McCarthy era after a rags-to-riches rebuild. The squad finished 14-3 last year with Sam Darnold, of all people, in charge of the most crucial position.
The framework is there for McCarthy to succeed, the infrastructure sturdy.
In many situations, like the New England Patriots last year, a rookie quarterback, such as Drake Maye, arrives at a dumpster fire and must change the culture by himself. The Vikings are not like that, handing McCarthy the keys to a 14-win team.
It’s unusual in the best possible way.
Boom or Bust — Mediocrity Be Damned
From 2018 to 2023, Minnesota outwardly professed Super Bowl stakes. Onlookers shrugged and said, “Well, yeah, maybe if everything is absolutely perfect, the Vikings could get hot like the 2012 Ravens.”
This go-round, and for the next four seasons, Minnesota is closer to the Bills, Bengals, and Chiefs model of team-building and Super Bowl contendership than an “accidental” championship where everything goes perfectly.
Customary 8-9 or 9-8 seasons don’t feel imminent, and in fact, the enterprise depends on McCarthy’s development. If he morphs into a Top 10 passer, the Vikings can nibble at 12 or 13 wins every year. If he stinks, the Christian Ponder era will feel ever-present.
It’s very much a boom-or-bust plan, and if McCarthy isn’t the real deal, well, the Vikings will draft a different passer in 2028 or so and start over again.
The Divisional Round Playoff ceiling feels gone with Cousins and Darnold employed elsewhere.
The Vikings Have Done It Again
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