One Viking Isn’t Worried After the Week 2 Loss
The Minnesota Vikings are a storied franchise that has seen plenty of success as well as heartbreak.
After a Week 2 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, a game in which the Vikings could not garner any momentum and may have lost their starting quarterback for upwards of a month, it may seem to some like the 2025 season is inching closer and closer to being a disappointment for Minnesota.
However, there is one veteran Vikings player who does not seem to be too concerned about Minnesota’s injuries and the loss on Sunday afternoon.
Should There Be Concern Over the Vikings’ Start to the Season?
That veteran player is one who has been around the block a few times and has seen success and disappointment in Minnesota: WR Adam Thielen.
Will Ragatz of Bring Me the Sports posted the following quote from the wide receiver on X:
“We started 5-0 one year and missed the playoffs. We started 1-2 and went to the NFC championship game. A Week 2 loss doesn’t derail who you are as a football team — but it can, if you don’t treat it the right way. Great opportunity to see what this team’s really made of,” Thielen said.
Of course, Thielen is talking about the contrast between the 2016 and 2017 Vikings teams that he was a part of. Minnesota started the 2016 campaign 5-0, but after their Week 6 bye, the team went 3-8 and missed the playoffs.
A year later, Case Keenum led an improbable run to the NFC Championship Game after starting QB Sam Bradford went down with a knee injury. That team started the season 2-2 (not 1-2 like Thielen said in the quote) with a couple of ugly losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions.
Eight years after that 2017 season, the Vikings find themselves in a similar situation. Their offense has been putrid for seven of the first eight quarters of the regular season. Outside of that fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears, Minnesota has scored just 12 points in the other seven quarters.
On top of those struggles, the Vikings are now set to be without their starting QB for upwards of 2-4 weeks because of a high ankle sprain.
As a result, it’s now Carson Wentz time in Minnesota, and the once MVP candidate quarterback will have a chance to rejuvenate his career. He has started one game in each of the past two seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs.
Ultimately, there is a lot of time left in this season for Minnesota to turn their disappointing start around.
It will certainly be challenging to do so with a litany of injuries up and down their roster, but this weekend, they are going up against a Joe Burrow-less Bengals team before heading to Europe to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns.
A lot can happen in the next couple of weeks. This team very well could be 4-1 by the time their bye rolls around, or they could be in a deeper hole.
Regardless, Thielen seems excited to find out how the team responds moving forward.
Editor’s Note: Statistics for this article were found via Pro Football Reference.
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