4 Truths We Already Know about the 2025 Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings conducted a whirlwind offseason, nominating J.J. McCarthy as the QB1, enhancing the depth chart via free agency, and drafting Ohio State guard Donovan Jackson in Round 1.
Here are four truths we already know about the 2025 Vikings, from roster strengths to lingering concerns that will carry into the regular season.
Most fans feel, well, great about the 2025 squad, particularly because of McCarthy and his youthful appeal.
To get you prepared for the regular season, which is eight days away, these are four things we know for sure about Minnesota this year.
4 Things We Know for Sure about the 2025 Vikings
Regarding the Vikings, this is the obvious stuff.
1. The Team’s Best Offensive Line Since 2009 or 2010
This was the Vikings’ offensive line in 2010:
LT: Bryant McKinnie
LG: Steve Hutchinson
C: John Sullivan
RG: Anthony Herrera
RT: Phil Loadholt
That was arguably the last time fans “didn’t have to worry about” the trenches every Sunday. So, yes, for 15 years, something has always been wrong with the offensive line, often the guard(s) spot.
On paper, after free agency and the draft, Minnesota is scheduled to showcase its best offensive line in a decade and a half:
LT: Christian Darrisaw
LG: Donovan Jackson
C: Ryan Kelly
RG: Will Fries
RT: Brian O’Neill
The trenches were built.
Daily Norseman‘s Warren Ludford opined on the Vikings’ offensive line this month.
He wrote, “The Minnesota Vikings made their biggest investment of the off-season in their offensive line. They acquired free agent right guard Will Fries in a 5-year, $88 million deal, free agent center Ryan Kelly in a 2-year, $18 million deal, and spent their first-round draft pick on top left guard prospect Donovan Jackson. Additionally, left tackle Christian Darrisaw looks increasingly likely to return as the starter to begin the season, and Brian O’Neill returns as right tackle.”
“The Vikings have assembled a starting offensive line that has the track record to be amongst the very best in the league this season, if they can stay healthy. Brian O’Neill and Christian Darrisaw are well established solid performers and among the best tackle duos in the league. And the new interior linemen are all looking good so far in training camp, particularly Will Fries and Donovan Jackson. Let’s hope they can stay healthy all season.”
2. Defensive Tackle Depth Is Real
On top of enhanced offensive line depth, let us introduce the new-look DT room for Minnesota:
- Jonathan Allen
- Javon Hargrave
- Jalen Redmond
- Levi Drake Rodriguez
- Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins
- Elijah Williams
And the coaching staff loves each and every one of those men. Like the offensive line, Minnesota ignored serious DT fixes for years. It’s a new era with Allen and Hargrave in the house, even if the front office traded Harrison Phillips to the New York Jets.
3. The Defense Will Be a Top 10 Unit
Minnesota finished last season with the NFL’s second-best defense per EPA/Play. The Denver Broncos nudged Brian Flores from the top spot and might do so again in 2025.
But based on the addition of Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave, in addition to deploying Dallas Turner more frequently, there’s just no way the Flores’ defense experiences a serious regression. The personnel are there. So is the coaching. And Flores’ playcalling is revered.
The defense is guaranteed to be great, and if it’s not, it will be merely “really good.”
The Ringer‘s Sheil Kapadia recently remarked on the purple defense: “The Vikings lost some pieces in the secondary, but they bolstered their pass rush with vets like Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. And they’re hoping that 2024 first-round pick Dallas Turner can give the pass rush a boost.”
“If Flores feels like he can trust a four-man rush to get home, there’s a chance that we see Flores get creative with his calls without blitzing so much on early downs. Unless Minnesota’s situation at cornerback turns out to be a complete disaster, I don’t see a big dropoff coming for the Vikings. I just have too much trust in Flores, and the Vikings are talented — especially up front.”
4. Kevin O’Connell Wants to Run the Football More
Kevin O’Connell said back in April: “We’ve thrown the ball at a pretty world-class effective clip for three years with Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold last year. I want to run the football, I want to get back to the truest nature of where the foundation of this offense was, which is running the football, marrying the run and the pass, generating explosives that way, and trying to be an effective early-down offense that can sustain for 17-plus weeks.”
“I think the things we’ve done in free agency, from a standpoint of the interior offensive and defensive lines, couple that with Aaron Jones being back and then acquiring a player like Jordan Mason, I think a physicality that I want to play with.”
For clarity, O’Connell has stated this in the previous two offseasons, prior to 2025. But this time, he has a revamped offensive line and Jordan Mason in the house.
The goal, at least during the offseason and summer, is to run the rock more frequently. The former quarterback-turned-head coach is gradually learning that throwing the ball 65% of the time doesn’t work in the NFL to the tune of a Super Bowl.
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