5 Vikings Players Who Must Rebound after the Bye

Sitting at 3-2 through five weeks and enjoying two weeks off, the Minnesota Vikings must get healthy in the next several weeks and demand rebound performances from a handful of players if they wish to participate in the postseason tournament.
The Minnesota Vikings’ bye week concludes in a couple of days, and from here on out, these notable players must experience rebirth in 2025.
The team’s schedule turns quite brutal next weekend.
The following five players have struggled so far this season or been rocked by injuries and need bounceback showing sooner rather than later.
The Men Who Must Fire Back for the Vikings
Twelve games remain for these players to change the story.

1. Jonathan Allen (DT)
Pro Football Focus currently has Allen sitting on a 49.7 grade through four games — not exactly the return you want on a three-year, $51 million investment. The 30-year-old has yet to register a sack, and while it’s possible he’s due for a breakout performance, the Vikings need more than replacement-level grades from one of their highest-paid defenders. Undrafted talents can post similar numbers.
So far, Allen’s start to the season has left fans puzzled. Five games in, he still hasn’t brought down a quarterback for a sack, which is tough to justify at $17 million per year. The Vikings paid for consistent disruption, not a quiet stat line. Through Week 5, Allen has recorded 11 total pressures (23rd among interior linemen), 8 hurries (22nd), and 3 QB hits (10th). It’s production that suggests he’s close — but not delivering what he was signed to deliver.
2. J.J. McCarthy (QB)
McCarthy won NFC Offensive Player of the Week in his first-ever game, and most fans have inconveniently swept that under the rug, with some even under the impression that the man is already a “bust.” Why? Because his second game didn’t register the same result, and he played terribly in Week 2.
The 22-year-old also sprained his ankle, the high variety that has sidelined him since. McCarthy must return to the lineup before too long and resume his development. Otherwise, he risks a lost season, which would spell doom for his career outlook.
In short, he must bounce back with the Week-1-4th-Quarterback version of himself.
Zone Coverage‘s Nelson Thielen compared McCarthy to Jaxson Dart in New York this week: “It’s been a long time since this fanbase was invested in the development of a young quarterback, and the online discourse is already growing contentious.”
“It doesn’t help that Vikings fans have watched the emergence of budding stars like Dart and Drake Maye as McCarthy has nursed his ankle. Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones have also had success after spending time with the Vikings last year. If McCarthy doesn’t show something soon, the purple faithful are going to go green with envy. But I think there are some similarities in Dart and McCarthy’s profiles, and it’s not completely unrealistic to think that McCarthy may be able to replicate some of Dart’s success.”

Dart electrified a Thursday Night Football audience in Week 6 with a win over the rival Eagles.
“Both players have good mobility and play well outside the pocket, even if McCarthy isn’t a pure scrambler like Dart. McCarthy and Dart also have strong arms, and they can rifle in throws over the middle into tight windows. McCarthy is already behind Dart in terms of on-field resumé in the NFL, but some of that is due to sample size and extenuating circumstances,” Thielen added.
“That said, the Vikings and Kevin O’Connell would be well served to look at the way that New York has built their offense around Dart’s skillset and executed his game plan against Philly.”
3. Jeff Okudah (CB)
Okudah, envisioned by many Vikings loyalists as a player whose career would be revived by defensive Brian Flores, has played just 71 snaps on defense, posting a 40.5 PFF score along the way.
He’s the team’s CB3, and if something happens injury-wise to Byron Murphy Jr. or Isaiah Rodgers, he’d be thrust into a full-time role. All signs point to that hypothetical scenario flopping.
Okudah needs a strong stretch to revive the popular sentiment that his career could be salvaged. So far, it’s more of the same.
4. Ivan Pace Jr. (LB)
Pace Jr. began the 2025 campaign by missing tackles left and right, a strange occurrence because the young defender never had that problem in the past.
Of 72 qualifying linebackers, PFF calls Pace the NFL’s 10th-worst after five weeks. The Cincinnati alumnus must do two things henceforth a) return to his usually consistent form — that he showed in 2023 and most of 2024 — b) create some impact plays and turnovers.

Doing so would instantly whisk him back into fans’ good graces. That’s all it would take.
5. Adam Thielen (WR)
Thielen has caught 4 passes in five games. The Vikings traded for him late in the summer, a deal with the Carolina Panthers centered around a 4th-Round pick. He was supposed to be the WR2 during Jordan Addison’s three-game suspension. Instead, he has banked WR5 or WR6 numbers.
The Vikings must target Thielen more often, hope he shows up big in clutch moments down the stretch of 2025, or throw in the towel, knowing that they made a mistake with the trade.
At 35, some are wondering if Thielen has encountered an age-related wall. It’s up to him to change the narrative.
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