A Peak at the Hot Seat Meter for Vikings
A disappointing season brings with it anger and finger-pointing. It’s not always fair, but it is the nature of the beast. The 2025 season has been disappointing for the Minnesota Vikings,
A peek at the Vikings’ hot seat meter breaks down rising pressure on leadership as frustration, results, and long-term concerns collide around the franchise.
Such a bad day against your biggest rival will prompt some to call for the immediate firing of several people in the heat of the moment. That’s not going to happen, but the hot seats are definitely warming up in Minnesota.
Adam New Breaks Down the Current Hot Seat Meter for the Vikings
Since this leadership group came together in 2022, the Vikings have won more games than they have lost. With aย 38-26ย record (including the postseason) to be exact, and even if Minnesota lost all of the remaining games this season, that record would still be above .500. That won’t go unnoticed by the Vikings ownership, but if days like the one in Lambeau Field keep happening then then the pressure will get to a breaking point for someone.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
It was a huge offseason for the Vikings’ general manager, and the results have been bad. Only the New England Patriots spent more in free agency, yet the Vikings look like a shadow of the team that won 14 games last season. Criticism of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s drafting ability has been prevalent since Year 1, but he navigated the FA under tight constraints fairly well. With a big war chest this offseason to try to set the Vikings up for long-term success, he got it wrong.
Too many signings came with the asterisk of being old and/or injury-prone. You are hard-pressed to find an area of the team that has improved this season.
Even more damning are the players the Vikings decided to let leave the building, and it’s not just the obvious two quarterbacks – Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones. Camryn Bynum is thriving in Indianapolis, while Minnesota is struggling in the secondary. There should be an inquest about how this year has gone so horribly wrong, with the buck stopping at the GM.
Hot Set Meter – Very Hot
Kevin O’Connell
The big question about Kevin O’Connell is his role in the decision-making regarding the Vikings’ QB situation this offseason. If he pounded the table for McCarthy as QB1, no matter what, he has a lot to answer for. We can speculate on that, but that’s all it will be right now. What we do know is the areas O’Connell is struggling with as a head coach and play caller right now.
There has been a stubbornness to dial back the offense and be more run-heavy, although it was attempted in Green Bay, and the Vikings shot themselves in the foot with a catastrophic special teams error that flipped the script. Should the Vikings HC give up play-calling to focus on coaching? That should be looked into before any firing happens.
Hot Seat Meter – Warming Up
Brian Flores
The 2025 Vikings are proving to be a bit of an enigma. They are doing enough to keep the opposition from scoring lots of points and keep the team in the game.
However, there are some glaring problems, such as consistently poor tackling, being dominated in the run game, and coverage issues in the secondary. A unit that led the league in turnovers last season has managed only nine this year, none in the previous three games. It’s not a coincidence that the game in which five turnovers happened was the best of the Vikings’ season.
The win over Cincinnati is the league’s biggest margin of victory so far this season, but it is very much an outlier for the 2025 Vikings. Overall, Brian Flores’ unit has been the strength of the team this year; the only way his employment is under threat is if the Vikings decide to tear it all down and start again.
Hot Seat Meter – Lukewarm
Matt Daniels
The Special Teams coordinator is probably the easiest place to make a change, and unfortunately for Matt Daniels, his unit is too inconsistent and draws far too many penalty flags. When you have a good kicker like Will Reichard, a solid punter like Ryan Wright, and a dynamic returner like Myles Price, albeit the mistakes are adding up.
You should be set up for lots of success on special teams. Mistakes have proved costly this season. The kick return by the Chicago Bears with under a minute to go in Week 11 was bad. The cameras caught O’Connell’s reaction on the sideline. Another gaffe, this time Price not getting out of the way of a ball he let bounce, proved game-defining again.
Any more repeats like those and Daniels might not see out the season. As it stands, he could well need to find alternative employment next season.
Hot Seat Meter – Scorching Hot
Wes Phillips
Being the offensive coordinator when the head coach is the offensive playcaller is a bit of a thankless task. It comes with questions about what you actually do, and you get credit for nothing. That’s the position Wes Phillips is currently in, and amid criticism of O’Connell’s play-calling, some want a new OC in the building who takes on those duties.
Phillips followed O’Connell from the Los Angeles Rams to Minnesota, so I don’t expect the Vikings HC to want to part ways with him. A change of OC without play-calling duties being handed over would seem futile and unnecessary, and only likely if the heat really ratchets up on O’Connell.
Hot Seat Verdict – Hot
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