The Vikings’ Biggest New Year’s Resolutions
New Year’s is four days away, and wouldn’t you know it? We have New Year’s resolutions for the Minnesota Vikings, almost exclusively for the 2026 team, since the franchise cannot qualify for the postseason in 2025.
It’s a list of New Year’s Resolutions for the Vikings: quarterback durability, a draft-built run game, a secondary that needs real juice, and a roster that has to stop living week to week.
Last year’s list was largely ignored, aside from defensive tackle Jalen Redmond’s rise to stardom. You can read the resolutions from this time last year here.
The New Year’s Resolutions Minnesota Must Consider
Yes, the Vikings have a handful of New Year’s resolutions.
1. Decide Whether to Stick with J.J. McCarthy Hell or High Water
Minnesota’s offseason won’t begin with free agency or the draft board. It begins with a conviction check. Internally, the front office already has a working answer — the rest of the league and the fan base just hasn’t heard it yet.
Strip everything else away, and the question is clear: Is McCarthy durable enough to be treated as the 2026 plan, not a hopeful one, but the plan? Every downstream decision flows from that conclusion.
His season didn’t unfold neatly. The early stretch featured hesitation, misreads, and moments that looked overwhelmed. Then, without much warning, the tempo flipped. Reads came faster. Throws arrived on time. The offense stopped dragging its feet. That kind of shift is uncommon. Young quarterbacks usually climb in increments. McCarthy didn’t. He leapt. Not long enough to declare victory, but long enough to eliminate coincidence.
The league already knows the talent is there. Minnesota’s remaining concern is simpler and harder to solve: whether the availability matches the ability.
2. Find a Young Running Back for the RB1 Job
The names may change, but the idea won’t. Whether it’s a Round 1 swing, a Day 2 value, or a later-round solution, Minnesota is heading toward the same destination: a rookie running back with real upside.
The placeholder approach has expired. Veteran recycling kept the offense functional at times, but it never gave it teeth. O’Connell’s system asks for a back who can absorb touches, force defensive adjustments, and stay efficient when the workload climbs. That player hasn’t been on the roster. The team, under Kevin O’Connell, has tried Alexander Mattison, Aaron Jones, and Jordan Mason, but it needs young legs.
Until that wish is granted, the offense remains capped. Free agency almost never supplies the young legs approach. But the draft does.
Even a front office comfortable leaning on known veterans understands the reality. At some point, the Vikings must stop managing the RB position and make it a strength.
Newsweek‘s Trevor Squire noted earlier this month the RB draft need, “The Vikings offense has been grounded with McCarthy under center, and while he turned a corner, throwing for three touchdowns in a 31-0 win over the Washington Commanders, Kevin O’Connell’s offense is still far from its glory days with Sam Darnold or Kirk Cousins at the helm.”
“That may lead the Vikings to invest more into the offense with their first-round pick in April. The Vikings would be wise to plan for the future at running back with Aaron Jones turning 31 this year. McCarthy’s struggles have also opened conversations about drafting another quarterback in the first round, but that would run counterintuitive to the patient approach the organization has taken with McCarthy, who is 22 years old, so far.”
3. Fix a Depleted Secondary
If Harrison Smith walks — and his public comments sound increasingly final — the shape of Minnesota’s secondary becomes uncomfortably clear. Entering 2026, the Vikings would have the following starting-level defensive backs under contract:
- Byron Murphy Jr. (CB)
- Isaiah Rodgers (CB)
- Josh Metellus (S)
- Theo Jackson (S)
Jay Ward has flashed at safety and could reasonably be elevated, but the larger issue remains unchanged. The group lacks mass, margin, and star power for a team that still talks in Super Bowl terms.
Smith’s likely exit will force the front office’s hand. Minnesota will need a young corner it can actually build around, a true safety replacement capable of handling Smith’s responsibilities, and an additional corner who can play real snaps — not just survive them. That’s a three-item checklist, and every one of them carries urgency.
4. Win a Super Bowl after 65 Years
No NYR list for the Vikings would be complete without the grandaddy of them all.
The Vikings have been around for 65 seasons and have won zero Super Bowls. During the Super Bowl era (since 1966), Minnesota has the NFL’s fourth-best regular season win percentage, but no Super Bowl trophy to go along with it. Of the Top 17 teams in regular season win percentage since 1966, the Vikings are the only one without a Lombardi trophy.
That is a criminal stat.
Based on the consistent win percentage, the franchise has to break through for a Super Bowl soon. It just has to. The math doesn’t make sense otherwise.
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