What Vikings Can Learn from This Year’s Super Bowl Teams
The 17-2 Kansas City Chiefs and the 17-3 Philadelphia Eagles will meet in Super Bowl LIX on February 9 in New Orleans.
Two years ago, these two teams played in the big game in an exciting Super Bowl, and the Chiefs won 38-35. The Chiefs are seeking a first-ever Super Bowl three-peat, while the Eagles have reclaimed the NFC title after a late-season hiccup last year that saw them lose six of their last seven games, including Tampa Bay’s elimination in the wildcard round.
What Vikings Can Learn from This Year’s Super Bowl Teams
The Vikings fell short in the postseason after an outstanding 14-win regular season. What can the Vikings learn from the Chiefs and Eagles’ 2024 season success as they try to return to the playoffs in 2025 and make a postseason run?
Lessons for the Vikings to learn from this year’s Super Bowl teams:
1. Elite and mobile quarterback play is needed in pressure games: Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts were both outstanding in the postseason, especially in the conference title games. Mahomes threw for 245 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 43 yards and two touchdowns against Buffalo. He doesn’t run a lot in the regular season, but he definitely does in the postseason to generate first downs and touchdowns. He is great at scrambling to buy time and then find a receiver.
Hurts passed for 246 yards, one TD, and three rushing TDs against Washington. He had 70 rushing yards with one TD in the divisional round win over the Rams. He has ranked among the top rushing QBs in recent years (four straight seasons with over 600 rushing yards and double-digit TDs—mainly via the Tush Push).
So, it’s not only about passing productivity in the playoffs. It’s also about the quarterback’s ability to buy time to throw and his running for key first downs and touchdowns.
After an excellent regular season (until the Detroit finale) that earned him a Pro Bowl selection with a 102.5 passer rating, 212 rushing yards, and 23 first downs on the ground, Sam Darnold produced a poor passer rating of 77.6 as he took nine sacks and rushed for only 19 yards in the wildcard round loss to the Rams. That followed a lousy game with the No. 1 seed and NFC North title on the line in Detroit when Darnold consistently was late and inaccurate on his throws and ran for only 10 yards.
After Darnold’s late-season flop, 2024 first-rounder J.J. McCarthy will likely take over next season. He was a clutch QB as a passer and runner at Michigan when he led the Wolverines to the 2023 national title. The Vikings need him to stay healthy, step up and become an elite QB who wins in the pressure-filled playoffs a la Mahomes and Hurts.
2. Strong offensive line play: Kansas City’s O-line led the way for a 135-yard rushing day, allowing only two sacks against the Bills.
The Eagles have one of the league’s best offensive lines to open holes for the league’s best back—Saquon Barkley. In the NFC title game, the Eagles had 229 rushing yards (6.4 average) with 118 yards, three TDs by Barkley, and a playoff record-tying seven rushing TDs. The line also protected Hurts well enough, with only two sacks allowed.
Philly has invested several high draft picks in the offensive line, as have the Vikings, but Minnesota’s success has come at offensive tackle, with first-rounder Christian Darrisaw and second-rounder Brian O’Neill.
The Vikings’ problem area is the interior O-line, where too much pressure was generated—especially in the last two games—against guards Dalton Risner and Blake Brandel and center Garrett Bradbury (who was a first-round pick in 2019 but is an average center at best and often struggles against strong inside pass rushers, as was the case against the Rams). Ed Ingram, a second-round guard benched this season, appears headed toward bust status.
The Vikings must have their excellent tackles stay healthy (they ended the Rams game without both Darrisaw and O’Neill). The team must clearly fortify the interior offensive line via free agency with their estimated $70 million in salary cap room this year and possibly with their first-round pick (No. 24 overall, where there should be some excellent guards to choose from). It also will help if their quarterback doesn’t hold the ball too long, as was the case with Darnold against the Rams, and can run effectively against playoff defenses (which they hope McCarthy is a quarterback who can do that).
3. Win the turnover battle in playoff games: after a regular season in which the Vikings led the league with 33 takeaways and 24 interceptions, they came up empty against the Rams while Darnold turned it over twice with an interception and lost fumble returned for a game-changing TD.
The Eagles’ defense forced four Washington turnovers (one interception and three fumbles), while the Philly offense had no turnovers. That plus-four ratio was the key to a 55-23 blowout victory.
The Chiefs actually were minus 1 on turnovers against the Bills with a Mahomes fumble early enough in the game that the Chiefs could overcome it. Kansas City had no turnovers in their divisional-round win over Houston.
Next Week, I’ll make my Super Bowl pick and give a few thoughts on how the game will go. I’ll also continue with my Vikings offseason blueprint for a 2025 season that ends with a playoff run. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve made several observations on the keys to a better finish next season, starting with clutch quarterback play that was absent from Darnold’s last two games.
I’ll get more in-depth next week as we examine the many decisions facing GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Coach Kevin O’Connell. Many key players will be heading to free agency if they’re not re-signed by March 12, the first day of the 2025 league year. I’ll also discuss potential targets for free-agent signings and the first-round pick.
Jeff Diamond is a former Vikings GM, former Tennessee Titans President and was selected NFL Executive of the Year after the Vikings’ 15-1 season in 1998. He now works for the NFL agent group IFA based in Minneapolis and does other sports consulting and media work along with college/corporate speaking. Follow him and direct message him on Twitter– @jeffdiamondnfl.
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