All it took was one visit to the TCO Performance Center in Eagan for Dalton Risner to become a Minnesota Vikings fan. Well, kinda. The fifth-year guard grew up in Wiggins, Colo. (population: 1,400) near the Kansas border. He played at Kansas State, and the Denver Broncos drafted him. Risner spent four years with the Broncos but couldn’t come to terms with them in the offseason.
Ten teams reached out to Risner, but he felt they were lowballing him. The Vikings were the only team to fly him out for an official visit. Risner arrived in August but left without a contract. Still, he followed the team from afar. “I was tracking every game,” he said. “I watched the whole Eagles game. I watched the whole Tampa Bay game. I was tracking the scores and tracking the whole deal, man. I was just waiting.
“I’ve been a Minnesota fan for a while, especially ever since I came on a visit.”
The Vikings signed him after the Los Angeles Chargers game. They were 0-3 by then, having lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Chargers. But Risner believed they could turn things around because of what he saw on television and experienced once he got into the facility.
The way that people carry themselves. The way the organization is ran. The way we’re playing teams, you know? You barely lose to the Eagles. You barely lose to the Chiefs. I mean, you play these teams that were up to the Lombardi Trophy last year, and you’re playing them until the fourth quarter, and it’s a tight game.
And so I’m like, man, we’re playing teams tough. We just had a few really good teams that we’ve had to play this year. And the Eagles and the Chiefs and the 49ers are top-three, I don’t know, maybe top-five teams in the NFL, I’m not sure.
Since 1979, only six teams have started 0-3 and made the playoffs. However, the Vikings made every indication that they could be the seventh. They signed Risner and traded for Cam Akers, who knew Kevin O’Connell’s system. “A lot of the stuff carries over from L.A.,” said Akers, who played for O’Connell and Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips when they were with the Los Angeles Rams. “I know 90% of the playbook coming in, so just getting to know the team, the coaches, the people. They’re probably the main learning curve for me right now.”
The Vikings have gone 4-1 since adding Risner and Akers. They beat the San Francisco 49ers as seven-point underdogs on Monday Night Football and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Akers is splitting time with Alexander Mattison at running back, and he looks like the more dynamic player. Risner stepped in for Ezra Cleveland after he sprained his foot in Chicago and usurped his role. Minnesota traded Cleveland, their second-round pick in 2020, to the Jacksonville Jaguars at the deadline. They also traded for former Arizona Cardinals starting quarterback Joshua Dobbs after losing Kirk Cousins to an Achilles injury last week.
Dobbs is joining his seventh team. He was the Cleveland Browns’ backup last year, and he had moved into his house in Phoenix two weeks ago before the Cardinals traded him to Minnesota. “My stuff got out there last week,” Dobbs said. “I had one week at home with all my stuff — my couch, my bed, had the fam come out because we had a home game last week, so they got to enjoy it and everything. And then got to pick up and move across the country again. It’s a part of the process. It’ll be a tremendous story to tell.”
Risner also faced uncertainty this season. He’d always lived and played in Colorado or Kansas. However, Risner found himself working out every day and watching football on Sundays. It wore on him after playing football since he was young. “The competitive edge and finding purpose” were the things he missed the most.
I was just sick of waiting. I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m playing football, or if I’m not, or what the career path is.’ On and on and on. And I think I was just yearning to have that purpose every day. I was training every single day, like, ‘What am I doing?’ You know what I mean? Guys are, OTAs were over, camp is over. They’re in the season now, and yet, I’m still training here. Like, what’s the point? What’s going on? Stuff like that.
Risner didn’t know where he’d end up. However, he left Minnesota impressed with the Vikings organization in August and has settled in since. “This place definitely feels like home, man,” he said. “I’m grateful to be here. Grateful for how I’ve been treated since I’ve been here. And yeah, this place is starting to feel like home. I’m going home every day.
“My wife just took a work trip back to Colorado, and she got back, and she’s like, ‘Man, it’s starting to feel like home out here in Minneapolis.’”
That’s a good thing because it’s rare for an NFL team to add players at three crucial positions and succeed. And it’s even rarer for a team to start 0-3, lose its franchise quarterback, and make the playoffs. But the Vikings are certainly trying. Rookie Jaren Hall will start in Atlanta, but Dobbs could be under center against the New Orleans Saints in Week 10. If he becomes the starter and Minnesota salvages this season, it’ll be because they made three players who didn’t start the year with the team feel at home as soon as they arrived.
