The Minnesota Vikings have enjoyed a remarkable season. At 12-4, they will be heading to the playoffs for the first time since 2019, and they have a shot at their first 13-win season since 2021. They’re 11-0 in one-score games, and although they’re just as likely to get run off the field in embarrassing fashion, the season has been a success.
Minnesota’s season has been so good that it’s hard to pinpoint who is responsible for their success. Kevin O’Connell changed the culture in the locker room, but Justin Jefferson flirted with a 2,000-yard season. Kirk Cousins has undergone the best character development since Roman Reigns became “The Head of the Table,” but Za’Darius Smith is one of the best pass-rushers in the league.
Plenty of people deserve credit, but the Chicago Bears are the group that deserves the most credit.
The Bears and the Vikings will clash in an almost meaningless season finale on Sunday, but they’ve been connected at the hip throughout the season. While the Bears are benching Justin Fields in an effort to land the No. 1-overall pick, they’ve had a bigger impact on how Minnesota’s season has turned out.
It started nearly a year ago when both teams decided to begin a new era. The Vikings had just fired Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman, while the Bears canned Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace. Both teams had enticing openings for their general manager. Ryan Poles became the apple of their eyes.
Poles had been one of the driving forces in the Kansas City Chiefs’ rise. The Vikings and Bears were willing to open the checkbooks to bring him to their respective franchises. Poles was reportedly Minnesota’s top option to replace Spielman, but Chicago got to him first, presumably stuffing him full of deep-dish pizza until he took the job.
The Vikings turned their attention to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, and they could be in a much different situation if they hadn’t hired him.
Poles took a blowtorch to the roster in Chicago upon his arrival, stripping everything down to the studs. Even Fields was under heavy observation as Poles traded Khalil Mack, Roquan Smith, and anyone of value to stockpile cap space and draft picks for 2023.
To his credit, the plan has worked. Chicago will have over $121 million in cap space this offseason and nine picks in the 2023 draft. It’s also come at the cost of this season, as the Bears have floundered to a 3-13 record.
It’s hard not to wonder what would have happened if Poles had made the flight to Minnesota. A full rebuild was possible at the end of last season, but the Vikings had more impact talent than the Bears did a year ago. Even as Jason La Canfora reported that the Vikings were considering jettisoning high-priced veterans such as Eric Kendricks, Dalvin Cook, and Adam Thielen, getting rid of those players would have sabotaged any hopes of competing this season.
This could have also had a major ripple effect on the current regime. Had the Vikings sank to being a five-to-six-win team, confidence in O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah wouldn’t be as high as it is now. That could’ve caused unrest with a fanbase sick of going 9-8 or 8-9 but doesn’t want to endure a trainwreck season – even at the benefit of a high draft pick.
The two franchises could have gone their separate ways there, but they continued to be connected as the season played out.
Ihmir Smith-Marsette was considered a surprise cut at the end of training camp, but the Vikings had questions about his ball security. Poles rushed to the waiver wire to claim Smith-Marsette, who had just one catch for 15 yards in eight games for the Bears.
Smith-Marsette could have remained out of sight and out of mind. But in a Week 5 meeting with the Bears, the Vikings were struggling to fend off a Chicago offense that has been as explosive as Brad Childress’s “Kick Ass Offense.” With the game on the line, Smith-Marsette stiff-armed Cameron Dantzler to the center of the earth. But Dantzler got up and preyed on Smith-Marsette’s weakness, stripping the ball and leading the Vikings to victory.
This was a key point in Minnesota’s season. Had the Vikings lost to the lowly Bears, questions could have popped up in the locker room, and the feeling of “Here we go again” could have led them back to mediocrity. Instead, it was a springboard to an 8-1 start that has placed the Vikings in their current position.
But let’s go back to that fateful August day. Moments after Smith-Marsette was told to turn in his tablet, Armon Watts was also a surprise cut. Watts was appearing to come into his own with the Vikings, recording five sacks in the 2021 season. Poles saw this and put in another successful waiver claim, hopefully adding another burly impact player in the middle of his defensive line.
Instead, Watts turned out to be a product of Zimmer’s scheme. Watts has just one sack and 32 tackles in 16 games with the Bears this season and has recently fallen out of the starting lineup. The sixth-round pick may have also benefitted from Andre Patterson’s tutelage, as he appeared as helpless as Leonardo or Donatello without Master Splinter.
At the same time Watts was released, the Bears were making their own surprise cut. Khyiris Tonga was a seventh-round pick by the Bears in the 2021 draft but didn’t make a good impression on Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus.
The move didn’t generate the same headlines that Smith-Marsette and Watts did in Minnesota. But former teammate Akiem Hicks, who played next to Tonga and spent the past several years burying Vikings offensive linemen into the turf, expressed his skepticism on social media.
Another move came moments later when the Bears waived Duke Shelley and eventually signed him to their practice squad. While Tonga had made his way to the Atlanta Falcons practice squad, both were available for the taking. Adofo-Mensah made his move.
The Vikings signed Tonga on Oct. 4, and he has become a key player on the defensive line. He ranks 16th in Pro Football Focus’s overall grades among interior defensive linemen and has become a strong complement next to Dalvin Tomlinson.
Shelley was signed to the Vikings’ practice squad on Sept. 6 but didn’t make his mark until stepping in for Andrew Booth Jr. in Buffalo. Shelley’s pass breakup in overtime helped seal Minnesota’s win over the Buffalo Bills. He took off from there, grading 16th in PFF’s overall grades among cornerbacks.
It’s hard to imagine where the Vikings would be without both of these players, but it’s especially true for Shelley. Injuries and poor performance have ransacked Minnesota’s secondary this season, but Shelley has stepped up and may have supplanted Dantzler in the starting lineup.
It’s just another way how the Bears have unintentionally helped the Vikings. The result has been a season that nobody thought was possible a couple of months ago and would have been impossible if it weren’t for a couple of different moves.
