Kevin O’Connell sat in his office at TCO Performance Center. He looked at gameplans until his eyelids became heavy and ground tape until his eyes bled. He drank more Starbucks than Dan Campbell during an offseason bender, all with one goal in mind.
The Minnesota Vikings enter Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers tied with 7-8 records. If the Vikings can pick up a win, they’ll hit the road to face another win-or-go-home game against the Detroit Lions. Even if the Vikings survived, they would need help to reach the playoffs – the holy grail of a competitive rebuild.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” O’Connell groaned. “We have to keep moving forward.”
Just as O’Connell scratched the peach fuzz growing on his chin, a man burst through his office wall like the Kool-Aid Man. He was tall, with blonde hair and a giant chain around his neck. He kind of looked like Kirk Cousins but with a Superman cape flowing behind him.
“I am Captain Hindsight,” the man announced. “I am here to fix all of your troubles.”
O’Connell was too tired to speak, but he was eager to hear what the man had to say. With a simple nod, Captain Hindsight gave O’Connell all the solutions. The only problem is that they were all in the past tense.
It started when the Vikings lost four of their first five games to start the season. With high-end quarterback prospects coming in the 2024 draft, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to lean into the “rebuild” part of “competitive rebuild.” They could tank for the franchise quarterback that has eluded Minnesota since Fran Tarkenton retired.
But while the Vikings were still in a hole without Justin Jefferson due to a hamstring injury, they still had enough talent to make the playoffs. Jordan Addison became one of the top receivers in this year’s rookie class, and T.J. Hockenson made the jump to become one of the most elite tight ends in the NFL.
Brian Flores elevated the defense. With the offensive line finally playing at a functional level, there wasn’t any reason for the Vikings to try to lose for 12 weeks. Plus, the rest of the NFC wasn’t incredibly competitive. While the AFC has been a last-man (or quarterback) standing competition, the NFC has been a battle of supporting casts led by MVP candidate Brock Purdy and his treasure trove of weapons with the San Francisco 49ers.
After beating the Niners on Monday Night Football, the Vikings appeared to be on their way – until Cousins tore his Achilles in an Oct. 29 win over the Packers.
The injury provided another opportunity for Captain Hindsight to do his thing. It would have been even easier for the Vikings to go into tank mode and position themselves for a top quarterback, but there was a suitable solution that could have prevented this problem.
Lamar Jackson was there for the taking last spring as the Baltimore Ravens (and the rest of the NFL) balked at giving a quarterback fully guaranteed money. After paying a good quarterback elite money for the past six years, the Vikings could have traded in their 35-year-old signal caller for a dynamic 26-year-old, ready-made MVP candidate.
The Vikings would have given up at least two first-round picks in the deal. But would you rather have Addison and Cousins, or Jackson throwing passes to Jefferson? In the weak NFC, the Vikings would have been more worried about home-field advantage than being in the hunt if they made this move.
But like the rest of the league, the Vikings passed on trading for Jackson, and they still needed a quarterback. Joe Flacco was sitting on his couch after compiling a 75.2 passer rating last year, but he at least won a Super Bowl while riding with a tremendous supporting cast. The Cleveland Browns signed Flacco when they ran into injury issues, and he has led them to a rare playoff spot under Kevin Stefanski, who Captain Hindsight believes could have been Minnesota’s coach.
Flacco would have been the obvious journeyman choice. Instead, the Vikings decided to trade for Josh Dobbs, and it was quite the experience. Dobbs stepped in without practicing with the Vikings and led them to a win over the Atlanta Falcons. He also had an excellent first half in a win over the New Orleans Saints. But, unlike Flacco, Dobbs’ magic ran out, leaving Minnesota with another decision.
The Vikings had acquired Nick Mullens just over a year ago to be Cousins’s backup, but Mullens had his warts. A journeyman backup, Mullens is like football’s version of Scrappy Doo, with a mindset and toughness that exceeds his body’s limitations.
Mullens had thrown 22 interceptions in 17 career starts, handing out footballs faster than O’Connell during a postgame speech. Therefore, Captain Hindsight had another question: Why not start Jaren Hall?
A 25-year-old quarterback out of BYU, Hall’s savvy and mindset enticed the Vikings to select him in the fifth round of last year’s draft. But he is a project quarterback, and the Vikings were making a playoff push, so O’Connell was understandably reluctant to start him until now.
But what if Hall started the past two games instead of Mullens? Mullens threw six interceptions in his two Vikings starts. A fifth-round rookie is just as likely to throw the ball with reckless abandon as much as his journeyman counterpart.
Perhaps Hall could have cashed in on a pair of drives that would have eliminated the need for back-to-back Brandon Powell tush pushes in overtime. Or maybe he would have done just enough to delay Detroit’s NFC North championship celebration by at least one week.
Starting Hall would have allowed Minnesota to benefit from adequate backup quarterback play, which has value considering how this season has unfolded. Instead of looking for two quarterbacks, which is what the Vikings are doing now, they could focus on one and give Hall a chance to be the starting quarterback next season.
Alas, Hall will have only two opportunities to prove himself. If he can torch Joe Barry’s hapless defense on Sunday and a Lions team that could be focused on bigger things the following week, he can still make the same thing happen. But it wouldn’t have been as impressive as it could have been by holding his own against Cincinnati and Detroit.
That leaves us with the potential for the biggest Captain Hindsight moment of them all. At 7-8, the Vikings could still make the playoffs with a little help, but they also could improve their draft status. While this argument usually boils down to one or two spots in the draft, the Vikings dropped nine spots from No. 23 to No. 14 after losing last week’s game to the Lions.
If the Vikings drop the next two games, they could wind up with a top-10 or even a top-five pick in next year’s draft. That would allow them to trade up for a quarterback or take someone without giving up extra draft capital. Even if they bring Cousins back, they could use the pick to select an impact player and reduce the need for a defensive wizard to elevate what they have on the roster.
All of these things sound good, but it would have given this season a different feel. By tanking in October, the Vikings never would have gone on a run. Creed wouldn’t have become relevant again. The world would never know that Dobbs was a rocket scientist. The NFL wouldn’t have encountered a hilarious 3-0 win in Las Vegas, and the “tush push” would have just been something the Philadelphia Eagles do regularly.
There is always the allure of being an armchair general manager who second-guesses front offices and coaching staffs that have to make these decisions in real-time. That’s what makes the NFL great and has everyone laser-focused on each move throughout the year.
But this was too much for Captain Hindsight, who had bigger problems to solve. O’Connell tossed him a game ball and thanked him for his service before he blasted through the roof to save the day somewhere else (in retrospect).
“How can I ever repay you?” O’Connell said through the giant hole in his office.
“Just live in real-time,” Captain Hindsight said. “But don’t worry, I’ll be back in a few months when I need to tell you that you should have signed Russell Wilson.”
