If there’s a theme for the 2024 Minnesota Vikings, it should be patience. The Vikings are breaking in a new quarterback, riding out a string of injuries on defense, and have several roster spots up for grabs coming into Saturday’s preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders.
With many oddsmakers pegging Minnesota to finish last in the NFC North, they’ll have to avoid any knee-jerk reactions that could cause long-term damage. Teams can do that if they focus on themselves, but it’s hard to do in today’s age of social media. With the rest of the division on the rise, 2024 could be a pivotal moment for the Vikings — and it could put the front office’s long-term vision in jeopardy.
Throughout the Wilfs’ tenure as owners, the NFC North has played a part in their decision-making process. The 2017 Vikings were at the peak of their tenure, reaching the NFC Championship game, and the Wilfs rightly green-lit signing Kirk Cousins to bring it all together.
The 2018 team missed the playoffs, and 2019 became a prove-it year. Cousins’ $200 million throw to Adam Thielen and another money-making touchdown to Kyle Rudolph saved everyone from a full-blown rebuild. However, there was more to that decision than just writing a check.
In 2020, the NFC North appeared to be ripe for the picking. Aaron Rodgers‘ time with the Green Bay Packers looked limited, and the Chicago Bears were a dumpster fire. The Detroit Lions were…the Lions. Everything signaled that the Vikings would be the last team standing, so ownership gave the okay to forge ahead.
But Minnesota’s defensive youth movement failed, and the Vikings missed the playoffs again in 2020. They went on a bargain-basemen free-agent spending spree to keep the window open in 2021, but Minnesota went 8-9 and fired Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman.
Even hiring Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell couldn’t stop the Vikings from moving forward at the speed of an ox on the Oregon Trail. They kept the roster intact heading into the 2022 season and went 13-4, but Daniel Jones, the New York Giants, and Ed Donatell’s defense defeated them in the playoffs.
In 2023, they made one last attempt to take advantage of the NFC North. The Packers were breaking in Jordan Love, Chicago was still tanking, and the Lions still had much to prove. The Vikings started 1-4, lost Cousins and Justin Jefferson to injuries, and went into a downward spiral that left them at 7-10.
That left the Vikings at a turning point this offseason. Should they forge ahead one more time by signing Cousins to a lucrative contract or scrap the competitive part of the rebuild?
The Atlanta Falcons gave Cousins and the Vikings 180 million reasons to move on. The Vikings signed Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Blake Cashman to remain competitive but also drafted J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner to supplement the future.
The Vikings also used the newfound cap space created by moving on from Thielen, Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks, and other veterans and invested it in the future. Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw signed long-term deals to stay, and it looked like everyone was on the same page until Mark Wilf’s comments this week.
Wilf confirmed that the Vikings have not initiated contract extension talks with O’Connell or Adofo-Mensah as they head into the third year of four-year contracts. While Wilf indicated that the focus was on the 2024 season, they may also be looking at how competitive the other NFC North teams are looking.
Love struggled at the beginning of the 2023 season but caught fire in the second half. The Packers lit his rookie quarterback window on fire by making him the highest-paid quarterback in NFL history. However, they also have one of the youngest rosters around him to even out any high-priced shortcomings.
The Lions became very un-Lions-like and had a 17-point lead in the NFC Championship game over a team that would take Patrick Mahomes to overtime in the Super Bowl. With Amon-Ra St. Brown, Aidan Hutchinson, and Penei Sewell leading the way, Detroit has a young core that could help them stick around for a while.
Then there are the Bears, who are linked to the Vikings after making their regime change in 2022. While Minnesota had interest in hiring Ryan Poles for their vacant general manager position, Chicago beat the Vikings to it and went down a different path.
Poles took a can of gasoline to Chicago’s foundation and gritted his teeth through the 3-14 record in 2022. That season gave the Bears the No. 1-overall pick, which they leveraged in a blockbuster trade with the Carolina Panthers. They swapped the top pick in 2023 to acquire D.J. Moore, the No. 9-overall pick in 2023, a 2023 second-round pick, a first-round pick in 2024, and another second-rounder in 2025.
The Bears improved toward the second half of last season and finished with the same record as the Vikings (7-10). That 2024 first-round pick they acquired from Carolina turned out to be the No. 1-overall pick in the draft, and Chicago loaded up around Caleb Williams, trading for Keenan Allen, drafting Rome Odunze, and signing D’Andre Swift in free agency.
After Chicago’s moves, people have tabbed them as the favorites to be this year’s Lions. And if the Packers and Detroit fulfill their preseason expectations, it could have the Wilfs peering over the fence to see if the grass is greener with a change at general manager or head coach.
However, Wilf said the right thing earlier this week and mentioned continuity as a crucial factor moving forward.
“One thing that we saw for sure is this: Discontinuity almost ensures failure,” Wilf said. “So, you keep switching your leadership, and it’s counterintuitive. It’s not that you’re necessarily going to be successful. But it’s absolutely the case that if you switch people continuously, you absolutely will fail. At some point, you have to put your foot in the ground and say, ‘I’m going to stick with somebody and stop tinkering, tinkering, tinkering.”
It’s easy to say this now when the Vikings still expect to compete in 2024. However, if the season goes sideways, it could be easy to look around and become jealous of what the NFC North has become.
That could create a ripple effect throughout TCO Performance Center and leave the current regime as lame ducks or on the hot seat heading into the 2025 season.
