The 2025 season has been a rollercoaster for the Minnesota Vikings. They’ve only played five games, but they’ve seen both the best and worst from J.J. McCarthy, played backups at all but one offensive line spot, gone three games without Jordan Addison, and played in three different countries.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that being 3-2 despite those circumstances would infuse the fan base with some optimism. However, two of those wins weren’t the result of dominant performances. The Vikings needed fourth-quarter comebacks to beat the Chicago Bears and the Cleveland Browns. The 48-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3 was decisive, but that squad has looked worse as the season has progressed.
Minnesota’s schedule after the bye further dampens expectations. The Vikings face the Philadelphia Eagles at home in Week 7, travel to Los Angeles to play the Chargers four days later, then head to Detroit to play the Lions before finishing the gauntlet with a home game against the Baltimore Ravens, who could have Lamar Jackson back.
It’s easy to make excuses for the season and prematurely look ahead to how the front office can fix the roster in the offseason. However, those four games have yet to be played. Although injuries have played a significant role in the team’s deficiencies, there is reason to be optimistic about the Vikings in both the short and long term this year.
Kevin O’Connell spoke with the media on Monday following Minnesota’s win over the Browns. He expressed optimism that McCarthy, Donovan Jackson, Blake Cashman, and Michael Jurgens would return to practice in some capacity in preparation for the Eagles game.
That doesn’t guarantee that any or all of them will play Week 7. The Vikings have been conservative in their approach to dealing with injuries during the O’Connell era. Look no further than Christian Darrisaw resting during the fourth quarter against the Browns, while Minnesota was trailing, as evidence of that.
But because they’ve been so conservative with injuries, the idea that O’Connell is mentioning those players as candidates to return is reassuring.
Following the Week 3 win over the Bengals, O’Connell sat down with Paul Allen for his weekly X’s and O’s segment. The head coach talked about a story he told the team before the victory, emphasizing that fixing what ails them starts from within.
“On Saturday, I told [the team] a little story about something I read one time about a bridge that was broken,” he said. “Everybody [was saying], ‘We might not be able to do this’ or ‘We might lose this battle’…. ‘Can we use a boat?’ ‘Do we need to transport via plane?’
“Then the leadership just said, ‘Why don’t we just fix the bridge?’”
Instead of wondering what the 2025 Vikings could look like under different circumstances or with players, O’Connell is determined to see it through with the roster the team has assembled over the past several seasons.
It’s easy to sell the team and fans on players recovering from injury. In addition to the four players O’Connell mentioned above, the Vikings are also expecting Aaron Jones and Brian O’Neill back at some point. Fingers are crossed that Andrew Van Ginkel also returns, although his neck injury could be trickier to diagnose.
Most people who have worked in construction can relate to fixing the bridge in O’Connell’s story. Any project in a particular trade is similar in that you know the starting point and ending point, and you know the steps required to get there.
Yet every project around a house is different. Painting a new home is different from painting an old one. And not every new house is the same. Some are one-story ranches, while others are two stories with sloped yards that require ladders and a little more creativity.
Therefore, it’s easy for fans to become frustrated when comparing the 2025 Vikings to the 2024 squad, which went 14-3. Outside of the loss of Darrisaw in Week 8, the Vikings generally had good luck with injuries last year. That helped fuel a nine-game winning streak after losing two games in a row.
Sam Darnold’s success in Seattle complicates matters. The Vikings chose not to retain Darnold during the offseason, and he has been one of the most prolific quarterbacks through five weeks this year. Darnold leads the league in yards per attempt (9.3), is tied for seventh in touchdown passes (nine), and has only thrown three interceptions.
Meanwhile, McCarthy completed 58.5% of his passes, threw two touchdowns, and tossed three interceptions in two starts before getting injured. Carson Wentz has filled in admirably in his place, throwing for five touchdowns and two interceptions while completing 69% of his passes. Yet it hasn’t been as consistent or explosive as Darnold looked in Minnesota a year ago, when he threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns.
The Vikings are looking at their bridge and wondering if McCarthy and Co. can not only rebuild it, but also construct a quality structure. They look over to Seattle’s pristine bridge, with Darnold standing proudly by it, saying, If only we had that again, ignoring the fact that the bridge hasn’t needed to be fixed.
However, despite the different circumstances and aesthetics, both teams stand at 3-2. Last year at this time, the Vikings entered their bye week 5-0, trailing for only three minutes and 27 seconds of game time. A last-minute 31-29 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 7 and a 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on a short week could be chalked up to Minnesota losing to great teams and coaching staffs that caught them at the right time.
The Vikings won the next nine games, setting them up for a Week 18 showdown with the Lions to determine the NFC North winner and who would own home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. However, the Lions routed Minnesota 31-9, and then the Rams eliminated them 27-9 the following week.
This year, the Vikings aren’t entering their bye week looking for roster deficiencies. Those deficiencies are staring them right in the face, daring them to panic and make wholesale changes to a team that looks like anything but the playoff squad we saw one year ago.
But reinforcements are on the way. As bad as things have been, the Vikings still have the fourth-best scoring differential in the NFC. Their defense still ranks first in EPA per play allowed, even though they’re not stopping the run as well as they did last year.
Is it any coincidence that Justin Jefferson’s two best performances of the season have come with Darrisaw and Addison in the lineup? How will that affect McCarthy when he returns?
And what about the defense, which is a whole different animal with Cashman on the field? Since the beginning of the 2024 season, the Vikings have allowed 17 touchdowns and intercepted 22 passes with Cashman on the field. Without him, the Vikings have given up 12 touchdowns and intercepted just four passes in seven games. How much better will the defense look when he returns?
This isn’t like the 2016 season when the Vikings were clinging to a 5-0 record while losing players to season-ending injuries every week. Minnesota will get most of its injured players back. Hopefully, that allows them to field a team capable of fixing their bridge.
Does that guarantee the Vikings will be a playoff team? No. However, it will provide us with more answers about a team that has been pieced together through five games. It will help us better evaluate whether or not McCarthy is the right quarterback moving forward.
This year, the Vikings haven’t been able to mask their deficiencies and holes as they did last season. Failing to address or discover the severity of those issues in time led to an early playoff exit in 2024. Now, the Vikings are tasked with fixing their team midseason, hoping that the lessons learned early on will help them build back stronger than before and become more capable moving forward.
