After 18 weeks, the Minnesota Vikings’ 2025 season mercifully came to an end on Sunday afternoon. The season didn’t go the way that anybody had anticipated. An epic quarterback fail, multiple injuries, and an anemic offense short-circuited their championship aspirations. But there was one comfortable set of numbers that Vikings fans could lean back on.
9-8
Through all the ups and downs, memes and quarterback breakdown videos discussing footwork, the Vikings still finished with a 9-8 record. If a few things went Minnesota’s way, they could be playing in the playoffs this weekend and even hosting a game as NFC North champion. What other way would Vikings fans want to cap a season by beating the Green Bay Packers?
That group of fans likely rushed to their office on Monday morning to tell their co-worker from Manitowoc that the Vikings finished with just as many wins as the Packers did this season. But before they celebrate their 16-3 win in a glorified preseason game, the Vikings might be best served by cleaning up their own house ahead of the 2026 season.
It’s human nature for Vikings fans to despise the Packers. To the outside world, they are the perfect team in the perfect city with the perfect stadium. When Matt LaFleur takes the podium fresh off his fourth haircut of the week, he will gleefully pump the tires of every player on the roster until you think they have been hand-chosen by football gods to wear green and gold.
Matthew Golden isn’t Laquon Treadwell; he’s just buried in a receiver room that contains bona fide No. 1 receivers like Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, and Jayden Reed. Tucker Kraft is all that is man. Their offensive line is like building a brick wall in front of Jordan Love. Speaking of Love, they can 3D print franchise quarterbacks and have another one on the way when backup Malik Willis hits the market this spring.
Even Collin Oliver has earned the nickname “Baby Micah,” which makes you think the Packers are a blink away from finding another Hall of Famer, even though they traded half their draft capital to the Dallas Cowboys last summer. It’s enough to make Vikings fans Packer green with envy.
It also ignores what’s going on in their own franchise.
If we were to compare houses, the Vikings would be living in something from My 600 lb. Life or Hoarders. The issues are creeping throughout the foundation, and cracks began to appear during the 2026 season.
Minnesota’s draft history since Kwesi Adofo-Mensah took over in 2022 is about as terrifying as a slasher flick. In four years, you could argue that the Vikings’ best draft pick has been a kicker (Will Reichard). Many of their picks have either been released, traded, or cannot be trusted to operate a motor vehicle.
These whiffs derived the team of depth, which the front office attempted to fix by spending roughly $300 million in free agency. Predictably, there was a reason big names like Jonathan Allen, Javon Hargrave, and Ryan Kelly were available, and all three either succumbed to injuries or weren’t noticeable on Sundays.
The issues continued with Kevin O’Connell, who went on an ego trip the second he was handed the NFL’s Coach of the Year Award. The vertical offense that had worked so well for Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold didn’t work for J.J. McCarthy, and his press conferences were more obsessed with footwork than a Tom Emanski training VHS from the ‘90s.
After flirting with Max Brosmer throughout the season – and even buddying up with Brosmer to attend a Gophers game last October – it took Brosmer getting flattened across the Lumen Field turf in Seattle before O’Connell finally adapted his offense.
Ed Donatell would be proud of that kind of stubbornness. While McCarthy, Brosmer, and Carson Wentz paid the price, it was nothing compared to the bar set by fans and the people above their heads.
The Wilfs have stated that they want to be “super competitive” and bring a championship to Minnesota. But they also appear to be more concerned about not being the Cleveland Browns or the New York Jets than about winning that Super Bowl. Somewhere in the middle is being better than the Packers, who are in the same division and conference. Still, the Vikings have shown over the years that they need to hit the jackpot in a series of events for that to happen.
- Minnesota defeated the Packers in a Wild Card game in 2004, but it took Randy Moss torching Al Harris and conducting a disgusting act to make it happen.
- The 2009 Vikings beat the Packers twice on the way to the conference championship, but they needed to poach Brett Favre to do it.
- Minnesota defeated Green Bay in the final game of the 2012 regular season, but needed cyborg-level Adrian Peterson to win that game. The Packers also got their revenge the following week when Joe Webb started in the playoffs.
- The 2017 Vikings benefited greatly from Aaron Rodgers’ broken collarbone, and the 2022 Vikings had a horseshoe lodged in their jock strap until Kirk Cousins checked down on a fourth-and-eight with the season on the line.
In a few of these instances, Minnesota assembled a legitimately better team, and it raised the blood pressure of the fan base when the Packers were quick to deem them frauds. It’s why the Vikings have looked so desperate to reach the “super competitive” level the Wilfs have set as the standard.
It’s why Packers fans laughed on Sunday as they rested for their playoff matchup with the Chicago Bears. It also could have them laughing harder as the Vikings plunge further into the quicksand by making a knee-jerk trade for Mac Jones, bringing back Kirk Cousins, or even recruiting Aaron Rodgers for one more season.
It may even convince the front office to bring in Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, and John Kuhn to save the day, then rip the roof off U.S. Bank Stadium and install ice fans to make it colder than Lambeau Field.
Again, most of this is natural, like Homer Simpson trying to get the best of Ned Flanders. But it also negates the biggest issue that to get the best of the Packers – and the rest of the NFL – they’ll have to fix themselves.
