Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and general manager Nolan Teasley will talk to the media on Tuesday. The opening press conference of training camp is a lot like the first day of school, where O’Connell and Teasley will speak optimistically about the 2026 Vikings and try to spread hope to a fan base that needs it.
Many things can go right for the Vikings. A quarterback competition should ensure a baseline of play they didn’t have a year ago and build on their 9-8 record to help them reach the playoffs. But after all the positive talk about what the team could be, the challenge at the start of training camp is showing they can do it.
There’s a lot of evidence to suggest the Vikings will be better than they were in 2025. Kyler Murray or J.J. McCarthy will step up and win the QB1 job, and O’Connell may not have to deal with the 11th-hour circus where they traded Sam Howell and signed Carson Wentz off the street.
Having a veteran like Murray also ensures that the 2026 season won’t be consumed by talk of fundamentals and drying concrete. If McCarthy steps up and overcomes his challenger, it could be an even better development moving forward.
In many ways, the quarterback is supposed to drive the offense. Better quarterback play should mean Justin Jefferson doesn’t have to pull a Mike Evans special to reach 1,000 yards. It may also wake up Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson, who are both coming off rough years by their standards.
A better quarterback could help an offensive line that’s strong at the tackles but has questions in the middle. The addition of Frank Smith as assistant head coach and Keith Carter as offensive line coach should give them a more violent and explosive running game.
That paves the way for the defense. The Vikings ranked seventh in points and third in total yardage a year ago, but a lot of that was wasted by the 4-8 start. The front seven was the biggest beneficiary of April’s draft, adding Caleb Banks in the first round and Domonique Orange in the third round, and that youthful exuberance should provide an update over free-agent busts Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave.
Sure, the pass-rushing group is a little light without Jonathan Greenard. Blake Cashman and Andrew Van Ginkel are getting long in the tooth. The Vikings may not have Harrison Smith at least for the start of the season, but there’s enough there that can be propped up by a Brian Flores masterclass.
Unless the NFL puts up additional camera wires to make Will Reichard’s job feel like Mission: Impossible, the path to rebounding and climbing the NFC North standings is a realistic one.
Then again, that’s where seeing is believing.
It was this time a year ago when the Vikings had similar vibes. McCarthy was a mystery, but the Vikings praised his performance at every turn. The infrastructure around McCarthy was also supposed to prop him up, and they were set to use the rookie-quarterback formula that has helped multiple quarterbacks reach or even win the Super Bowl in recent seasons.
Then the season began. McCarthy wasn’t ready, struggling with injuries, accuracy, and off-the-field developments fans don’t exactly know about. McCarthy threw his passes at the velocity Scorpion throws his spear in Mortal Kombat, and nobody on the team could haul them in.
Christian Darrisaw’s knee also wasn’t as healthy as we thought, and there were multiple games where he started only to turn into Peter Griffin after running into a mailbox.
The free-agent spending spree failed spectacularly as Ryan Kelly dealt with concussions. Others didn’t make an impact. The Vikings also had trouble stopping the run, and a team that began the year with Super Bowl aspirations was left to flex its muscles in an irrelevant five-game winning streak at the end of the year.
Despite all of this, Vikings fans are ready to drink the Kool-Aid like Badlands Booker chugging lemonade on the Fourth of July. While some fans may take a bullet for O’Connell, others want to see something different or at least a sign that he’s learned from past failures.
Those things shouldn’t take long to find out. Is O’Connell’s praise for the running game going to dissipate immediately the first time he calls a play on third-and-one? Is Demond Claiborne’s “diet Jahmyr Gibbs” hype going to turn into Ty Chandler when the ball hits the ground?
Maybe Dillon Bell can live up to his preseason hype. But there’s also a chance he’s more “Teemu Deebo” than an actual contributor.
Then there’s the quarterback situation. You’ve probably heard that Murray’s situation is the best he’s ever been in. You heard that if they can go 9-8 with what they had last year, they could win the division or even the NFC now. In a lot of ways, Murray is the one player expected to tie things together.
But there’s just one problem with this recycled take. Before they went on a journey to make their high school selves proud, this was a 4-8 football team. Vikings fans can pick and choose games they could have won if Sam Darnold stuck around or list all of the players from the 2024 team as reasons they could exceed expectations. But that core is a year older in a season with a lot more questions.
O’Connell and Teasley will likely say the past is behind them. But if they don’t show anything has changed, the Vikings may be relegated to a similar level of disappointment.
