Sam Darnold throws the ball during Minnesota Vikings mandatory minicamp in June. (Photo by Adam ... [+]
The heat will be on the Minnesota Vikings brain trust during the 2024 season. Overall league expectations are not high, and most expect the Vikings to either battle the Chicago Bears for third place in the NFC North or fall to last place in the division.
That assessment seems accurate because the Detroit Lions look like they should engage the San Francisco 49ers for NFC superiority and the Green Bay Packers are right behind the Lions. The Bears believe they have drafted the best quarterback in team history in Caleb Williams, and there is real optimism around the franchise for the first time in years.
So there is some logic to picking the Vikings to finish with a losing record and near the bottom of the division. But it is a position that is not at all acceptable to the organization or its fans. When the Vikings hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell prior to the 2022 season, the expectation was that they would transform the locker room into a fully functioning work place and the team would win.
That is exactly what happened in 2022 when the Vikings won the division – and did it with relative ease. O’Connell and his coaching staff turned the locker room around from the dysfunctional work place that had been left by Mike Zimmer.
Zimmer had been one of the best defensive coaches in the league, but his Vikings teams always fell short and it left the coach frustrated and out of his depth. By the time he left, the defense had fallen apart and the offense regularly fell short in nearly every big game.
O’Connell, one of the most positive coaches in the league, was able to rebuild the locker room and the team responded thanks to quarterback Kirk Cousins and wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
Cousins is now with the Atlanta Falcons and the Vikings are hoping that veteran backup Sam Darnold can play effectively until rookie J.J. McCarthy is ready to step in. That does not seem to be a likely event. Darnold may understand what is expected of him, but his track record is not even mediocre.
The Vikings are depending on former Packer Aaron Jones to deliver a dynamic running game in 2024. ... [+]
O’Connell has been one of the foremost proponents of the passing game throughout his coaching tenure with the Los Angeles Rams and Vikings, but the key to any success the Vikings may have in the first half of the season is likely to be the running of Aaron Jones.
The former Packer is expected to give the Vikings ground game a major lift. If he can deliver consistent dynamic performances, that will keep opposing defenses grom going after Darnold with both barrels. That is exactly what needs to happen.
Darnold had two decent seasons with the New York Jets at the start of his career. He threw for 2,865 yards with a 17-15 touchdown to interception ratio as a rookie in 2018 and he followed that with a 3,024-yard season and a 19-13 TD-interception ratio the following season.
Since then, Darnold has either fallen badly or served as a backup. There is little doubt that O'Connell will make him comfortable in the Vikings offense, but that doesn't mean he will function at a high level. He needs a strong ground game to take the pressure off of him.
Look for McCarthy to take over by midseason. He impressed former Vikings wideout Adam Thielen when the two worked out together.
“He’s got all the tools, that’s for sure,” Thielen said. “He can sling it. He’s super accurate. We’re in shorts and some T-shirts out there. But, yeah, that you can see a lot just from accuracy, timing and those kind of things when you’re running routes on air.
“He’s a great kid. You don’t really realize that he’s 21 years old when you’re talking to him [or] when you’re hanging around him. He’s got a maturity about him that you can tell that goes beyond his age.”
If the running game can exceed expectations and Darnold can keep the team afloat in the first half of the season, the Vikings could be one of the more surprising teams once McCarthy gets his chance to play.
That’s the hope of O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah as they contend with mounting pressure in their third season with the Vikings.
