In life and most certainly in the NFL there are “haves” and there are “have-nots.” Your have’s are people who rise to the occasion, exploit opportunities that they’re presented with and seize the moment. When their backs are against the wall they fight their way out and they bear to prevail when the stakes are the highest. The have-nots are just the opposite. Franchises, cities and fan bases have come to be defined by spectacular failures, decades of ineptitude, and poor management. The have-snots historically squander the opportunities they’re presented with, which are often few and far between.
Last night’s game in Philadelphia against the hated Eagles was the latest excerpt in a 60 year history that defines the Minnesota Vikings as one of the most glaring “have-nots” ever seen in sports. It seems that year in and year old the Vikings manage to find new ways to lose football games in the most heartbreaking and spectacular fashion imaginable. I don’t know how many synonyms there are in the English language for “inept” but I could probably use a hundred of them if I talked about this organization for long enough.
Thursday night’s loss to the Eagles was filled with classic Viking-isms. Philly fumbled a punt and recovered it themselves, then punted to Minnesota who also fumbled the ball but lost it: typical Vikes. Surgically driving down the field to take a halftime lead only to have your generational wide receiver fumble the ball out of the end zone resulting in a touchback (a rule that will now likely be voted on and changed): typical Vikes. Kirk Cousins gets hit from behind with his arm cocked back and the ball comes out, subduing any momentum they managed to gather up to that point: typical Vikes. Fumbling the ball one play after intercepting Jalen Hurts: typical Vikes. Hell, all-time Vikings killer Aaron Rodgers sustaining a season ending injury on his first set of downs playing for a team not called the Green Bay Packers is even typical Vikes. Thursday night’s loss had everything but a missed field goal, it’s the same movie year after year but with different actors. Every fall Sunday when I wake up I remind myself that no matter how many times you watch Titanic, the boat will always hit the iceberg.
Takeaways from the Vikings season thus far:
Cousins on pace for 6,000+ yards and 50+ TDs- The national media will blame Kirk for this loss. Cousins threw for 4 TDs and should have thrown for 5, his one big mistake was the fumbled and with a half decent offensive line that might not happen. He’s thrown for 7 touchdowns in 2023 but has lost three fumbles on the season which is ugly considering he’s played only two games
Jordan Addison is very good- Addison had another long score over the top. He’s been exceptional when targeting and should be seeing the field much more often than KJ Osborn. He seems like an absolute hit of a first round pick. If only there was a highly touted QB coming out in next year’s draft that played with Addison in college.
Secondary imrpoved – The Eagles didn’t throw for 400 yards which was often the case for opponents of the Vikings last season. Byron Murphy hasn’t looked great but new DC Brian Flores has already made a significant impact on this secondary group.
Ivan Pace Jr. might be Kwesi’s best find as GM- Undrafted and undersized, Pace has stepped into this role seamlessly and looks to be a permanent fixture on Flores’ defense going forward. 16 tackles and half a sack in his first two NFL games.
KOC game management- Anyone that’s ever played MADDEN knows how to handle the clock. He waited eight seconds to call a timeout when the Eagles had the ball on the goal line. When the Vikings got the ball back he had the offense hurry up to the line then run a play where Kirk just threw the ball away when he should have just spiked the ball and saved six seconds. He cost the vikings about 40 seconds of time down the stretch and the Vikings ran out of time with the ball down six points.
Alex Mattison not a RB1- 19 carries for 62 yards. 3.3 YPC and a costly fumble. He is most definitely not Dalvin Cook.
Offensive line still awful- It’s been the case for years and will continue to be the case until this team learns how to draft offensive linemen. This team dearly missed Darrisaw in the second half.
‘22 draft class might never contribute to this team- Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth still haven’t made any contributions to this team. Undrafted practice squad players from last season are seeing snaps over those two in the secondary.
The Vikes are in a hell of a spot and have a loaded Chargers team coming to town week 3. They’ve lost two games in which they had every opportunity to win, they’ve turned the ball over SEVEN times in the last five days yet an argument could be made that this team is better than last year’s renditions that won 13 regular season games. If the Vikings take care of business at home against Tampa and turn the ball over just three times in Philadelphia, the narrative surrounding this team is completely different.
This Vikings ownership must now make a choice. They can either try and salvage the season, finish with a respectable record and try and squeak into the postseason or they can play young and inexperienced players, accept the fact that they don’t have a Super Bowl caliber team and lose a lot of games this year in hopes of drafting high in the deepest quarterback draft the league has seen in years. A good draft next year could set the Vikings up to succeed for a decade and change. Unfortunately the coach and GM are each in their second year in control and will win as many games as possible to cover their own asses but set the franchise back years. The Wilf family has never utilized tanking in their ownership tenure and I don’t see them starting this season. The Vikings have always hovered around the middle of the pack of the NFL which means they’ll always be good enough to make the playoffs but never be bad enough to draft a player that will take them over the top. This organization needs to decide right now how they’re going to approach the rest of this season.
Try to salvage the season and make a playoff push:
Kwesi and KOC want to keep their jobs and tanking the season will look bad on their resume. If they finish around .500, their overall overall record will look good because of last season’s output. Justin Jefferson is arguably the best player in football and keeping him happy is important. JJ doesn’t want to play on a losing team and the front office has yet to ink him to what will be the largest non-QB contract in league history. 2023 is likely the last time that 35 year old Kirk Cousins will produce at this rate of productivity, it would be somewhat of a disservice to waste the one of the last effective years of his dwindling career.
Minnesota also has an opportunity to rebuild in a similar fashion to the Chiefs and Packers who identified elite talent that would fall to the middle of the first round, draft them after coming off a double digit win season and sit them first at least a season before handing them the reins to the offense. In theory the Vikings could ride with Cousins for two more seasons, draft a guy like Bo Nix, Micheal Penix or Quinn Ewers in the mid-late first round and have him learn from Cousins for an entire season. I think this is realistically but the Vikings in my opinion are too inept of a franchise to pull this off. This team is going to ride with Cousins until it’s too late and waste the prime of Justin Jefferson’s career.
Throw in the towel and draft a top QB:
Since the glory years of Fran Tarkenton and Bud Grant, the Vikings haven’t had a transcendent quarterback at the helm aside from one season with an ancient Brett Favre. In today’s NFL super bowls are won almost exclusively with lottery picks under center (Tom Brady being a huge exception to the rule here). The Bengals were the worst team in the NFL, drafted Joe Burrow and were in the Super Bowl two years later. The Jaguars were a laughing stock, drafted Trevor Lawrence first overall and now find themselves on a trajectory similar to the Bengals. The Bills and Chargers bottomed out and used high draft picks to rectify the QB spot and are now major players in the AFC. Both Manning brothers were first overall picks and have two Super Bowl rings apiece. Just last season the Panthers, Texans and Colts drafted QBs in the top three in hopes to find themselves in the same position as the teams I just mentioned.
Drafting high in the first round is no sure fire way to succeed and teams miss more often than not. Recent top five picks at QB include Sam Darnold, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Baker Mayfield, Mitch Trubisky and Kyler Murray. Teams bottom out in hopes of finding the right guy that can turn a franchise around. Unfortunately a lot of these players’ collegiate success was the result of being on a loaded team with a superior supporting cast and coach.
With this roster the Vikings aren’t winning a Super Bowl. The Eagles Niners and Cowboys are far superior teams in the NFC alone so the ceiling is an NFCCG appearance. If you’re not going to win the whole thing now, bottom out and give yourself a chance at a real title run in 4-5 years with a QB making minimal salary on a rookie deal and use the leftover cap space to stack the team around him. 2024 is the deepest quarterback draft in recent memory; if there was ever a time for the Vikings front office to take a gamble, it’s now.
Here’s some Caleb Williams highlights.
mitchlinsley.com 
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