Breaking: Vikings will suck in 2024

There's nothing like a little brutal honesty, but he touched on some good points such as the status of both sides of the interior lines...I think though, the Vikings will have a better record than 3-14.

Vikes didn't wait to draft JJ, they aggressively tried to trade up for Maye. Sounds like a guy who should stick to covering his team.

I thought the funniest part of the entire quote is "And there could be a case made that Danielle Hunter is better than FA addition Jonathan Greenard" Really, so the 4x pro bowler may be better!? Surprised he didn't follow that one up with a "a case could be made that Kirk Cousins is better than Sam Darnold". Definitely a good laugh!

This just feels like the type of journalism that just turns the dial one way or the other to get reaction clicks.

While I certainly wouldn’t predict us dominating this year, as it’s our first year in the building of the rebuild and our QB position doesn’t have a proven good player yet, I don’t think 3-14 is remotely possible. 3-14 is for teams that are overwhelmingly shitty at a lot of positions and probably also have coaching issues as well.

3-14 probably requires a slow start combined with JJ getting a season ending injury in week 3, Hockenson’s recovery taking the whole season, 2 of our edges getting injuries, etc. I think it’s very likely that we could struggle heavily and still get 5 wins. Like just for reference, we got 3 wins in half a season, with Dobbs, Hall, and Mullens at QB, with our defense getting injury depleted, and JJ missing 4 of those games, and we added talent to that squad.

it could happen, he has a valid point or two... but there is nearly zero chance this teams only gets 3 wins. I would put the floor at 5 wins, most likely 7-8 wins, but wouldnt be terribly shocked if they ended up with 9-10 wins.

The IOL is still going to be an issue until we get a center that isnt built on roller skates and a couple of guards that can get some push when we need to run the ball. Our IDL needs to show that they can get a pash rush as well as stuff the run, I think our DBs will look a lot better when they arent asked to cover for 10 seconds on every pass play.

I'll be happy to take his money if he puts it on the line... No way they only win 3 games

I would rather have JJ and Dallas Turner and next years #1 instead of trading up to get Maye. Judging qb's that might be better than somebody drafted a few picks later is just stupid. I think this team is going to surprise people. Seems like Flores got some guys in free agency and the draft he thinks can contribute to the defense. Offense, yea it would have been nice to bolster the interior line but then with the receivers we have along with Chandler and Jones in the backfield maybe the line will be average this season.

Looking at it long term, I hope the guy is right. It's a very low probability that the Vikes are going anywhere this year, and I'm sure I'll feel sick to my stomach watching a 3 win season, but we can take the 1st pick of next year's draft and swap it to a QB hungry team for a boatload. Instead of treading in mediocrity the way we've done for years, go for broke for once and forget this competitive rebuild.

3 Wins seems harsh. I would think 7-8 seems more likely. HOWEVER my purple glasses sees Darnold having his best season ever. Running game being respectable and Flores D getting to the QB more this year. 10 wins per purple glasses.

NorseFeathers wrote:
Looking at it long term, I hope the guy is right. It's a very low probability that the Vikes are going anywhere this year, and I'm sure I'll feel sick to my stomach watching a 3 win season, but we can take the 1st pick of next year's draft and swap it to a QB hungry team for a boatload. Instead of treading in mediocrity the way we've done for years, go for broke for once and forget this competitive rebuild crap.

Agreed. 3-14 will yield a top 5 pick in the draft & prime opportunity to trade back to accumulate more draft capital.

The article does bring up valid concerns, but nothing we didn't already know. To me it's all going to boil down to the quarterbacks. If one steps up and plays well, I could see us winning 8 or 9 games and competing for the playoffs. If they play poorly than I could certainly see it play out where we only win 3, 4 or 5 games. It's going to be an exciting season regardless and I certainly think we play better later in the season than early.

If Darn old busts we can win 7 games with Mullens. That said his cap hit is 325k so chances are he is traded or cut.

KOC’s offense gets people open, so I think Darnold has a good chance to get this team to 8 or 9 wins. Our defense is going to really get after the Qb and I think we are top 10 that side of the ball this year.

Still Hurtn wrote:
3 Wins seems harsh. I would think 7-8 seems more likely. HOWEVER my purple glasses sees Darnold having his best season ever. Running game being respectable and Flores D getting to the QB more this year. 10 wins per purple glasses.

Agreed.  3 wins is in the range of outcomes, but I don't think it's likely.  I think the Vikings have enough talent at keys spots to win 7+ games like they did last season.  We were 4-4 against a tough schedule in the first half of the season with Kirk, and then went 3-6 with four one score losses starting Dobbs, Mullens, and Hall at QB.

For us to go 3-14, Darnold would have to completely suck, Hock doesn't come back healthy, and we would have to have some other key players miss time with injuries.  I think it's more likely we win 10+ games than win 3 or less.  However, the most likely range is 6-9 wins assuming Darnold is serviceable, the defense plays as good or slightly better than last season, and we don't suffer any major injuries.

Predicting 3 wins is certainly hot takey, but it would be to say that for any team in the NFL. His reasons for why our record might not be great are valid. It's his opinion. Meh.

I think we'll be closer to .500 but again, that's a safer bet for any team than predicting 3-14 or 14-3.

@NorseFeathers does bring up a good point though. A 3 win season and the draft slot and 2025 schedule that comes along with it would take our 2025 prospects and inject them with nitro fuel. So as painful as it would be to watch each week, longterm it'd be alright.

I predict the phrase, "The goal was always to make a run in 2025" will be parroted ad nauseum around here next season if we aren't winning games. And that's fine. So maybe 3 wins would actually be a good thing? So long as our key guys don't suffer longterm injuries and JJM and to a lesser extent Turner are improving either on the field or behind the scenes, then 2024 will be a step in the right direction. Whatever the record is in 2024, I won't be too down in the dumps about it. After all, the goal is to make a run in 2025 :P

Three wins is kind of funny when you consider we won that many last year, playing quarterbacks that make Darnold look like a pro bowl player. Okay, that may be a stretch. But there were two wins with a QB that didn't know the playbook. And week to week, we had no idea who would be be starting.

Now, if Mullens was planned on being our QB for the season, I could see predicting three wins.

To all of these pundits who say "McCarthy didn't throw much in Harbaugh's run-heavy offense" and justify that as his body of work is insufficient, I say baloney.
An average of 22 throws per game is not "not much", especially if you are well ahead as they were in many games. Still JJM threw for just shy of 3,000 yards last year, and I think his completion rate was over 70%, one of 7 QBs with over 200 attempts (Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels being in that group) who also were over 70%.

I think he's right where I would expect him as a rookie, and hope like hell that he doesn't get thrown into a position where he has to start this season. I like where BFlo's defense is (except for the middle of the Dline...I wish we were more stout there.

Now if we can just avoid the injury bug, I think we'll be adequately solid on Offense and much improved on defense.

KOC has his Qbs throwing around 40 times a game. It's going to take some adjustment for JJM.
(for some reason wouldn't quote Montana Tom above)

kmillardKOC has his Qbs throwing around 40 times a game. It's going to take some adjustment for JJM.
(for some reason wouldn't quote Montana Tom above)

Understood and I don't disagree.  The NFL also has a 17 game regular season plus playoffs (vs. a typical 12 game college regular season not including conference championships or playoffs).  

But I just don't think that a 72.3% completion rate with nearly 3,000 yards passing his final college season is not a reasonable justification to say "he's untested".  
There's an average of 67 to 84 (ballpark avg 70) offensive plays per NFL game.  If a QB passes on half of them (reasonable), that's 35 passes/game.  KOC has been going heavier on passing than rushing, which is also reasonable in a pass-happy NFL.  It's also logical when your ground game can't get anything going (like last season).  

I would expect any Vikings starting QB to be expected to throw around 40 times a game.  I'm just saying past performance is not necessarily a determining factor from that high level of college to the NFL.  It's certainly an indicator, but I don't think it's limiting.

I'm shoving my chips to the middle of the table, I'm raising the ante, anybody wants in get in, anybody wants out get out. This team is going to the playoffs!

3-14? Pffftt! I went through the schedule and I can see 4-13 pretty easily!