So....Carson Wentz
I’m not overly familiar with Wentz, so I did some digging.
He’s had several good seasons. One Eagles insider said a few months ago that 2017 Carson Wentz was the best QB he’d ever seen in an Eagles uniform. That year he threw for 3200 yards, 33 TDs and 7 INTs. He was voted All Pro, and was a legit candidate for MVP honors before he was hurt and Nick Foles took over.
He followed that season with two more mostly good seasons in Philly. Then for whatever reason, he shit the bed in 2020, was benched and Hurts took over. He was traded to the Colts where, again, he played pretty well (3500, 27 TDs and 7 INTs) before collapsing late in the year, losing two games that eliminated the Colts from the playoffs. This is where Wentz earned his reputation for poor performances in big moments (he’s got some Sam Darnold in him). There was also buzz about a lack of leadership and resistance to coaching. After one season, he was traded to Washington in 2022, where he didn’t play well, broke his finger and never got his starting job back when he returned to health.
He signed with the Rams late in 2023 as a backup to Matt Stafford after Brett Rypien faltered in his only start. So like this year, Wentz had no training camp and was in the offense for just a few weeks before starting a late season game after the Rams secured a playoff spot. This is the offense that most resembles ours. Below are highlights from that game.
Prediction: Wentz will at least make our offense look functional again and there will be talk about him continuing as the starter after JJ returns. However, it’s pretty clear he can’t be trusted in crucial moments. And there might even be some cultural flare ups. So I think, to the surprise of everyone, KOC will go back to JJ when he’s healthy. It will be controversial; it will also be the right decision.
hogjowlsjohnny wrote:
Off season expectations set us up for the kick in the nuts we have witnessed so far. 1-1, same as the Lions, but two teams that seem to be headed in opposite directions. I still feel this team and JJ will be pretty good if they can get healthy and get their starting O-line on the field. But the situation they are in right now is a bit demoralizing.
We weren't stoopid going into the year - and (thx goodness) it is still early on.
I've seen few teams be as prepared at "fluffing the nest" for a rook qb than the Vikings were going into this season.
Sadly, injuries, time needed to gel and questionable playcalling have bitten us.
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
purplefaithful wrote:
We weren't stoopid going into the year - and (thx goodness) it is still early on.
I've seen few teams be as prepared at "fluffing the nest" for a rook qb than the Vikings were going into this season.
Sadly, injuries, time needed to gel and questionable playcalling have bitten us.
That last one really scares me. It is the easiest to remedy, but despite the lip service, I see no sign of it changing. I like KOC, but his blindspot in the run game, lack of short passes, he stubbornly sticks to his calls.
greediron wrote:
That last one really scares me. It is the easiest to remedy, but despite the lip service, I see no sign of it changing. I like KOC, but his blindspot in the run game, lack of short passes, he stubbornly sticks to his calls.
Correct. He is going to run his offense regardless of personnel, much to the detriment of the team sometimes and trying to win football games. I see him looking bewildered on the sidelines a lot when the offense is sputtering and its like, "dude, your version of how you want the offense going isn't working....change things up!"
People in our fandom are being way to melodramatic right now and taking small sample sizes and extrapolating them far beyond what is realistic. Most of our injuries are short term in nature. The team expects to get Darrisaw back sooner than later or they would have put him on IR. Jackson and JJM are playing their first games. We know they have a learning curve. They’ll stabilize after some amount of games. Do I think that KOC should have some quick game built in? Absolutely. Do I think KOC should abandon his whole offense, and replace it with a different offense to optimize our chances of winning in the first handful of starts by our rookie QB because we’re looking at a version of the offense that got abused in one game and wasn’t great week one? I’m not so sure. Our offense has been successful against most teams. It will continue to be successful against most teams once JJM is up to speed and once the OLine gets back to adequate performance. I expect we’re going to get Darrisaw and Kelly back fairly soon. I expect we’re going to get whatever weird quirks happened with OLine struggling against Atlanta’s 5 man pass rush figured out and other teams won’t be able to exploit that going forward. I think JJM is going to come back to the team and he’ll be able to learn in the situation that we thought he would be surrounded with and then turn it on for the last half of the season.
Sometimes, you just have a hell game, where the other team hits you with something you didn’t plan for and the gameplan just doesn’t work and no one looks like they have any idea what’s going on, and everyone gets injured, and the backups also suck. That happens sometimes, even to good teams. That said, I believe KOC will get this straightened out before too long, and hopefully we’ll get a couple of wins in the meantime to not put us in a deep hole.
medaille wrote:
Do I think that KOC should have some quick game built in? Absolutely. Do I think KOC should abandon his whole offense, and replace it with a different offense to optimize our chances of winning in the first handful of starts by our rookie QB because we’re looking at a version of the offense that got abused in one game and wasn’t great week one? I’m not so sure. Our offense has been successful against most teams. It will continue to be successful against most teams once JJM is up to speed and once the OLine gets back to adequate performance. I expect we’re going to get Darrisaw and Kelly back fairly soon. I expect we’re going to get whatever weird quirks happened with OLine struggling against Atlanta’s 5 man pass rush figured out and other teams won’t be able to exploit that going forward. I think JJM is going to come back to the team and he’ll be able to learn in the situation that we thought he would be surrounded with and then turn it on for the last half of the season.Sometimes, you just have a hell game, where the other team hits you with something you didn’t plan for and the gameplan just doesn’t work and no one looks like they have any idea what’s going on, and everyone gets injured, and the backups also suck. That happens sometimes, even to good teams. That said, I believe KOC will get this straightened out before too long, and hopefully we’ll get a couple of wins in the meantime to not put us in a deep hole.
Speaking of melodramatic. No one is saying abandon the whole offense.
And for fun, can you tell me the last time the offense has been successful?
And yes, getting CD back will be huge. But until then, perhaps some quick hitters? What was that stat someone posted? We have run 3 quick passes in 2 games?
purplefaithful wrote:
We weren't stoopid going into the year - and (thx goodness) it is still early on.
I've seen few teams be as prepared at "fluffing the nest" for a rook qb than the Vikings were going into this season.
Sadly, injuries, time needed to gel and questionable playcalling have bitten us.
That nest fluffing I agree with, along with the organization not "getting hands dirty", yeah I buy into that too. I am still optimistic of the trajectory of the team, just less enthusiastic about this season. My criticism is the lack of preseason play by the first team together. To me they reversed the process with the joint practices and the games.
greediron wrote:
Speaking of melodramatic. No one is saying abandon the whole offense.
And for fun, can you tell me the last time the offense has been successful?
And yes, getting CD back will be huge. But until then, perhaps some quick hitters? What was that stat someone posted? We have run 3 quick passes in 2 games?
Good point, because the offense was brutal with the division on the line in Detroit and continued to be brutal in the playoff loss to the Rams. That's carried over this season and you see a lot of the same issues. KOC needs to get this thing figured out and it starts with adjusting the gameplan to fit what your players on the field do best.
The Vikings offense can't get any worse than it has been through 2 weeks. It's only up from here 📈
— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) September 16, 2025
Hopefully Carson Wentz can at least get this offense to semi-functional status (or better) because if this continues... the Vikings aren't going to win many more games. pic.twitter.com/ekRYFwvgKY
comet52 wrote:
https://x.com/TPPSkol/status/1967944057281278195
Vikings have scored 12 total points in 7 of their 8 quarters. So of course they're going to be in the wayback in efficiency stats. What I disagree with is when people say this is who the Vikings are. It's not. It's who the Vikings were in early September.
StickierBuns wrote:
This 'Purple Persuasion' aggregator is usually pushing a negative angle...I think he wanted Minnesota to keep Uncle Sammy so he jumps on and pushes narratives when he can that are negative.
Negativity breeds engagement
Wentz played efficient football today and I couldn't be happier for him after everything he has been through, I bet this one today was a special feeling.
My only concern was it seemed that we still had a lot of slow developing routes that led to Wentz eating the ball and taking a sack. That's got to get cleaned up because it's asking a lot on the offensive line. Excited to get Addison back in the mix this week
supafreak84 wrote:
Wentz played efficient football today and I couldn't be happier for him after everything he has been through, I bet this one today was a special feeling.My only concern was it seemed that we still had a lot of slow developing routes that led to Wentz eating the ball and taking a sack. That's got to get cleaned up because it's asking a lot on the offensive line. Excited to get Addison back in the mix this week
I think some of the slow-ness was the relative newness of Wentz to the team/system. He still has to stop and process things more than players who had an offseason to get acclimated.
That said, I think he was generally good and showed that the physical abilities are all still there. He hit a couple tight window throws that had me worried, then impressed.
I feel a ton better about the UK games after today, especially knowing that KOC and crew will be getting him more comfortable each day while he's still under center.
KOC, JJM, Flores...make a good plan, or you'll be following Kwesi....
Zanary wrote:
I think some of the slow-ness was the relative newness of Wentz to the team/system. He still has to stop and process things more than players who had an offseason to get acclimated.
I would normally agree with you, but we saw the same thing with McCarthy and at the tail end of last season with Darnold. I think "the gamble" philosophy is just part of KOC's offense where he'll gamble on the big play at the expense of his quarterback eating it a few times a game. It's why we've seen things completely implode when the line play is even suspect. For this reason and for what we saw today, is there even an argument that Darrisaw is the most important piece to our offense?
supafreak84 wrote:
I would normally agree with you, but we saw the same thing with McCarthy and at the tail end of last season with Darnold. I think "the gamble" philosophy is just part of KOC's offense where he'll gamble on the big play at the expense of his quarterback eating it a few times a game. It's why we've seen things completely implode when the line play is even suspect. For this reason and for what we saw today, is there even an argument that Darrisaw is the most important piece to our offense?
The offense functioned much better with Darrisaw at LT than Skule. Carson still took some sacks, but he played smart, efficient football. Didn't have any turnovers or try to force throws when he had a guy bearing down on him.
Hopefully it was eye opening for KOC to see how much better the offense functioned with a more balanced attack featuring Jordan Mason. Phenomenal day for him and he set the tone from the get go.
Hopefully Darrisaw keeps getting stronger and we get Kelly back so JJ McCarthy can be playing behind our best OL group and also have Addison back in a few weeks. The first two weeks was NOT the team we were hoping to have the majority of the season and it certainly didn't help our young QB.
StickierBuns wrote:
Meanwhile, in Houston: "Houston, we have a problem and that problem is the Texans offense. CJ Stroud's sophomore slump is now bleeding into his third year...
How many times have we seen this? The more I see, the more I'm convinced that you can tell almost NOTHING from a QB's first season in the NFL.
Look at Mahomes, look at Stroud, look at JJM the first two games...
Bad OL's means little to no passing or running...
U can have some great weapons, but good luck to any QB without the big-uglies up front doing a good job.
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
purplefaithful wrote:
Look at Mahomes, look at Stroud, look at JJM the first two games...Bad OL's means little to no passing or running...
U can have some great weapons, but good luck to any QB without the big-uglies up front doing a good job.
QFT! Bottom line.
Edit Post (mod action — author will see a notice)
Warn Poster
Suspend User (3 days)
The user will be suspended for 3 days and will receive an email with the reason and information about how to appeal.