https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7494772/2026/08/06/minnesota-vikings-run-game-training-camp/?unlocked_article_code=1.3VA.BGiV.TvwKWrZThsXx&source=emp_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share

Why the Vikings’ run game is the most important subject at camp nobody is talking about

EAGAN, Minn. — You can only conceal important developments for so long in the NFL. But this aspect of the Minnesota Vikings has been kept surprisingly quiet.

If you look hard enough, past the hoopla of the quarterback competition, beyond the defense’s dominance, you can uncover a foundational difference.

This spring, after years of internal and external dissection, head coach Kevin O’Connell attempted to overhaul the Vikings’ run game.

It’s the equivalent of a Major League Baseball team think-tanking a new way to develop hitters. Staff changes preceded alterations in teaching philosophies. Coaches conveyed new training methods to players. In the last week, the Vikings have installed new elements of the playbook featuring refined personnel groupings, bespoke motion and a detailed focus on a couple of staple run concepts.

The results won’t be revealed for months. Talk can be cheap this time of year. But, already, the reaction from staffers and players has been profound.

“It’s night and day different,” left tackle Christian Darrisaw said. “You can feel it.”

This run game transformation began in earnest the day after last season ended.

Inside the locker room at the TCO Performance Center, some Vikings players filled trash bags with gear. Others hugged before departing for the offseason.

Right tackle and captain Brian O’Neill held court with reporters, answering for a sixth straight season of no playoff success. His response to a question about the rushing attack landed like an anvil.

“I thought when we were able to run the ball well, we seemed to win more games, right?” O’Neill said. “That’s kind of how it’s always been in the NFL. You have to be able to do both to have success. I thought we finished strong this year. I was proud of that. But it’s going to be on me and everybody else to try to find a dominant run game throughout the whole year.”

Yes, Minnesota ran with more effectiveness in 2025 than in previous years, by all meaningful metrics. At the same time, there was still room for growth — if the Vikings committed to the run more comprehensively.

For years, O’Connell has talked about improving the ground game. The Vikings matched his words with resources at every turn. They positioned Alexander Mattison as the starting running back in 2023, believing his ruggedness would lead to more efficiency. They signed tight end Josh Oliver with eyes on varied personnel usage. Aaron Jones’ arrival in 2024 came with higher hopes. Then, in the spring of 2025, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah beefed up O’Connell’s offensive line with highly paid right guard Will Fries, veteran center Ryan Kelly and first-round left guard Donovan Jackson.

This offseason required an even more extensive excavation. The Vikings did not renew the contract of former offensive line coach Chris Kuper. As O’Connell interviewed candidates for the role, discussions with former Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith fleshed out the need for a new approach.

Eventually, O’Connell hired Smith, whom several players described as the brains behind most of the changes, as his assistant head coach. O’Connell also elevated assistant offensive line coach Keith Carter to replace Kuper. Carter then added Derek Warehime, a longtime collegiate O-line coach.

In February, O’Connell foreshadowed the seismic shift.

“I want to be a vertical wide-zone team,” he said at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “The teams that do it right are still attacking. They’re still crossing the line of scrimmage. They’re still playing on the other side of the line. (Smith and Carter) know how to do it. They know what it looks like.”

What does it look like?

“It’s just a lot of bodies moving really fast,” linebacker Blake Cashman said.

Optimally, it’s like a massive tidal wave washing over the defensive line. Or a bullet train — five men wide — approaching at maximum velocity. During team drills in training camp, when the Vikings snap the football, the offensive linemen spring from their stances and sprint as if they’re being chased by German shepherds. While fans rattle the metal bleachers to improve their sightlines on the quarterback, the linemen blast into pads with huffs and grunts straight out of an NFL Films montage.

Carter yells constantly, and the intensity does not subside. In one drill, all of the offensive linemen gather in a large circle, and they take turns colliding with each other. In another, they link together with bungee cords, pulling in opposite directions. They are given reminders: run off the ball, inch into your second step with speed, position the backside hand with quickness, ensure correct head placement.

“The offense that we have this year is a little bit different than the offense that we had last year,” Jackson said. “In order for this to work, we have to be in great physical and mental shape.”

Darrisaw put it more plainly: “Our main focus this year is … being more aggressive. Seeing it, it f—ing makes sense.”

Other position groups are preparing with a similar purpose. Running backs repeat precise tracks, angled at the outside leg of the last blocker on the line of scrimmage. Because the running backs sprint from their stances, the quarterbacks must place the football in their arms as quickly as possible. None of this touches on half-paced reps that toy with atypical motions. It doesn’t include clever handoff techniques being practiced by the quarterbacks.

Smith brought these intricacies from Miami, where he worked with former San Francisco 49ers run-design whiz Mike McDaniel. Carter’s exposure to Kyle Shanahan’s ideology in Atlanta (and Matt LaFleur’s in Tennessee) helps the coaches disseminate the new messaging to the group.

Coaches who worked with Smith or were otherwise exposed to these types of concepts swear by their impact. The caveat is the time it takes to sync. All links in the chain (handoff, running back track and offensive line movement) need to work for the runs to explode. One mishap can ruin the momentum.

“The beauty of it is it makes everybody accountable,” Jon Embree, the former 49ers tight ends coach and one of Smith’s colleagues in Miami, said. “In this scheme, if one guy is off, it could be a bad play. That could be the difference between a touchdown and field goal. There’s pressure on everybody."

As long as superstar receiver Justin Jefferson remains in Minnesota, the Vikings’ passing game will matter most.

This run game revolution, though, parallels the Minnesota Timberwolves’ acquisition of point guard LaMelo Ball. Like Anthony Edwards, Jefferson’s exceptionalism comes with a distinct gravity. Opposing teams will continue to focus on limiting him — unless something forces them to focus elsewhere.

Defenses shade players toward Jefferson to prevent him from ruining a game. Oftentimes, safeties will float backward into position with eyes on him. More defenders allocated to coverage means more space available in the box, and that tends to make it easier for offenses to run the ball.

The table below shows how NFL run games in 2025 were more successful versus two-high safety defenses than one-high safety defenses:

Bears and Denver Broncos — and their thriving run games — punished defenses determined to play with two safeties in 2025. The Vikings didn’t. They faced defensive lines that were slanting and stunting, complicating on-the-fly decisions.

Injuries torpedoed the group in 2025. But Minnesota’s offense failed to make defenses pay for leaning into this strategy when Sam Darnold was the quarterback, too.

“There were times in the past where we weren’t running off the ball,” Darrisaw said. “We were thinking more. Now, it’s just full speed. Let’s go move the line of scrimmage and see what happens.”

This new iteration of the offense will hinge on pre-snap eye candy and aggression. Rather than sorting through the muck after the snap, the team hopes more elaborate choreography will confuse defenders. Minnesota’s defenders see the vision. The strategy inserts another layer into the split-second calculus.

“Your eyes have to be faster,” defensive tackle Jalen Redmond said. “You have to read the blocks, make sure you’re not getting cut out or reached. And you’ve got to speed your feet up. It’s a lot of stress.”

Understandably, the Vikings’ staff prefers not to disclose the exact blueprints. But this table comparing the Vikings’ tendencies in 2025 with Smith’s Dolphins is a nice place to start:

Earlier this week, while walking off the field, Vikings (and former 49ers) running back Jordan Mason stopped to answer a brief question.

“How much does all of this remind you of the way they ran the ball in San Francisco?”

His eyes widened. He smiled.