NFL Insider Officially OUT on Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings are coming off a 14-win season in which veteran castoff quarterback Sam Darnold took them to the playoffs. Unfortunately he flopped in the moment and Kevin O’Connell’s team was pummeled by the Los Angeles Rams.

Darnold is now in Seattle and it’s the J.J. McCarthy show in Minnesota. A new quarterback, with zero NFL experience, leaves the possible outcomes spanning a very wide gambit.

General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah still spent the offseason building the Vikings roster to win now. That doesn’t mean everyone believes they will.

Barnwell says Minnesota Vikings miss playoffs

Although the Vikings should be among the contenders in the NFC North, the division is going to have a battle at the top. ESPN insider Bill Barnwell says this year Minnesota will miss the playoffs.

Vikings fans are sick of hearing about their record in one-score games, but when you go from 9-0 to 4-8 then to 8-1 across Kevin O’Connell’s first three seasons in charge, it’s going to be a significant part of the conversation. We know that’s a meaningful predictor of what happens next, so it’s tough to imagine the Vikings playing at the same level and getting the same results.

Can they keep up what we saw last season? A thrilling defense led the league in turnovers, as the Vikings jumped from 19th in turnover rate to second. That’s difficult to sustain, especially with the Vikings turning over a chunk of their secondary. This was the oldest team in football on a snap-weighted age basis, and after adding several new starters in free agency and making only three top-100 picks over the past two years, it’s tough to count on O’Connell’s team getting dramatically younger this season.

One of the places where they will get younger, of course, is at quarterback, with J.J. McCarthy taking over as the starter after missing all of his rookie year with a knee injury. The Vikings invested heavily along the line of scrimmage this offseason, and they probably won’t need to lean on their quarterback as much as they did on early downs with Sam Darnold and Kirk Cousins. But we just don’t know whether McCarthy will be an upgrade on the passers who preceded him. My instinct is that he’s something close, but instead, a defensive decline and a less fortunate year in one-score contests push the Vikings back toward the middle of the NFC pack.

ESPN

It’s fair that results in one-score games typically determine the outcome of a season. In two-of-three years as a head coach though, Kevin O’Connell has had his team perform at a high level in those spots. In those two seasons Minnesota won 13 and 14 games respectively. The year in which the Vikings went 4-8, O’Connell had to work with four different quarterback.

McCarthy is an unknown, but it’s impossible to ignore his track record and how many people believe he will thrive. Minnesota will put that on display in primetime against the Chicago Bears in Week 1. If things go well, it’s going to be tough to stop the hype train.

Related: MN Vikings First Depth Chart Reveals Some Answers, More Questions

Does age matter for MN Vikings?

Barnwell also notes the age of the Minnesota Vikings roster. That matters from a team-building and sustainability outlook, but it has little bearing on a yearly snapshot. The Vikings need Will Fries, Ryan Kelly, Javon Hargrave, and Jonathan Allen to be healthy. Because they weren’t last year, or are another year older, doesn’t mean anything for 2025.

The Vikings cornerback situation still scares me. They are all in on Jeff Okudah, and safety usage will be heavy. That room may not turn the ball over as much, but the front seven is going to hunt quarterbacks at a breakneck speed.

Dallas Turner’s turn to get to Drake Maye pic.twitter.com/zqQ431mOwm

— Sean Borman (@SeanBormanNFL) August 14, 2025

Allowing Brian Flores to have this much talent lined up in pass rush schemes is probably unfair. The defensive unit as a whole should be among the best in football, and it’s hard to envision the same fears Barnwell has for a step backwards.

Related: Former MN Viking Fought the Law and Lost Again

If there is an age concern in Minnesota, it’s only the youth that McCarthy brings to the table. Should he pass the challenge though, that becomes an asset and the outlook gets flipped on its head pretty quickly.