Vikings Getting Cocky About Their Medical Staff

The Minnesota Vikings have had a very eventful offseason, so far. With a mountain of salary cap space to work with and only four total picks in the upcoming NFL Draft, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (or whoever is pulling the strings out in Eagan) entered free agency with a clear focus to add talent at every position that needed it.

The strategy was obvious. By filling all of their needs in free agency, they’d go into the draft without a desperate need to use one of their four picks to upgrade at one specific position. Of course, the Vikings’ free agency plans were not a secret. We knew Kwesi & Co were going to be uber-aggressive immediately out of the gates of free agency.

What did surprise many around the league, however, was how Minnesota chose to address weaknesses on their roster. Instead of bringing in younger, high-ceiling free agents to fill needs on the interior offensive and defensive lines, at safety, running back and linebacker, the 2025 MN Vikings added proven veterans in their 30s, many of which are coming off major injuries in 2024.

New center Ryan Kelly is almost 32 years old and coming off of a major knee surgery. DT Javon Hargrave is 32, off a season where he only played three games due to a tricep tear he suffered in week 3 vs the Rams. 30-year-old DT Jonathan Allen suffered a season-ending pectoral injury in week 10 last season. Oh, and 26-year-old RG Will Fries suffered a broken tibia in week five that cost him the remainder of 2024, as well.

Minnesota Vikings relying on training staff to keep injuries at bay

While the advanced age and questionable injury history of these Minnesota Vikings offseason pickups have other executives around the NFL questioning who is making these decisions, those at TCO Performance Center point to their medical staff, lead by vice president of player health and performance, Tyler Williams.

According to Kevin Seifert (ESPN), the Vikings legitimately believe that their medical staff is superior to that of other teams. So much so that they felt comfortable taking the injury discount on all of these talented free agent veterans. Their explanation: ‘just look at the proof’.

Throughout the three-year tenure of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell, the Vikings have expressed explicit expectations that vice president of player health and performance Tyler Williams can circumvent such concerns. That’s the biggest reason why the team felt so comfortable signing six free agents this spring who missed five or more games last season because of injuries.

“I think more and more every year, it’s more of like, ‘Tyler and those guys, they got ’em, we’re going to be just fine,” O’Connell said. “They’ve just proven time and time again: world class down there with what they do.”

Said Adofo-Mensah: “I think Tyler and his staff do an incredible job to get players to be healthier, better, more available than they’ve been at other stops.”

Kevin Seifert – ESPN

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Reading this excerpt of Seifert’s column from Sunday morning turned my head. After re-reading a few more times, I am still surprised O’Connell and Kwesi are putting this type of public pressure on their medical staff, entering a crucial season in their leadership tenure.

Are the Vikings getting dangerously cocky about their training staff?

Sure, there are some previously injury-riddled pickups from recent offseasons who have remained more healthy playing for the Minnesota Vikings than teams they had previously played for. But is that enough of a sample size to go on the record crowning your medical staff as better than everyone else’s? That feels a little too cocky for my liking.

Would a data-driven thinker like Kwesi Adofo-Mensah rely so heavily on three seasons of anecdotal evidence to justify an entire free agency class of previously injured veterans? Something smells off about that.

Dalvin Cook (17 games in 2022), Aaron Jones (17 games in 2024) and Andrew Van Ginkel (17 games in 2024) staying healthy for one season each doesn’t prove that relying heavily on previously injured veterans is the way to build a successful NFL roster… right? It seems just as likely that they’ve just gotten lucky.

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Hell, if Tyler Williams does have some sort of magical elixir in the MN Vikings training room that prevents major injuries, then wtf happened to Kirk Cousins in 2023 or Christian Darrisaw in 2024? Oh, it’s not fair to blame those injuries on the training staff?

I agree. But, isn’t that what Kwesi, KOC and the Vikings are telling us? I’m not the one putting those types of expectations on these trainers. It’s the Vikings’ own higher ups who have based their signings around the medical staff being able to keep guys healthier than they have been previously, then going out and telling everyone about it.