Former QB Says MN Vikings Wanted Him to Play Worse

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Kyle Sloter - NFL Preseason - Minnesota Vikings at Buffalo Bills
Credit: Rich Barnes-Imagn Images

2025 marks a new era of Minnesota Vikings football. With redshirt rookie JJ McCarthy set to take over under center, this Vikings team is going to look a lot different than what we’ve seen from the first three renditions of head coach Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings.

Those changes go far beyond QB, though. Brian Flores’ defense, for example, has looked scary good early on at training camp, even making it difficult to judge McCarthy’s development or the readiness of Minnesota’s offense, in general. Except when they choose to run, apparently.

That’s right, the NFL is not ready for what the 2025 Vikings are about to throw run at them over the next 17 games. Behind their heavily reconstructed offensive line, newly added Jordan Mason gives Minnesota a one-two punch with Aaron Jones that we haven’t seen in years.

Come to think of it, the 2025 Vikings could look a lot more like what we saw from the purple early on in Mike Zimmer’s tenure, when they won games via defense and a dominant running game, as opposed to what we’ve seen in O’Connell’s first three seasons as head coach.

NFL: Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings
Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

Thankfully, no matter what the product looks like on the field, we can be sure that complaints from players behind the scenes will never happen under Kevin O’Connell like they are STILL with Zimmer.

Former MN Vikings QB Kyle Sloter recalls another classic Mike Zimmer tale

This time, it’s former depth quarterback Kyle Sloter who claims that back sometime between when he was signed in September 2017 and when he was released at the end of training camp in 2019 (August 31), the Minnesota Vikings were telling him he needed to play worse during the preseason.

Why? According to Sloter, Zimmer & Co felt like he was making their starting quarterback at the time — who we can only assume was Kirk Cousins, given his mention of guaranteed money — look bad, which was creating unneeded consternation within the organization.

“I was told when I was with the Vikings at one point that I needed to do less. That I needed to go out there and be worse in the preseason because [my play] was creating an atmosphere that was not what they wanted.

They don’t want competition between a backup quarterback and a starter. They don’t want any controversy, they don’t want those things, especially when you have a lot of guaranteed money on a guy who is going to play no matter what.”

“I have had people tell me that, in order to to make it as a backup in the league year after year after year, you have to play like a backup and it just was never me. It was never me to not go out there and compete.

It was never me to go out there and not feel like, ‘hey, if I’m not the starter my mindset is I’m going to be the starter someday. I’m going to be better than the starter’. And that’s not to say that [I wasn’t supportive of teammates] and understood my position and my role…”

Kyle Sloter

How good was preseason Kyle Sloter with Minnesota Vikings?

It’s true, Kyle Sloter was a preseason MVP during most of his NFL career, especially while in Minnesota. Between 8 preseason games from 2018 to 2019, Sloter threw for 809 total yards, 8 touchdowns and just 1 interception (74.8% completion rate). Kirk Cousins became the Vikings’ QB before the 2018 season.

Related: Kyle Sloter Claims Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer Hated Each Other

But let’s remember, this is also the same guy who broke his foot kicking in a door, which cost him all sorts of development. And this isn’t the first time he has opened up about experiences in Minnesota.

In general, Sloter was just as much of his own worst enemy, during his short NFL career, as Mike Zimmer or any other person he believes held him back during his football playing career.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has spoken well of Sloter’s performance in games, but has said he must do better in practice. Zimmer likes that Mannion has some regular-season experience, having played in 10 games the past four years with the Rams, including one start. Sloter has never appeared in a regular-season game.

Former MN Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer – via the Pioneer Press (8/20/2019)

Sloter story doesn’t surprise me

Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me even slightly if Kyle Sloter’s story is true. The Minnesota Vikings had just signed Kirk Cousins and there was no path to playing time. Sloter had plenty of his own issues, but this highlights another problem of the Mike Zimmer era.

Even if Kyle had no path to starting, a high-level organization would want to prop him up and make him look as good as possible, being quarterbacks are so valuable in the NFL.

Related: Justin Jefferson’s House Up For Sale at Bargain Price…

Instead, if Sloter’s story is true, Zim wanted to cut him down at the knees instead. As we would come to find out throughout the Mike Zimmer era, he had a tendency to do that sort of thing, whether it be Sloter, Cousins or Kellen Mond.

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