We’ve got the results of our SB Nation Reacts poll for this week and the questions we asked our readers about the Minnesota Vikings, so let’s take a look at what everyone is thinking, shall we?
Our first question of the week was, as it always is, whether or not everyone thinks the Vikings are going in the right direction. Even though the Vikings ended the season on a five-game winning streak, it looks like the myriad of questions this team is going to have to answer this offseason are leaving folks a little less than optimistic.
Of those who responded to our poll, just 48% believe that the Vikings are heading in the right direction. Again, this team has a lot of questions to answer this offseason, a couple of which we’ll get to here shortly. Still, there should be some reasons for optimism as well, so a near 50/50 split seems just about right, to be honest.
The first of those questions has to do with the quarterback position, specifically whether or not this team will go into next season with J.J. McCarthy as their starter. When it was all said and done this season, McCarthy wound up starting 10 games in his first full season as the team’s QB1, missing seven games with various injuries, and had his ups and downs when he was in the lineup.
Of those who responded to our poll, 60% believe that McCarthy will be the starting quarterback when the team breaks the huddle in Week 1 next season. I have a tendency to agree with that, honestly. I don’t think this team is going to burn a bunch of draft capital on a trade for a marquee quarterback. I also don’t think any of the marquee quarterbacks that have been projected. . .or, more accurately, fantasized. . .as potentially being traded to Minnesota (like Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, etc.) are going to actually get traded because, honestly, why would their teams trade those guys? I do think the Vikings need to take the backup spot much more seriously in 2026, and I think that they will, but I still think McCarthy is going to end up being QB1 when next season starts. Your mileage, as always, may vary.
The last question we had for you this time around has to do with the fate of Brian Flores as the team’s defensive coordinator. Not surprisingly, people are a lot less optimistic about his return to the Minnesota sidelines.
Of those who answered our poll, only 39% believe that Flores will be back running the Vikings’ defense in 2026. We already know that he’s got an interview lined up this week with the Baltimore Ravens for their head coaching vacancy, and even though our friends at FanDuel do not have any sort of coaching odds listed at the present time, there are rumblings that he’s among the favorites for the job openings in Arizona and Las Vegas as well. I’m still a bit skeptical about the odds of a team hiring him as their head coach while he’s still actively suing the league for their hiring practices, but I don’t feel as confident about that now as I did a couple of weeks ago.
Those are the results of our SB Nation Reacts survey for this week, folks. As always, we thank everyone who took the time to participate in this week’s survey, and we’ll have another one for everyone to weigh in on in the near future.
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