Vikings Links: This Season Has Been Great So Far

The journey this season has been exceptional. Most felt it was going to be a down year. The team felt otherwise and proved to all the non believers that there were, in fact, much better than what others thought. After this week against the Titans, the Vikings face the reeling Bears, “resurgent” Cardinals, pretty good Falcons, Bears again, and the Seahawks. A lot can happen in the next 6 weeks but if they go 4-2 they would be 11-4. That would be awesome! I do not want to predict the next siz weeks though. Just this week. I feel the team really needs to put together a good performance offensively and doing it against a tough Titans team would be great. The Titans will be without L’Jarius Sneed so maybe that means the receivers will be open. Their defensive line will present a tough test for the Vikings interior offensive line though. I still like the Vikings to win.

Minnesota Vikings News and Links

Vikings-Titans Week 11 score predictions from the Vikings On SI staff

Will Ragatz: Vikings 20, Titans 13

Part of me feels like the Vikings are due to put together their first dominant four-quarter performance since Week 3 against the Texans. But while a blowout is certainly possible, the Titans’ stout defensive line and Sam Darnold’s recent turnover woes give me pause. I do think Brian Flores’ defense will have another big day with numerous sacks and turnovers against Will Levis and a poor Tennessee offense. On the other side of the ball, though, I’m not sure it’ll be as easy for Minnesota to move the ball up and down the field as it was last week. I’ll take the Vikings to win in somewhat ugly fashion again.

Joe Nelson: Vikings 34, Titans 13

The Titans are one of the worst teams in football in almost every key metric from Pro Football Focus. When they play good teams, they get destroyed. Just ask the Packers, Lions and Bills, who beat the Titans by a combined score of 116-34. The Vikings are in that upper echelon when Sam Darnold isn’t turning the ball over in the red zone. We should expected a more poised Darnold on Sunday, and therefore a Vikings blowout.

Nolan O’Hara: Vikings 24, Titans 14

Jonathan Harrison: Vikings 30, Titans 3

Tony Liebert: Vikings 31, Titans 13

Here are last week’s predictions. Season records for our pickers:

Will: 7-2

Joe: 7-2

Nolan: 5-4

Jonathan: 5-4

Tony: 3-6

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Vikings aren’t afraid of two-high shells designed to limit Justin Jefferson

Coming into last weekend’s game against the Vikings, the Jacksonville Jaguars had primarily been a man coverage, single-high safety defense this season. But when Justin Jefferson and the Minnesota offense stepped onto the field, that changed. The Jaguars mixed up their defense completely, playing with two high safeties on 93 percent of their snaps in an effort to prevent Jefferson from beating them with explosive plays.

It worked in the sense that Jefferson was held to a season-low 48 receiving yards on five catches, snapping a seven-game streak with at least 80 yards. He had a long gain of just 15 and Sam Darnold threw three interceptions when targeting his No. 1 receiver. In other ways, it didn’t exactly work; the Vikings racked up 402 total yards and 28 first downs on 82 offensive plays, posting the highest single-game time of possession (42:19) in the NFL this season. Despite Darnold’s turnovers, Minnesota escaped with a 12-7 victory.

“They pretty much played a one-high (defense) majority of the season,” Jefferson said. “And once we came in, now they switch up their whole entire defense. And that’s kind of what I’ve been saying this whole entire season, that it doesn’t really matter how defenses play other teams. When we step foot on that field, the whole defense changes, it’s a lot more shell coverage, it’s a lot more two-high. And that’s something that we have to deal with.”

“If teams want to just cover us deep and allow us to take everything short and allow the run game to explode, then that’s what we have to do, that’s what we have to take,” Jefferson said. “We can’t get greedy and try to force passes into those shell coverages and two-high (looks).”

“For me personally, it’s about taking what the defense gives me,” Darnold said. “Obviously, it’s a cliche, but for a reason. If they want to play it deep to short on first and second down, having that mindset of just finding completions. But at the same time, if we have something on to be able to beat that coverage, let it rip and have all the confidence in the world doing it.”

The numbers bear out the idea that two-high shells are the way to slow down Jefferson. He’s been significantly more effective this season against single-high looks, according to Next Gen Stats. On Darnold’s first interception, for example, Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell was able to be very physical with Jefferson off the line of scrimmage because he knew he had safety help behind him. When Darnold still attempted to hit Jefferson on a slant, Campbell was able to deflect the ball into the air for a pick. The third interception came on a corner route that was left too far inside and undercut by split-safety Darnell Savage.

Jefferson obviously wants to continue putting up big numbers, but he’s also content to be the center of attention for defenses if it means his teammates are having success and the Vikings are moving the ball.

“It happens sometimes,” said Jefferson, who is second in the league this year with 831 receiving yards through nine games. “Teams try to take away the main weapons on the offense. And I just can’t get frustrated in those type of situations. We all eat and we all perform as one team. So as long as we’re moving that ball and we’re scoring and putting points on the board, it doesn’t matter about my production. As long as we’re winning and putting Ws on the board, that’s all that really matters.”

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Cardinals Game Could Be Moved to Monday Night Football

The Arizona Cardinals are one of the league’s hottest teams in the league at the moment, owning a four-game winning streak and first place in the NFC West moving into their bye week.

As a result, we could see them on primetime more than just their one scheduled game for the 2024 season.

Arizona’s Week 13 game against the Minnesota Vikings game could be flexed to Monday Night Football with both teams currently in the NFC postseason hunt.

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Report: JJ McCarthy Injury Setback is More Concerning Than Vikings are Leading On

Three of those people do a podcast together twice per week for SKOR North. All of Phil Mackey, Judd Zulgad and Darren Wolfson have been covering the Vikings for the better part of two decades, or more, and all three have major connections within the organization. What are they hearing from those sources? That the Vikings are more more concerned than they are leading us to believe they are.

Mackey: “JJ McCarthy had a procedure. It was not necessarily planned or expected. The Vikings are telling everyone to calm down, this is not a story. I have heard [from sources] that there is some concern about the timeline. Not, like, panic and freak out. But that it’s not a foregone conclusion that the timeline is going to stay where it is. So just I’ll throw it to you guys, starting with Doogie here. What’s your level of panic or concern? Or, should we all just take a deep breath and trust the Vikings here, that there’s really nothing to worry about.”

Wolfson: “Somewhere in the middle. I mean, I’m a skeptic by nature. So, you know, ‘journalism 101’, why is this person lying to me? I can’t necessarily trust, at face value, exactly what Kevin O’Connell said on Wednesday. This was not expected at all so certainly it’s some level of setback. [But it was] more so an injection.”

“We had heard, potentially, surgery. But now, hearing more so an injection. I guess it’s how you interpret that. But it’s certainly a story. He started to ramp up his activity, his rehab, and swelling occurred. They did not anticipate this. It’s not unheard of, but they certainly did not anticipate this. There has to be some level of concern. Yes, there is concern. Not panic, [but] there is concern.”

From there, long-time Vikings beat writer and former Star Tribune columnist Judd Zulgad took the microphone, and he was even more suspicious of Kevin O’Connell & Co. Judd reminds us that there was never really a timeline laid out for McCarthy’s recovery, in the first place.

Judd: “The interesting thing about the timeline, is the team will say, and can say, ‘you don’t know the timeline’. There’s never been a timeline. The only timeline, we think, is he’ll be set for the start of training camp in 2025, and be the quarterback, right? But, like, were they originally? If they were originally earmarking the start of OTAs, in May, and now it’s going to be June, they can just say that was our [original] timeline. So it is worth monitoring anytime a young man has two knee procedures done before he plays a game.”

Wolfson: “I’m in the middle. We absolutely need to monitor this situation. I am not ready to hit that panic button. But yes, semantically, Judd, I think you laid it out perfectly. You said it, two surgeries before he’s played in a regular season game. And I’m telling you, I can’t stress this enough, this was not anticipated. So it’s absolutely a setback. But you’re right. As far as we know, the timeline… we don’t have the timeline.”

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Orthopedic surgeon gives insight on recent procedure on Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy’s knee

The idea of McCarthy undergoing a second knee procedure in a vacuum can be kind of scary from a fan’s perspective. The Vikings selected McCarthy to be their franchise quarterback when they took him with the 10th overall pick in April’s NFL Draft. Luckily for the Vikings, it doesn’t sound too bad. Head coach Kevin O’Connell was asked on Wednesday after the news broke about McCarthy’s procedure and he expressed zero concern.

There are a lot of open-ended elements of this topic so I spoke with orthopedic surgeon Scott Arthur M.D. at the Bone and Joint Institute of Tennessee to understand a little bit more about why McCarthy could have needed this and what it potentially means for him.

What are some of the things you are looking for with swelling? How concerning is it for you as a surgeon?

“Swelling is when your knee is irritated or inflamed from recovery, distress or rehab. Sometimes, your knee gets irritated and it makes more fluid than normal. When there is swelling, the surgeon may want to check out the repair to make sure everything is healing properly. It can be hard to evaluate at times with the MRI, so you can confirm that everything’s healing appropriately (with a procedure). Sometimes you can have a little flap of the meniscus or one of the little stitches could be irritating and that may need a little cleanup. This can be pretty minor, but what you’re doing is assessing the repair and making sure everything’s healing well, and then secondarily, cleaning up anything that could be irritating the knee”

When you look at the knee, what does that look like? Do you need to put the patient under with anesthetic?

The Minnesota Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling reported that the procedure that McCarthy had done before the injection did involve an incision, which likely means some form of knee scope. Dr. Arthur talked about a couple of different options they could use.

“A lot of the time, traditionally, we’ve always gone to sleep with general anesthesia, but it could occasionally be done with a spinal block or local anesthesia. I am not his orthopedic surgeon, so I don’t know if they’ll be using this or not, but there’s a little nanoscope where you can go inside of the knee. It’s got a little small kind of needle that has a scope on the end of it and with those, you can inflate the knee with some fluid and numbing medicine to take a look inside and do a little cleanup. It’s possible you could do it with a local, but it’s not uncommon that you would just go to sleep for that kind of surgery.”

The biological injection that was reported was platelet-rich plasma. What does that do for the knee and healing process?

“Platelet-rich plasma is taking your blood and spinning it down to separate the plasma from the red blood cells. There are growth factors on the platelets and you’re infusing that into the knee. When you have a swollen knee after surgery, that knee environment is inflamed and it’s not really healthy to the joint. By injecting the platelet rich plasma, you’re trying to reset that fluid into more nourishing, healthy growth factors that are healthy for the cartilage for healing and recovery.”

Can something like this be a setback to McCarthy’s rehab process and return timeline?

It’s important to note that Dr. Arthur has not seen McCarthy and is going off of his experience dealing with these kinds of injuries in his career.

“I really wouldn’t expect it to. You’re always evaluating the success of the repair, but this (McCarthy’s situation) sounds pretty minor. He should bounce back a few weeks from the actual procedure, so I would not expect this to knock McCarthy backward big time in his rehab. He will probably do a reset for three or four weeks to get the inflammation down before starting impact loading with activities like running and jumping.”

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Vikings QB Sam Darnold predicted to land massive pay raise in 2025 free agency

Marcus Mosher of the 33rd Team recently predicted that Darnold’s next contract will exceed $28 million in average annual value if he hits the open market. Here was his breakdown:

“Here are some recent quarterback contracts in free agency that could be comparable for Darnold and his new team:

Derek Carr, Saints: $37.5M AAV

Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers: $33.3M AAV

Geno Smith, Seahawks: $25M AAV

Garder Minshew, Raiders: $12.5M AAV

“Assuming Darnold can continue to play at this same level for the remainder of the 2024 season, he should earn a big deal in free agency. It seems unlikely he’ll reach the same numbers as Carr and Mayfield, but don’t be surprised if he gets a few more million per year than Smith, considering he is only 27. Someone will take a chance on Darnold and his talent again.” — Mosher

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Yore Mock

Note: I expect the Vikings will spend money on a cornerback (or two) in free agency. I like Paulson Adebo and for them to bring back Byron Murphy.

Jaguars

Sent: Pick 28

Received: Pick 34, Pick 92

…

Patriots

Sent: Pick 34

Received: Pick 41, Pick 108

…

Packers

Sent: Pick 41

Received: Pick 47, Pick 126

…

Jets

Sent: Pick 108

Received: Pick 110, Pick 208

…

47. Nick Emmanwori S South Carolina 6’3” 227

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92. Omarr Norman-Lott DT Tennessee 6’3” 315

Photo by Andy Altenburger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

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100. Marcus Mbow OT Purdue 6’5” 305

Photo by Brandon Sloter/Image Of Sport/Getty Images

https://www.thedraftnetwork.com/2024/11/06/marcus-mbow-best-ol-2025-nfl-draft

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110. Aeneas Peebles DT Virginia Tech 6’1” 290

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126. Mike Green EDGE Marshall 6’4” 248

Peter Casey-Imagn Images

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141. Teddye Buchanan LB California 6’2” 235

Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

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164. Darien Porter CB Iowa State 6’2” 192

Photo by Keith Gillett/IconSportswire

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208. RJ Harvey RB UCF 5’9” 208

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