Minnesota Vikings News and Links: Let The Games Begin!

It’s time! Ready or not we are off!

I do not do season predictions because I’m lazy and I spend too much time “predicting” mock drafts.

I think I will do one game at a time this season.

It would be nice to start off with a win but it is going to be tough. The Giants are kind of in the same boat as the Vikings as far as getting respect is concerned. Neither team is predicted to do very well. They will be just as hungry as the Vikings to start the season off good.

I think Dexter Lawrence is going to be a huge problem and it will be a good test for the interior offensive linemen. If they can hold up then Darnold should complete passes. If not, then Darnold is running around for his life. They have a couple of Edge rushers now too in Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux plus they have Azeez Ojulari. It is going to be tough for the offensive line.

Their offense is not as formidable as they are ranked 28th by PFF right now. Can they provide enough protection against the Vikings pass rushers? Can the Vikings get any defensive tackle to pressure up the middle? I have to see it to believe it.

I think that the Vikings offensive skill position players (Jets, Addison, Jones) should provide just enough to squeak out a close victory.

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Minnesota Vikings News and Links

Ahead of Week 1 vs. Giants, Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell talks Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns

“They go out and add another premier edge player. I got a ton of respect for [Brian] Burns and then knowing [Kayvon] Thibodeaux on the other side has been a player that’s really just continues to ascend, and you can see it all over the tape of his first-round ability and what he’s kind of grown into, there’s no question. Their defense is very strong on the front. When you mention those two guys, you have to mention [Dexter] Lawrence in the middle. Going back a couple years ago, just remember how much of an impact he was, and I think their linebackers are really good. I think they have a really versatile secondary to play a lot of different ways and coverages. So, it really all works together.”

“I think it starts with Dexter Lawrence. You’ve got to figure out a way to corral him in the middle. And he’s not your traditional style nose tackle. He gets a lot of pressure on the quarterback. I think last year he ended up with an astounding like 50 pressures from the 0T/1T spot and they move him all around the interior of that defensive line.”

“We got a chance to practice against Tennessee when they came in here when Shane [Bowen] was their defensive coordinator for Vrabs [Mike Vrabel] and just thought they were really well coached, really tough, ran to the ball, did all the little things that make it hard to play against defenses that do those things in this league. I think he’s really good from a scheme standpoint. We have our work cut out for us for sure of going on the road with the obvious element of noise and all those things. We’ve got to practice and prepare for it and then make a lot of the things that we’ve worked on come to life.”

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Vikings-Giants matchup pits Darnold vs. Jones to open prove-it season for once-heralded QBs

Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones were swiftly dumped into the deep end of NFL debuts, shouldering heavy pressure as young quarterback in the country’s largest media market.

As is often the case in this sink-or-swim league for players at the sport’s most demanding position, the results have failed to match the high hopes raised by their heralded arrival. In what could well be their last chance to convince the league they can still be capable starters for years to come, Darnold and Jones will lead their teams into the same season opener Sunday when the Vikings visit the New York Giants.

Whatever the outcome, it likely won’t bode well for the loser.

Though he has found first-string status again with the Vikings, Darnold was clearly signed (for one year and $10 million) to be a temporary bridge from the departed Kirk Cousins to the rookie J.J. McCarthy. He has only been assured of keeping the job because of McCarthy’s season-ending knee injury last month.

“As a young player you can definitely get excited about what the future might hold or what things might look like, but at the end of the day you’ve got to be where your feet are,” Darnold said. “This sport, this position, it’s hard enough as it is. If you start worrying about the wrong things, it’ll come back to bite you.”

Can Vikings QB Sam Darnold finally find recipe for NFL success after years of dysfunction?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5734446/2024/09/05/sam-darnold-vikings-jets-panthers/

Minnesota’s skill players are exceptional. The play-action, rhythm-and-timing-oriented offense suits Darnold well. Throw in the deep bond between Darnold and Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, and the optimism sweeping the TCO Performance Center hallways makes sense.

“Even the highly drafted guys need the perfect cocktail a lot of times for them to shine,” said former Jets center Jonotthan Harrison, “and very few of them get a sip of it.”

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Sam Darnold among Vikings’ eight captains for 2024 season

* Sam Darnold

* Justin Jefferson

* Brian O’Neill

* Harrison Smith

* Harrison Phillips

* Josh Metellus

* C.J. Ham

* Andrew DePaola

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Matthew Coller: Aaron Jones is running from the running back age curve

It has always felt funny to talk to a 29-year-old man like he’s on the brink of being put into a nursing home. But that’s what it was like peppering Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones with questions about the vaunted running back age curve inside the locker room on Monday.

Not that Jones is offended. He fully understands the history of running backs at his age. In fact, he can name some of the runners who aged more gracefully off the top of his head.

“I think about Frank Gore, Emmitt Smith, some of these guys who played for a long time and even outside of the running back position like Mercedes Lewis, Joe Flacco, and how they’re able to play for so long,” Jones said. “I’ve talked to [Harrison Smith] about it and seen some of his stretching techniques and some of the things he does and get the knowledge about how to play that long.”

Jones understood going into this year that if he was going to make the list of successful geriatric RBs, it was going to take a lot of work. As soon as he signed with the Vikings, he requested that the training staff put together a plan for him. They were ahead of him on that.

“I wanted to do some pre-hab prevention and they were like, ‘We were already thinking about that, we already have a card written up for you,” Jones said. “You just tell us the body part and we got you. They really do and I notice a difference from the first time I did it and times I don’t do it and go out there. I’m ready, I’m tuned up and ready to go.”

Jones is absolutely convinced that he’s just starting the second half of his career.

“Every year I’m getting better and better and last year I felt like I was just starting to enter my prime and got hurt, so those last five showed that the game is slowing down more and more for me and I can see different things and I’m able to hit different holes and set dudes up in ways that maybe before I hadn’t been able to because the game was a little fast.”

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Sports Valuations – 19. Minnesota Vikings

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/05/nfl-valuations-2024-minnesota-vikings.html

Valuation: $6.06 billion

Revenue: $587 million

EBITDA: $100 million

Debt as a percentage of value: 9%

Franchise history

Owner: Wilf family

Year purchased: 2005

Purchase price: $600 million

Stadium: U.S. Bank Stadium

Paid attendance for 2023 regular season: 535,308

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Ex-Vikings destroy Mike Zimmer in revealing interview: ‘Petty and annoying’

Mike Zimmer dished on some serious grievances and grudges stemming from his firing from the Minnesota Vikings at the end of the 2021 season and there are a couple of former linemen who played under Zimmer who aren’t one bit surprised.

After seeing Zimmer’s interview for the first time, ex-Vikings offensive lineman Alex Boone — he played for the Vikings in 2016 and 2017 — said he thought “there’s no way that any coach would ever f****** say this.”

Jeremiah Sirles, Boone’s co-host on the The OLine Committee podcast, was equally shocked.

“If you have a GM and a head coach that don’t speak about roster, you’re dead in the water,” Sirles said. “Reading that article as I read it, it sounded like the relationship 100% fractured in 2018. When they signed Kirk Cousins, that was the fracture and it never mended.”

Boone agreed.

“Remember back in ‘18 we were all like ‘there’s no way Zimmer likes this guy,’” Boone said. “Mike’s too much of a hard ass and Kirk’s not hard at all like that and Mike wants everybody to be hard and that’s Mike’s problem. It’s not because you’re old, dude. Being old has nothing to do with anything. Pete Carroll was old as f***, but he treated everybody with a ton of respect. I’m not kidding.”

“There was no pullback (from Zimmer), ever,” Boone continued. “There was never a time that it was like ‘this guy’s gonna be chill.’ Even after wins we were still getting cussed out.”

Sirles, who played for Minnesota in 2016 after playing two years with the Chargers, said it was a massive change going from playing under offensive-minded head coach Mike McCoy to Zimmer, who was all about defense.

“When I got to Minnesota, it was so polar opposite that the offense was literally the red-headed stepchild of the entire team. I just never felt confident as an offense,” Sirles said. “It just felt like we were walking on eggshells all the freaking time. And it just compounded year after year.”

Both linemen said it was impossible to bring up grievances with Zimmer.

“You couldn’t say anything to him, dude,” said Boone. “There was nothing to say and that was the whole problem. You look at this article now and he’s like, ‘I’ll never get another [head coaching job] because I’m old.’ No, you’re not getting another job because you’re throwing everybody under the bus again and instead of just saying, ‘Hey it was a s****** tenure and things got f****** crazy and it is what it is and we’ve moved on,’ you’re like, ‘Really it wasn’t my fault, it was everybody else’s fault and by the way I don’t talk to any of these people anymore because they said the truth about me.’ Like, dude, that’s so petty and annoying.”

Boone later explained that Zimmer was extremely hard on a young, starting offensive lineman on the 2016 team who was “very important” to Minnesota’s success. He claimed Zimmer constantly delivered the young lineman a “you just f****** suck” message. Sirles confirmed Boone’s claim, saying Zimmer was “killing this kid” and even played lowlights during team video sessions to prove his point.

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Cowboys might have a big Mike Zimmer problem after controversial Vikings comments

Justin Jefferson is the Best Non-QB in Football, Just Ask Those Who’d Know

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