Read Part I here.
Our 2026 NFL Season Preview Features continue with a comprehensive, two-part series on Kyler Murray and the Minnesota Vikings.
Part II is below for paid subscribers.
EAGAN, Minn. — There’s an NFL nobody sees. This NFL is scrubbed from those generously sanitized episodes of Hard Knocks and ignored entirely from cheery docuseries produced by the teams themselves. Millions are fed a manicured script, ripe with poll-tested press conferences and mic’d up segments because, frankly, there’s a growing legion of fans who demand the Disneyification of their favorite team. If reporting suggests there is not a Santa Claus, mobs assemble. Feelings trump truth.
Reality — protected behind virtual barbed-wired fences, moats and cannons — is far more cruel, cutthroat.
This is what Kyler Murray wants.
This is what Kyler Murray needs.
Each quarterback dynamic is different. In Buffalo, Josh Allen and Sean McDermott were never as close as snow angels on ESPN suggested. The two have polar opposite personalities. Change was desperately needed. In Chicago, Ben Johnson made it clear on Day 1 that Caleb Williams needed to align with his vision and his offense fresh off a nightmare rookie season. After our series published, one source close to the coach told us Johnson was fully aware of all issues before accepting the job. So far, so good. In New England, Mike Vrabel, Josh McDaniels and Drake Maye wasted no time.
Here in Minnesota? The worst mistake any coach can make is to be gentle, to tiptoe around the new QB1’s surly exterior in a kindergarten teacher’s tone. Coddle him, past coaches say, and he’ll get bored. He knows when someone isn’t operating on his Mamba frequency. Autry Denson, the ex-Arizona Cardinals assistant who grew close to the QB, repeats that Murray must be challenged.
“And I think he didn’t get challenged enough because when you challenge a competitor, they only have one response: to compete,” Denson says. “Hold a really good player to the standard that he should have been held to anyway because all he’s going to do is respond.”
The last quarterback any team should want is a mute who mopes at the sound of one coach’s piercing vulgarity. That’s never been Murray. He craves hard coaching, thus craves all pressure coming his way this season. Murray relishes the sort of debate that’d never make its way to public consumption.
When he barks, you must bark.
When he bites, you must bite.
“You ever see a dog just take it and lay over it? No!” Denson says. “Show me a great player that doesn’t have an edge and he is not a great player. People haven’t necessarily been on the same level as him. He’s not told what he needs to hear all the time because people are fanboy’ing him. They don’t understand the edge God blessed him with.”
When I ask a different member of that Cardinals coaching staff how this 2026 season will go for Murray, he echoes the anonymous Viking player who sees no middle ground. This experiment could lead to a championship podium or unravel. He begins with sharp criticism. This coach declares, point blank, that Murray’s personality is not conducive to winning. Calls him passive-aggressive. Prickly. But then something strange happens in our conversation.
This coach says he had a good relationship with the quarterback and offers the secret to unlocking Kyler Murray in full.
If the Minnesota Vikings do exactly this, he explains, they can win in 2026. And win big.
“Kyler needs people that are going to tell him, ‘Hey, you’re fucking tripping.’ He needs people to coach him like a skill guy. Not like a… ‘Hey, this is a quarterback,’” this coach says in a delicate accent. “No. You’ve got to say: ‘Hey motherfucker, throw him the ball.’ And he had that with us. It’s just all the other bombs over Baghdad that were going on with that organization that hurt us.
“Kyler wants to be challenged. He wants to be coached. He wants you to push the envelope with him.”
Indeed, as examined in Part I, life in Arizona was a mess.
In Part II, let’s gaze into the crystal ball. Murray was officially announced as the starter this week. Go Long spent much of this summer learning everything we could about the former No. 1 pick.
The talent is tantalizing. Believers envision a renaissance. Jordan Hogan worked with him inside the Cardinals quarterback room in 2020 and ‘21. “People have forgotten how good he is,” Hogan says. “He’s special. With age comes wisdom. He’s matured in all areas of life.” OK, so a three-time champion in Kansas City is returning from a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee. Whatever. Chase Edmonds fully expects this Vikings offense to rank in the Top 5 and for Murray to win Comeback Player of the Year over Patrick Mahomes. “That offense,” the former Cardinals running back adds, “is going to be better than Kansas City’s offense.”
Not everyone sees this union working. Kurt Warner managed to thrive in Arizona en route to Canton. He hasn’t seen Murray read the field at a level that can beat the best teams. Warren Moon, another Hall of Famer, knows the family. He sure hopes Murray’s maturation is real and that the 29-year-old realizes this is his last shot as a starter.
Step one is approaching this quarterback with the utmost abrasiveness.
This is where the outside world has gotten Murray all wrong all these years.
The reason Denson viewed Minnesota as the perfect destination for Murray is what’s inside the building. He sees personalities that’ll keep it real with the QB. And let’s face it. The pressure is too high for anyone to coast. Kevin O’Connell, a coach who let a future Super Bowl champ walk right out the building, is feeling the heat. Justin Jefferson, a star in his prime, does not want to repeat the horrors of 2025. Brian Flores is as cuddly as a crocodile. There’s a new GM overseeing everything. Generations of fans are restless.
Pressure builds, and builds, for all parties.
OK, the situation was wretched in Arizona. Much like Sam Darnold’s Jets.
We’re about to see if Murray is made of the same stuff inside. If he is, there’s no reason he can’t electrify this organization.
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The two do seem to share one endearing character trait. No “seeing ghosts” clip, no amount of public humiliation rattled Darnold on his eight-year quest to a Super Bowl. Those close to Murray insist he’s unbothered by all mockery, be it the “homework clause” or your toddler memes. He may be taking notes of everything said about him this offseason, but don’t hold your breath for an airing of grievances. Nor does he waste any time obsessing over his Q score through the offseason.
Denson remembers a player who never drank, never got speeding tickets, never left the house much at all. He’ll need to connect with teammates — and we’ll get to that — but the assumption that Murray sits on his ass and plays video games 24/7 is overblown. Waste zero time out on the town and it’s possible to both a.) watch a lot of film and b.) play Call of Duty. In Arizona, Murray would FaceTime his quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork as late at 10:30 p.m. to talk about something he unearthed on tape.
He’s a martial arts junkie. Bruce Lee has always been a source of inspiration. Murray loved telling Denson that he could take him out before he’d even blink.
Otherwise? This isn’t a quarterback distracted by anything. It’s always been that way. Growing up, Murray told Denson he wasn’t even allowed to ride bikes outside with friends. His life was so regimented. Sport to sport, there wasn’t time to live like other kids. That’s another reason why those in Arizona see Murray excelling in a less scattershot, more structured locale like Minnesota. If these Vikings tap into Murray’s primitive side to “intellectually duke it out,” this union can work.
The Vikings have tried everything. Thirty-three starting quarterbacks in all since their rivals across the border traded for Brett Favre. Tender conversations will not break the generational curse. Before heading to the NFL, Denson was the head coach at Georgia Southern and recruited prospects in the south against the likes of Nick Saban. At the grassroots level, he realized the best players in the nation also want to be coached the hardest. They do not want practices to be easy.
This practice environment is what allows them to dominate on gameday.
The outside world may think it’s crazy.
“But to them? It’s a harmony,” Denson says. “Everybody can’t understand it. When you challenge him, he’s going to come back like he’s supposed to.”
‘You’re afraid of what he can do’
Here’s the thing about this mystery. We don’t need to close our eyes and pretend what Kyler Murray can do with the ball in his hands. We’ve seen it. All of it is packaged into an 18-minute reel here if a reminder is required.
Spinning away from free runners to uncork 40-yarders on a rope. Accuracy downfield. Pulling an RPO at the last second to slingshot his body around the edge of the defense. The Hail Murray vs. Buffalo. Jared Verse, for one, is probably still wondering how he missed the QB — twice — on a third-and-5 touchdown. On one 50-yard TD run vs. San Francisco, the entire defense appears to be playing at 0.5 speed. “Super hero!” Tom Brady says on the call. “Super human!” There’s no need to travel too far back into time. Right up to his injury last season, he was making defenders look stupid. When linebacker Christian Rozeboom blitzes untouched up the middle, Murray somehow contorts his body backward and lowers a shoulder to avoid a crunching collision, Matrix-style, before scrambling right. Then left. Then vertically through the entire defense for 30 yards.
Best of all is his No. 1 objective while scrambling. He runs to throw. He wants to attack downfield with his arm.
“All starting quarterbacks are good decision-makers for the most part,” Hogan says. “They can process and they can progress through their reads. When you start talking top 10 or top five quarterbacks, any time they have the ball in their hands, an explosive play is going to happen. Kyler definitely has that impact. You’re afraid of what he can do. He doesn’t have the same effect as Lamar with his legs — Lamar can get 60 on you in a heartbeat. But Kyler can make all the throws on the football field. If he couldn’t, he wouldn’t be in the league because of his height. You fear getting him down. He’s trying to scramble so he can throw for 40 yards.”
Edmonds calls Murray a “Top 5 creator” in the NFL. Off schedule? An illusionist who flips disaster plays into explosives. To him, the 5-10 dynamo’s greatest gift isn’t so noticeable on a highlight reel. Fans love the quarterback capable of gunning a football through the proverbial brick wall and Murray has a formidable fastball in his repertoire. Again, he was the ninth overall pick in the MLB Draft. You’ve got to gun a baseball as hard as possible as an outfielder. On the gridiron, though, Murray throws the most catchable ball receivers have ever encountered. Edmonds caught 96 balls from the quarterback in back-to-back seasons and remembers Cardinals receivers raving about this spiral fluttering so elegantly into their hands. No receivers actually enjoy jamming and dislocating their fingers.
All of which comprises a skillset O’Connell never had at the position. Nor is the Vikings head man a stubborn relic. Without question, O’Connell has spent many nights this offseason developing wrinkles into his offense that’ll maximize this human tornado. Edmonds calls O’Connell and Brian Flores the two best playcallers in the league.
He expects this Minnesota offense to be something like a fireworks show that builds… and builds… and builds toward a grand finale.
“KOC can orchestrate the gameplan around what his quarterback does well,” Edmonds says. “He doesn’t ask them to play outside of their comfort zone. He’s going to really build that gameplan to take advantage of their best skillsets. So as he plays with Kyler and as he learns Kyler’s skillset and learns exactly what type of throws Kyler performs the best and learns what Kyler likes best, after Week 6, it’ll take a drastic turn.”
Those who hail from this coaching tree historically prefer robotic terminators who rifle through progressions and deliver the ball on time. Not creators, not improvisers. To skeptics, this is a doomed marriage.
That’s what makes Hogan’s vantage point unique. He was also an offensive assistant on Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco and helped that crew reach a Super Bowl. When Shanahan, O’Connell, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, all coaches with this doctorate call plays, Hogan explains, they’re not guessing. They teach exactly where your eyes should track, where the ball should go and steer clear of the weapon who zigs and zags without a plan.
“Being in these meetings in this offense, most of the West Coast offensive coaches, they are not big fans of doing your own thing,” explains Hogan, who’s now the wide receivers coach at UMass. “They want you to play in rhythm. They want you to play within the pocket, play within the scheme, play within the gameplan. That’s why most of them would love to have a Kirk Cousins on their roster in some sort of fashion.”
This is how a quarterback selected 262nd overall out of Iowa State, Brock Purdy, becomes a $265 Million Dollar Man.
Hard to argue with this thinking. All over the league, we’re about to see some of the most exciting individual talents play more under center. Lamar Jackson with Declan Doyle. Jayden Daniels with David Blough.
I ask Hogan the natural follow-up: Will this shift zap Murray’s superpower?
He sees a happy medium. For one, he’s certain O’Connell did his homework on Murray the person and the player because there’s no chance in hell a coach with his X ‘n O roots would sign a veteran who lacks the necessary mental bandwidth. Especially on the heels of such a J.J. McCalamity. Hogan fully expects Murray to “operate at high level.” Sure enough, this week, the Vikings boss said Murray is further ahead in his mental processing than he expected. And while it’s true he has spent most of his football life out of the shotgun, Murray did play under center a quarter of the time under Cardinals OC Drew Petzing. He’s not being asked to learn a language used by a remote tribe in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Expect to see more movement. This offense will be fueled by a hearty volume of play-action rollouts, bootlegs and keeper concepts. It never made sense to Hogan when people likened Murray to Russell Wilson because there’s no comparing their athleticism. In Minnesota, he’ll take off whenever protection does break down. He turned 29 years old last Friday. Not 39. “His legs work fine,” Hogan adds.
The trick for O’Connell is blending his offense with a quarterback who measured 5 feet, 10 1/8 inches tall at the NFL Combine.
This is another part of the Murray debate that Edmonds thinks everyone botches.
To him, it’s a hell of a lot harder for Murray to see over those 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-5 linemen while running RPOs because he’s in the shotgun and defenders are anticipating a pass with more frequency. If ex-Dolphins run guru Frank Smith can get his wide-zone scheme rolling on the ground, there will be big plays open all over the field.
“When he goes under center,” Edmonds explains, “and he does a seven-step dropback and he fakes the outside zone — and everything looks the same because they’ve been running the ball — the windows are going to be a lot more open. The D-line is the D-Line. Whether in shotgun, whether under center. That part does not matter. But what’s going to matter are those linebackers having to commit to their run fake. The lanes on the second level are going to be a lot more open for him. He’s going to see a lot better.”
Obviously, the prototypical 6-4 quarterback sees everything. The picture’s bound to be blurry, to some extent, for everyone south of 6 feet tall. At 6 feet 5/8 of an inch, Purdy struggles to see parts of the field. Hogan expects O’Connell to get creative with the depths of drops and launch points. Anything to clear up the field. From there? He’s seen Murray make every throw.
When those Cardinals were rolling, his targets were large and tall — DeAndre Hopkins, Larry Fitzgerald, A.J. Green, Zach Ertz, Maxx Williams. A few of those players were past their prime, too. In Minnesota, he has arguably the best wide receiver in football. The Vikings aren’t dumb. They know they’ve got to maximize this 27-year-old weapon worth $140 million. Last season was a crime against wide receiver humanity. Jefferson’s ability to stay so goosfraba cool through 2025 should be discussed in anger management classes nationwide. Murray also has a Top 12 tight end in TJ Hockenson and two other wideouts with contrasting skillsets. Jordan Addison is armed with the speed to take the top off a defense, whereas Jauan Jennings, affectionately labeled a “dirtbag” by Murray, is a 6-foot-3, 212-pound brawler.
Players will be open. It’s a guarantee. Hogan fully expects KOC to scheme up easy throws early in games that get Murray into a rhythm and build his confidence to take over late.
Jennings compared the Vikings receiver room to the Golden State Warriors at their peak. Bring this comment up to Addison and he doesn’t flinch. “A lot of talent,” Addison says. “It’s going to be hard to guard all three of us.” Yes, he was quite excited to see Minnesota add Murray in the offseason. When I ask him what makes Murray unique at the position, he doesn’t bring up the flashy highlights.
Rather, that timing.
This is not a quarterback who cycles to his seventh read in a benign 7-on-7 drill.
“His anticipation and timing,” Addison says. “He’s got good eyes. His feet tie together with it. He’s a good quarterback. Everybody knows who Kyler Murray is. He’s obviously a proven guy in this league. We want to make him comfortable and allow him to be himself.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Blake Cashman is equally enthused. As a linebacker, he knows what a pain in the ass it is to chase mobile quarterbacks around for three hours. He sees the talent. He knows the scheme. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t work,” the veteran says. “When you put great talent with great schemes, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have a lot of success on that side of the ball.”
Playing in a dome helps. So does playing in the NFC. This quarterback who doesn’t necessarily enjoy playing in the cold only has to worry about a Nov. 15 game in Green Bay and a Dec. 10 game in New England. (The New York Jets, a Jan. 3 opponent, do not count until further notice.) Hogan expects the Vikings to compete for an NFC North title and fight for one of the conference’s top seeds.
Granted, it takes months of sweat equity to earn the sort of respect Darnold did inside the locker room. Murray has a long way to go before teammates serenade him in a rendition of “Many Men.” As one Cardinals assistant told us, Murray can be difficult. Yet, players on the 2020 and 2021 Arizona teams do cite that room as the best they’ve ever experienced. “College on crack,” Edmonds says. “We were always with each other. Everyone loved each other.” This, too, was a blend of youth and vets. Guys could call each other out on their BS. So, it’s possible.
Let’s face it.
If Murray performs, the Vikings will create their own college-like atmosphere. He, too, will be beloved.
No guarantee when you speak to some of the best ever at the quarterback position.
QB Concerns
For all that ails the Arizona Cardinals, it’s also true that Kurt Warner took this team to the Super Bowl. In 2008, they came within a Santonio Holmes’ foot-dot from triumphing.
Today, Warner studies the quarterback position all day. And there’s arguably no player he has been watching more than the one in his backyard.
First, the Hall of Famer waxes poetic on what’s to love. Obviously, Murray is an athletic marvel. Setting that all aside, Warner also views Murray as one of the most gifted pure throwers of the football. It’s accurate, it’s catchable, it travels in a perfect spiral. He can make any throw.
But the ex-QB also sees one damning glitch to Murray’s game.
“He’s a guy,” Warner says, “that I don’t believe has ever really seen the field.”
Murray can thrive in a 1-2-3-4-5 pure progression because if the first couple reads aren’t open, or he’s pressured, he creates. Playing for O’Connell could help in that he uses plenty of pure progression, Warner says. People on staff, though, have also told Warner that this scheme’s progression is “defender-based.” The quarterback still must read defenders as he cycles 1 to 2 to 3 to 4.
He gets the excitement. Pair this playcaller with these weapons with that breathtaking talent at QB and the possibilities can appear limitless.
When the picture gets blurry, Murray short-circuits. Through seven seasons, 88 games, 2,975 total pass attempts, Warner never saw this element of his game improve.
“Until I see that Kyler can decipher stuff,” Warner says, “and know what he’s seeing and play on time, it’s really hard to thrive in this league. No matter how talented you are, you’ve got to do that to some degree and he has always struggled with that.”
Worse, it rears its ugly head against the best defenses. All quarterbacks who cannot decode secondaries enjoy stretches of brilliance but Warner views this is an inevitable kryptonite come playoff time.
“Against teams that are going to force them to play quarterback more consistently, how do they perform?” Warner says. “Kyler has been a guy that has struggled against the top teams in the league and the top defenses in the league many times. That’s what gives me that pause. If you want to push the envelope and get to the playoffs and make some noise — which is what it’s all about as a quarterback — he’s got to get better at that sort of stuff. The theme stays the same for me: Can you see it? Can you process it? Can you deliver it on time consistently? If you can do that, you’ve got a chance. And then it’s, ‘What do you give me above that?’ Kyler can give you a lot above that if he can get that.
“When they’re playing against the best in the league, do they elevate their game and can they be part of the reason that their team wins and advances?”
Decrypting all disguise deployed by coordinators is a herculean task for any passer today. Intentions are concealed right up to the snap. This is where the Vikings will need to lean into those edgy conversations behind the scenes. Through all game-planning, all intense back ‘n forth, they’ve got to somehow create a machine of an offense that allows Murray to play fast and maximize his physical gifts. Because that’s the magic that can dizzy any defense in NFC.
Oddly enough, another Hall of Famer doesn’t expect this to be a problem at all. Warren Moon, a QB who enjoyed a Viking renaissance of his own at age 38, believes O’Connell will get Murray on the move enough to do damage consistently. He’s certain the Vikings will devise the most potent week-to-week gameplans in the league.
The only thing he questions is this quarterback’s “frame of mind.”
Yes, Murray was blessed with a blend of nature and nurture: God-given gifts and a father pushing him toward greatness. The result was an athlete destroying everything in his path. Baseball? Football? It didn’t matter. Superstardom was preordained. Quarterback prodigies, however, are much like child actors in that they do not grow up like you or I. A natural side effect of such a destiny is immaturity. Moon knows the family and makes it clear that Murray was never a bad kid, but he was “babied.” Moon says Murray’s mother did his laundry when he first went pro.
All the ingredients to win, to Moon, are firmly in place. He hopes the last 365 days — the injury, getting released, starting over — have humbled Murray.
“He was very immature when he came into the league,” Moon says, “and some guys are that way when they’re young and don’t grasp what it takes to be a quarterback in the NFL and what it takes to be a leader on your football team. This new address and new environment for him and maybe being a little bit older and a little bit more mature seeing what needs to be done in order to be successful in this league, it’s a really good thing for him.
“It’s all in place, but it’s all up to him. So let’s see if Kyler’s mature enough to take this on and become the player that everybody thought he could be when he was the No. 1 overall pick.”
This is the direction Matt Hasselbeck steers the Murray conversation, too. The three-time Pro Bowler likes his game. He loves the situation. Those intangibles, however, leave something to be desired. He wishes Murray was the type of leader that compelled a legend like Fitzgerald to say, “I’m not retiring because I have a chance to play with you.” Instead, Fitz hung ‘em up after the 2020 season. This never happens with the greats who bring a palpable presence to the workplace. Like Mahomes. Like Tom Brady. Players and coaches refuse to walk away because they wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing they had a chance at a ring.
This is what he’s dying to see out of Murray.
A magnetism. An air of belief.
“That wasn’t the case when older guys were with him when he was the franchise quarterback. It was different,” Hasselbeck says. “To me, I think that there’s an intangible there where your teammates have this feeling and your coaches have this feeling: ‘I would never want to leave this organization because you’re here.’ That’s the next level.”
This is Year 8. It’s fair to wonder if Murray — if any quarterback — can become such a force multiplier this late into a career.
Hasselbeck correctly notes that the bar was set quite low by McCarthy last season. That helps.
He’s also stepping into one of the NFL’s best quarterback ecosystems.
Unprompted, Hasselbeck bangs the drum for the team’s QBs coach, Josh McCown. He knows coaching lifers scoff at the notion of ex-pros like McCown, Philip Rivers and Jason Witten becoming head coaches but Hasselbeck believes there’s a small subset of former pros with a special vision that guys swimming in X’s and O’s cannot fathom. Beyond schematics, McCown the person will be very good for Murray.
Then, there’s Jefferson. Moon fully expects the team’s best player to stay on Murray because there’s no way he wants to waste another year of his prime. He hopes getting knocked to the canvas stirs something inside of Murray. So far, Moon loves what he’s hearing.
From afar, Murray sounds like a grounded vet comfortable in his own skin.
All critiques bring me back to an excellent point made by Harrison Smith ahead of the Super Bowl when I asked longtime Vikings safety about Darnold’s evolution. As he explained, it’s not as if a player simply fails all the time. That’s what pissed him off most about all Darnold discourse in the media. It’s possible for a player to put his head down and improve season to season. Who you are at 23 doesn’t need to be who you are at 29.
“Everyone acts like you’re either the worst or you’re the GOAT,” Smith said then. “All the dumbass shit that people just come up with. I think Sam is a good example of a guy that just goes to work and he doesn’t make too big of a deal of anything.”
With better coaching, perhaps Murray sharpens what concerns Warner. At one point, Darnold was seeing those ghosts on Monday Night Football, right?
With self-reflection, perhaps Murray follows Moon’s advice and keeps maturing.
The stakes alone serve as all the incentive Murray needs to fix his issues with old-fashioned work.
If he fails, it’s hard to imagine he’ll get this opportunity again.
“It’s now or never,” Moon says. “Hopefully he senses the moment.”
Under pressure
One play from Vikings training camp is worth watching on repeat. Lowlights are never disseminated to the mass public by the teams, I get it. But this hookup that generated north of 2 million views is worth thinking about for deeper reasons.
With a defender closing in, Kyler Murray launches a prayer to Justin Jefferson.
Two defenders are on-site. One has a chance at an interception, one could’ve harpooned through Jefferson’s exposed torso. The throw is no work of art, but it pays to give the best player on your team a chance. It was symbolic. These 2026 Minnesota Vikings go nowhere if they’re afraid of their own shadow. Philosophically, this should be precisely how this coach, this quarterback, this entire team attack a now-or-never campaign.
This team’s prospects are in the eye of the beholder.
One source with knowledge of this team’s thinking is skeptical. Fired GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did himself no favors, yet took the fall for everything. And rather than promote Rob Brezinski, the Vikings tabbed Nolan Teasley their GM and he brought on Trent Kirchner as a right-hand man. In Seattle, both saw firsthand what it takes to build a Super Bowl winner. GM John Schneider is the gold standard. While sources praise Brezinski’s unselfish nature — he’s been a Viking loyalist for three decades — it’s hard to quibble with hiring anyone from the Seahawks’ personnel department.
In 2025, the Vikings assumed O’Connell was a quarterback whisperer whose Midas touch would turn McCarthy into gold. They were wrong. And they doubled down on the error by backing up McCarthy with Sam Howell and Max Brosmer into last August. “What the fuck are you doing?” says this source familiar with this team’s thinking. “None of those guys have proven they can play.” Carson Wentz signed in mid-August but, in retrospect, the entire quarterback plan was half-baked.
“They’re all to blame,” this source says. “JJ’s play might’ve got everyone fired.”
Nor did this source ever view the quarterback competition as legit because he couldn’t fathom O’Connell going down with this ship. He’s not convinced McCarthy will even be the No. 2.
The offense will improve. But to create some cap flexibility, the Vikings cut ties with a handful of integral pieces on defense. None greater than Jonathan Greenard, a premier pass rusher. He was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. Losing the immortal Smith stings. He was the brains of this quantum-physics scheme. The defensive line is young. Dallas Turner, the 2024 first-rounder, must ascend into a game-wrecking playmaker. Jalen Redmond, the nose, must win at the point of attack. Cashman and Eric Wilson, the inside linebackers, must stay healthy. In shedding salary, the Vikings created potential problems when starters inevitably go down. “There’s no depth at all,” this source says.
Ultimately, the player who’ll decide the fate of these Vikings is no secret.
It’s Murray. It’s a quarterback who responds best to expletives.
Big picture, it’s refreshing. Our climate-controlled, Door Dash’ing, Uber’ing, complacent world is all unnatural. For tens of thousands of years, our species thrived on daily discomfort, as Michael Easter’s exceptional “Comfort Crisis” details. We yearn for it. It’s primitive. And football is one of the last vestiges in modern society that forces humans to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Sucking wind in the fourth quarter of a playoff game knowing a 260-pound edge rusher with 4.5 speed could knock you out any play may be as close as today’s homo sapiens get to eluding sabretooth tigers.
Tension. Friction. It’s all required to thrive in this wild habitat.
Otherwise, you atrophy into a sluggard state. Ask the Miami Dolphins.
It’s on O’Connell to strike the right balance. Remember, he was hired as a breath of fresh air post-Mike Zimmer. He’s more force of positivity than a drill sergeant — and that’s a good thing. But now, urgency to win reaches an all-time high. The NFC North is a four-horse race and these Vikings could take a hard turn either direction.
Harsh dialogue is required.
Hours of film beyond the walls of TCO Performance Center is a must.
All alphas involved must find solutions.
First up, the Vikings will host the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 13. Beforehand, Murray can share a war story (or five) with his old coach from that Bidwillian dystopia. Jonathan Gannon is the Packers’ defensive coordinator. Then, it’s time for the quarterback to redefine himself. Winning over a locker room takes time. When Murray walks through the hallways of this facility, he should take a moment to acknowledge those greatest moments in franchise history captured on the wall.
Specifically, the raw emotion from Darnold’s victory over Green Bay. It was spontaneous, heartfelt and fleeting.
Reaching this point of genuine affection is not easy. But there’s no reason Vikings players cannot hoist another quarterback atop their shoulders come January while rapping to 50 Cent in a cappella.
This point forward, it’s all up to Kyler Murray.
Ugh, Rozeboom.
The one thing that I would love to see explored is how exactly McCarthy had everyone on the local beat feeling optimistic about last year? The Vikings beat has some pretty good guys on it and everyone was surprised by how bad it went, which only made it worse because fans were unprepared. Maybe this is too "Inside Baseball".