Make No Mistake: The 2024 Vikings Are Different
For Minnesota Vikings fans, a three-word sentence is muttered almost every season around December or early January: “Maybe next year.” These words are said after a 3-13 season that began with Donovan McNabb skipping footballs off the Metrodome turf and ended with Christian Ponder looking overwhelmed by an underwhelming Chicago Bears defense.
In other seasons, these words come when Tarvaris Jackson throws a pick-six in a Wild Card loss to a superior Philadelphia Eagles team. Ultimately, the idea of a Super Bowl that was dreamt of in the summer never truly felt attainable in these seasons.
There is a four-word sentence that is muttered far less often, maybe once or twice in a decade: “Is this team different?” This comes when Randy Moss is torching the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. It comes when Brett Favre throws a last-second touchdown pass to beat the San Francisco 49ers. And when Stefon Diggs is holding the football above his head as he runs into the endzone for a 61-yard game-winning touchdown against the New Orleans Saints. It sure feels different for that team.
Vikings fans know how it’s ended every year for 63 years; it’s never been different. Ultimately, Gary Anderson misses a field goal, and Randall Cunningham can’t recapture his magic when 1999 rolls around. Favre throws an interception and returns for a 2010 season that sees his NFL-record starting streak end. And the Vikings go to Philadelphia a week after the “Minneapolis Miracle” only to get embarrassed 38-7, sign a quarterback the following off-season, and miss the playoffs entirely in 2018.
These teams were memorable for different reasons, but they came on teams with little long-term stability at head coach and quarterback. The 1998 Vikings were in their seventh year with Denny Green and quarterback Randall Cunningham was 35. The 2009 Vikings featured fourth-year head coach Brad Childress, who had an icy relationship with everyone on the team, including Favre, who was 40.
And the 2017 Vikings were entering an off-season with all three quarterbacks on their roster entering free agency. Fourth-year head coach Mike Zimmer advocated not spending much money on a quarterback, but the Vikings signed Kirk Cousins to a three-year/$84 million contract that was fully guaranteed. Zimmer and Cousins never had a good relationship in their four years together.
So, as a hardcore fan myself who has lived through all of these and has told myself, “Maybe next year” and “Is this year different?” let me make something clear.
This team is different.
The 2024 Vikings have dismantled teams by a combined score of 85-30. Sam Darnold, a former third-overall pick who has never lived up to his draft potential, leads the league in touchdown passes through three weeks. The defense is sacking quarterbacks at a rate we haven’t seen in 23 years. Even the rookie kicker is banging 58-yard field goals. Oh, and they’re doing all of this without the likes of Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson.
But that isn’t what makes this team different. Sure, the Vikings have veteran leadership, but they also have young players across the roster. Rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy is out for the season with a knee injury, but he is set to take over in 2025 unless Darnold continues to play so well that the Vikings have no choice but to bring him back.
Most important, though, is Kevin O’Connell. The 39-year-old head coach is in his third season with the team, and his vision seems to be coming to fruition. After two seasons of tightly contested games, the Vikings have blown out the Giants and the preseason darling Houston Texans. Sandwiched between these blowouts was a 23-17 victory over the 49ers, the reigning NFC champions.
Darnold is playing with confidence because O’Connell is exuding confidence in Darnold. The former first-round draft pick is displaying the traits that made him a promising prospect coming out of college. On the other side of the ball, O’Connell gives Brian Flores free rein to run a defense as aggressive as the offense.
What makes this season different? It isn’t that 2024 is the season where the Vikings finally break through and make a Super Bowl run. It’s that 2024 is the first of many seasons where the Vikings will have a run at the Super Bowl. They have the right guy as head coach, and he is maximizing a quarterback that will most likely not be in Minnesota next year. What will happen when O’Connell has McCarthy for five or more years?
Only one team emerges from a season as a Super Bowl champion, but Vikings fans have much to look forward to, whether they make a run or not. They can walk out of this season saying a new sentence.
“Our year is coming.”
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