Very Quietly, the Vikings’ Offseason Gets Past a Notable Date
Think Vikings football is far off? It may be closer than you think.
If I’m not mistaken, Dustin Baker has mentioned something similar in his discussion of the Vikings’ offseason on Vikings Territory. The NFL season isn’t too far off. The season’s opening game — a TNF tilt between the Ravens and Chiefs on September 5th — is a mere 90 days away. Or, put differently, just three months. And what about the Vikings? Minnesota’s debut match takes place on Sunday, September 8th. That’s just 93 days away (shout out to Google for confirming the timeline).
The Vikings’ Offseason is Marching Along
A lot still needs to get sorted out before regular season football gets underway.
The Vikings have secured Justin Jefferson for the next five years due to the massive extension that got handed out earlier in the week. All of the sudden, the remaining few months won’t be nearly as anxiety-inducing for Vikings fans. Jefferson isn’t going anywhere, folks.
But the Vikings are still working through quite a few storylines.
Namely, who is going to get the nod to be the QB1? Sam Darnold is the leader, but J.J. McCarthy will be pushing to become the starter. And then there’s the presence of veteran Nick Mullens and sophomore Jaren Hall. What happens with these two QBs?
The offensive line is now a lot more interesting given that Dalton Risner has been re-added. Aaron Jones is supposed to bring the running game to life, but that will need to be proven. And then the tight end spot has seen no shortage of attention (including a receiver being kicked into the position).
Defensively, the Vikings are in the middle of turning the group into one that fully suits Brian Flores’ vision. The DC proved to be a brilliant tactician last season, resulting in an above average defense even through he (arguably) had pretty average talent to work with.
Flores’ task is going to involve integrating a ton of new pieces into his defense. Newcomers Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Jerry Tillery, Blake Cashman, Shaq Griffin, Dallas Turner, Khyree Jackson, Kamu Grugier-Hill, and others are all going to be leaned on to push the Vikings toward becoming a top-10 defense.
It’s an ambitious goal and it’s one that will get fully started in roughly three months once Minnesota travels to New York to take on the Giants.
The full NFL schedule can be found on the league website. We’re down to less than 100 days.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.