The 2025 Vikings Resemble the 2017 Vikings
The deepest the Minnesota Vikings have gone since their last Super Bowl appearance on January 9th, 1977, in a loss against John Madden’s Oakland Raiders is the NFC Championship game. They’ve done so six times since that fateful January day, obviously losing all of those contests.
The most recent one of those came on January 21st, 2018, on a cold and rainy night at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, against the Eagles in a 38-7 loss, one week removed from a miracle.
That embarrassment of a game had about as much entertainment value for Vikings fans as watching your grandparents get evicted from the house they’ve called home since they got married back before the Cold War, and that’s why I went to sleep at halftime and didn’t watch the entire game’s highlights until a couple of years after. For some reason, I still went to school the next day wearing my Vikings hoodie, shocked to see the sudden increase in Eagles merchandise in the halls.
So, how did they get there, and why do the modern-day Vikings need the same blueprint of a team that got pantsed on national cable television?
The Vikings Have (Almost) Replicated the Strengths of the 2017 Defense
If you were a Vikings fan that year, you’ll remember the defense. Man, it was good. You can consider that defense Mike Zimmer’s magnum opus, followed closely by his 2019 unit. The Vikings’ 2017 defense was one that shared cap space with a cheap QB room before some other guy came along the year after and messed that up with a fully guaranteed $84 million contract.
The Vikings led the NFL in points allowed (15.8) and yards allowed (275.9), and became the best defense in NFL history in the allowance of third-down conversions (25.2%). They were the best defense in the NFL that year and were the main reason the Vikings went as far as they did in that year’s playoffs.
The 2025 Vikings’ defense is set up pretty similarly; a very scary defensive line from edge to edge, decent quality at the roaming linebacker positions, one really good CB with an average supporting cast, one safety that’s really just asked not to let anything happen deep downfield, and of course, Harrison Smith. They also employ a masterful defensive mind still in his prime in Brian Flores, much like Mike Zimmer was in 2017.
Vikings’ 2017 Two-Headed Rushing Attack May Be Back
Then, it was Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray. Now, it is Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason. Jones is the McKinnon (shifty, elusive), and Mason is more the Murray (higher physicality while still possessing decent elusiveness). Jordan Mason just needs to come up with a great end-zone celebration like Latavius had.
In 2024, the Vikings’ rushing offense was at best in the mid-20s around the league. In 2016, their rushing offense was unquestionably the worst in the NFL. In 2017, the Vikings went from dead last in rushing yardage to 7th. Meaning that in just a year’s time, they went from the literal worst rushing offense in the NFL to an almost-elite rushing attack with Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon.
Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason are arguably both better than McKinnon and Murray were at their best, plus the Vikings’ 2025 offensive line is much better than 2017’s. If Kevin O’Connell coaches this right, this year’s Vikings team could mimic the one from eight years ago.
The 2025 Vikings Have An Elite Receiving Duo, Just Like 2017
Jordan Addison is not yet a better receiver than Adam Thielen was in his prime, but Justin Jefferson is undoubtedly better than both Stefon Diggs and the aforementioned Thielen. Let’s compare Diggs and Thielen’s 2017 statistics combined as a duo to Jefferson and Addison’s most recent season of 2024:
- Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen in 2017:
- 155 receptions, 2,125 yards, 12 TDs
- Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison in 2024:
- 166 receptions, 2,408 yards, 19 TDs
That means that in just 11 more receptions, Jefferson and Addison put up 283 more yards and seven more TDs. Of course, there’s a lot of volatility going into these statistics and what affects them, but the argument would be much different if Jefferson and Addison had a considerable amount more receptions than the Diggs and Thielen 2017 campaign. The Vikings also have a much better offensive play-caller in Kevin O’Connell, as opposed to 2017’s Pat Shurmur, with all due respect.
If the Vikings can really get the play-action and run games going, then oh man, this offense could be absolutely nuclear. Especially if all J.J. McCarthy needs to do is statistically replicate Case Keenum’s lone year as a Minnesota Viking.
J.J. McCarthy Doesn’t Need to be Superman (Unless We Need Another Minneapolis Miracle)
I’m not saying J.J. McCarthy has to be as good of a QB as Case Keenum; obviously, we would prefer that he is better. However, Case Keenum wasn’t a bad QB at all in 2017, as we know, and if J.J. McCarthy has the same statistical season as Keenum did that year with a defense and running game performing similarly to the ones of Keenum’s short era, then we could be in business, folks.
In 2017, which can still be considered the “modern” NFL, but just not quite the same passing era as it is now, the Vikings made the NFC Championship with Case Keenum throwing for 3,547 yards, 22 TDs, and 7 INTs over the 15 games he played in. J.J. McCarthy has never been a stat-stuffing QB, but all he’s done since he started playing football is win, and Case Keenum played good enough with his supporting cast in 2017 to do just that: win.
The Vikings don’t need J.J. McCarthy to be Kirk Cousins and just absolutely obliterate the stat sheet on a Sunday afternoon during Week 11 in a noon-kickoff game against the old-era Detroit Lions. They just need him to keep the car on the road, and McCarthy has proven that he can do so at every level of football that he’s ever played in.
Vikings’ Potential New Strength is Overshadowed by McCarthy Mania
