Pride of Detroit
After a week of rest and relaxation during the bye, we’re back with another installment of “5 Questions.” This week, we had the pleasure of connecting with Christopher Gates, the site manager over at Daily Norseman, to give us some insight into the Minnesota Vikings. We talked about J.J. McCarthy on the eve of his third NFL start, some of the offseason decisions that have impacted the Vikings uneven start on defense this season, and much more in the lead up to this NFC North matchup.
1. The Minnesota Vikings’ 2025 season has so far been defined by injuries and none more concerning than that of the team’s franchise quarterback, J.J. McCarthy.
Carson Wentz, reportedly, toughed his way through a torn labrum and fractured socket for two and a half weeks while McCarthy was on the mend from a high-ankle sprain. McCarthy is fully recovered and scheduled to make his return for this divisional matchup at an important crossroads in Minnesota’s season. Seeing it’s only his third career start in the NFL, what’s your level of confidence in McCarthy at this point as he’s set to face a Lions’ defense ranked No. 1 according to DVOA?
“Well, it’s certainly not an ideal spot for McCarthy to come back in, but he’s got to get out there sometime. It stinks that he got hurt two games into the season when he could have gotten more reps, but McCarthy and the Vikings have to play the hand they were dealt.
I’m hoping that Kevin O’Connell will try to do some things to help McCarthy get comfortable early on, like shortening up some of the route combinations and trying to do more on the ground, but he hasn’t shown any inclination to do that so far this season regardless of who’s been at quarterback. I want to be optimistic about this, but I absolutely wouldn’t be shocked if this thing got out of control early.”
2. Circling back to those injuries, and this is obviously a factor to consider when it comes to assessing your confidence level in McCarthy, but the offensive line has been in flux all year long. Three different players have logged 100+ snaps at center (Ryan Kelly, Michael Jurgens, and Blake Brandel), Brian O’Neil and Christian Darrisaw have both missed time, and Justin Skule has given up 19 pressures on 185 pass-blocking snaps filling in for the aforementioned tackles.
How have those injuries played a factor in the offense’s most lackluster start under Kevin O’Connell–where have they been most vulnerable–and is there a sense of optimism for this group to get things turned around if Darrisaw and O’Neil return to the lineup this week against Detroit?
*“The Vikings have, somehow, managed to mismanage every injury the team has had this year in spectacular fashion. The Carson Wentz situation has been well-documented this week, and Darrisaw has been in and out of the lineup at times, almost as if he’s been on a “pitch count” or something. The five linemen...
