Daily Norseman
The 2024 Vikings fell to early postseason disappointment, but they’re better than that. Blake Cashman, Ryan Kelly, and Tai Felton are three Secret Superstars who can help them prove it in 2025.
After a regular season in which they didn’t have their first-round rookie quarterback at all, and head coach Kevin O’Connell made Sam Darnold a thing for the first time in Darnold’s NFL career, the Minnesota Vikings were thisclose to turning their Super Bowl dreams into reality for the first time since the end of the 1976 season. The team that ranked seventh in DVOA in that regular season — 15th on offense and second on defense — fell apart in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions, as Darnold turned into a pumpkin against a defensive game plan that helped Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn bag his current gig as the New York Jets’ head coach.
That loss cost the Vikings the NFC North, flipped their postseason seed from first to fifth, and sent them on the road to meet a Los Angeles Rams defense that gave Darnold a Gary Anderson-level kick in the nether regions, only far more accurate. After their 27-9 loss to those Rams in which Darnold put up a Passing DYAR of -175 (which is no bueno, my goodness), all the Vikings had to show for their 14-3 season, and O’Connell’s well-earned AP Coach of the Year award, was a whole lot of epic disappointment.
So, now on to the J.J. McCarthy era, in which the Vikings finally hope to see what they got with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft. McCarthy showed a bit of what he could do in the preseason, especially in the vertical passing game...
...which aligned with what he did in his collegiate career.
Plus. McCarthy is practicing against a Brian Flores defense every day, and few things will get you ready for the NFL better than that particular nightmare. More on Flores’ defense very quickly here.
Can these Vikings find their way to the top of the NFL’s most competitive division? The Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers are already gunning for success again, and the Chicago Bears won’t be the doormat they were in 2024. It’s a tough test for the team led by O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, but this squad is as well-suited as any in the NFL for that ultimate success.
If it’s going to happen, the Vikings will need more than just their new quarterback, and their most prominent names, to get it done. In the continuation of our “Hidden Gems” series, we look at three Secret Superstars for Minnesota’s favorite sons — one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick.
If you play linebacker in a Brian Flores defense, your responsibilities are extreme. As much as Flores designs crazy schemes in which the Vikings have led the league in rushes with over six defenders and rushes with three or...
