Minnesota Vikings Logo Minnesota Vikings

Brooks: J.J. McCarthy Is the Biggest “Wild Card” of 2025

Brooks: J.J. McCarthy Is the Biggest “Wild Card” of 2025

It makes sense

Since the end of the 2024 season, the Minnesota Vikings have taken numerous measures to improve themselves, including shoring up the lines on both sides of the ball and adding a solid complement to Aaron Jones in the form of Jordan Mason. The questions surrounding the team stem from the most important position on the roster, and with good reason. After Sam Darnold had a renaissance in 2024 under Kevin O’Connell’s tutelage, the Vikings are expected to turn the reins over to J.J. McCarthy, who missed all of 2024 with a knee injury.

Bucky Brooks of NFL.com...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
The Crystal Ball Says...

The Crystal Ball Says...

Thoughts on the 2025 Minnesota Vikings Schedule

In my inaugural article for the DN, I discussed reasons for optimism in 2025. The first was key free agency additions, particularly in the trenches. This builds on the greatest free agent class the team has ever had in 2024. The second was an unwavering faith that J.J. McCarthy is the real deal. Our Montana. Our Brady. Our Mahomes. Our Aaron Rodg…yeah, no. Sorry, no one with a measly Super Bowl victory allowed, pal. If that were the case, I’d go with Brad Johnson. He not only has a championship ring, but was...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
Vikings to Hold Joint Practices with Patriots Ahead of Preseason Game

Vikings to Hold Joint Practices with Patriots Ahead of Preseason Game

As we thought would happen

As they’ve done frequently in recent years, the Minnesota Vikings will have some joint practice sessions with a preseason opponent ahead of an exhibition contest between them.

The New England Patriots are coming to town for Week 2 of this year’s preseason, and the Vikings have announced that the two teams will have joint practice sessions together in Eagan ahead of their game at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, 16 August.

We passed along the news back in March that the Patriots had reached out to the Vikings about the possibility of joint practices this...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
Doubters Gonna Doubt

Doubters Gonna Doubt

The second installment in my Season of Gratitude series. Don’t believe everything you see on TV.

Remember How We Got Here

It’s more than a feeling. It’s something deeper, something guttural and instinctual. Deep inside the core of your soul. The fire that burns for the Minnesota Vikings. The heartbreaking losses are ingrained in us Vikings fans, like an inescapable gene. Year after year we always fall short. Year after year we get our hopes up. There’s always next year. Year after year after year after year...

When listening to a Minnesota Vikings fan, one often hears the phrase...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
Vikings Land One Player on All-PFF Team

Vikings Land One Player on All-PFF Team

And it might not be a player you immediately think of

We’re into the throes of the offseason, folks, and we’re still about two months away from the start of training camp, so a lot of what we’re going to be talking about between now and then has to do with what other people are saying about the Minnesota Vikings. To that end, we’ve found one recent entry from a prominent analysis site that’s a bit of a head-scratcher.

Pro Football Focus has put together their “All-PFF” team, which they label as “The NFL’s Best Players of the Past 25...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
Vikings Links:  Offseason Manscaping

Vikings Links:  Offseason Manscaping

How is your mustache game?

As we slog through the offseason, we look forward to the next organized team activities.

The schedule is ...

OTAs: May 27-28, May 30, June 2-3, June 5, June 16-18

Mandatory Minicamp: June 10-12

One thing I often do is look to next year and I examine the salary cap. This helps to possibly inform what players I want to watch in college football this year.

The Vikings currently are at negative 38.5M for next season. They do have 14.2M remaining on this year’s cap which some may be carried over.

Season Total Liabilities...
Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
NFC Schedule Insights

NFC Schedule Insights

NFC North, Primetime, Teams with Biggest SOS Changes

Beyond the Minnesota Vikings schedule for the upcoming season, which I discussed in this piece, there are several interesting tidbits about the NFL schedule and particularly how it relates to the NFC and the NFC North.

Let’s take a closer look.

Primetime/Stand-Alone Games

The league makes some calculated decisions when it picks which teams play in primetime or stand-alone games. Those decisions largely come down to ratings, as each network that pays big bucks to air the games want a good return on investment and the league also wants to drive...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
Thoughts on the Vikings’ 2025-26 Schedule

Thoughts on the Vikings’ 2025-26 Schedule

Get ready for a primetime beast of a schedule

The NFL has released its 2025-26 schedule and has chosen to highlight the Minnesota Vikings with seven primetime/stand-alone games this season, the second-most of any team. In his most recent press conference, Vikings’ quarterback J.J. McCarthy said he feels most comfortable when the lights are brightest and the stage is the biggest, so he’ll get plenty of opportunities under those conditions during the regular season, including four of his first five games.

Every game in the NFL can be considered a tough matchup as the ‘any given Sunday’ mantra often holds...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
Vikings Links:  What Is Your Schedule Prediction?

Vikings Links:  What Is Your Schedule Prediction?

Can the Vikings make the playoffs?

Obviously, the entire season outcome depends on how well JJ McCarthy plays. We all want for it to be very successful. We will have to be patient but the hoping for a very bright future is the only mindset you should have. We assume all rookies will have some bumps along the way. It is going to be up to the rest of the offense to help JJ as much as possible. I think 11-6 or 12-5 sounds like a doable goal.

.

NFL schedule: Each NFC team’s win total projection for 2025 season...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
ESPN: Caleb Williams Really Wanted to Play for the Vikings

ESPN: Caleb Williams Really Wanted to Play for the Vikings

Honestly, can you blame him?

We learned yesterday that the Minnesota Vikings will take on the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on Monday Night Football to begin their 2025 season. Today, as if by magic, there’s now a storyline that involves the two division rivals and their quarterback situation.

A story that hit ESPN today talks about Bears’ quarterback Caleb Williams and how he and his family were not thrilled about the idea of playing for Chicago, who held the #1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Williams’ father, Carl, even stated that Chicago was the place where “quarterbacks...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
NFL Opening Odds: Vikings Early Road Underdogs to Bears in Week 1

NFL Opening Odds: Vikings Early Road Underdogs to Bears in Week 1

Seems a little weird, no?

You wouldn’t think that a team that won 14 games last season would be an underdog to anyone to start a new season, let alone to a team that finished last in their division. However, this is the situation that the Minnesota Vikings find themselves in as it pertains to the very, very early Week 1 odds now that the 2025 NFL schedule is out.

The folks at FanDuel have released their odds for the first week of the season, and they show the Vikings as being a 1.5-point underdog to the Chicago Bears for...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman
Your Minnesota Vikings 2025 NFL Schedule

Your Minnesota Vikings 2025 NFL Schedule

The whole thing is right here

We finally have the entire Minnesota Vikings 2025 schedule for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of the National Football League.

Without any further ado, here it is!

The Vikings are supposed to have eight home games and nine road games this year, but two of those road games are now neutral-site games because they’ll be played in Europe. The Vikings are now set to be the first team in NFL history to play back-to-back games in different countries.

You can see that, because of those overseas contests, the Vikings will have a very early bye...

Daily Norseman Daily Norseman