Minnesota Vikings 2026 NFL Season Preview

Murray seems an unlikely savior. He posted a 38-49-1 record, including 0-1 in the playoffs, in seven up-and-down seasons with an Arizona Cardinals team that drafted him No. 1 overall, gave up on him before his 29th birthday and is now paying him $35.5 million NOT to play for it this season.

The Vikings gave Murray the league minimum, $1.3 million, on a one-year prove-it deal. Scoff at O’Connell’s high aspirations at your own risk while remembering that before Darnold won 14 games in Minnesota in 2024 and a Super Bowl in Seattle last season, he was 21-35 as a starter and labeled a failed former first-round pick.

Offense

O’Connell’s offenses typically thrive with quarterbacks playing under center and in the pocket in a structured play-action system. Murray, coming off a foot injury that limited him to five games last season, prefers shotgun and is most dangerous extending plays with his helter-skelter scrambling ability. O’Connell is intrigued by the off-script potential but also loves Murray’s career completion percentage (67.1) and 121:60 touchdown:interception ratio.

McCarthy, whose career will be paused for a year unless Murray has a meltdown, turned the ball over 14 times in 10 games last year. “We’re 35-4 when we break even or better on the turnover margin,” O’Connell said. “So we need to build our team a certain way at quarterback.”

The Vikings have arguably the league’s best No. 1 receiver in Justin Jefferson and one of its best No. 2s in Jordan Addison. Jefferson, coming off the least productive season of his Hall of Fame-bound career because of terrible quarterback play, hasn’t complained one iota but has called Murray “the spark” the offense needs. The Vikings made a smart, necessary signing after the draft, acquiring physical 6-foot-3 veteran Jauan Jennings to be their No. 3 receiver.

The offensive line has a new coach, Keith Carter, who’s expected to bring cohesion to a unit that often looked lost against creative four-man rushes. Left tackle Christian Darrisaw is a concern. He’s good but should be great. He spent all of 2025 overprotecting a 2024 knee injury, missing seven games and pulling himself early in five of the 10 games he played. The Vikings signed Ryan Van Demark, a better swing tackle, in free agency and drafted a left tackle, Caleb Tiernan, in the third round. Blake Brandel, a former guard/tackle forced to play center for the first time in his life last year, will return to that position, where he is OK at best.

Tight end T.J. Hockenson’s stock is falling. He was forced to take a pay cut after an unproductive season and will be gone at year’s end if he doesn’t mesh with Murray. The running backs aren’t stellar, but 31-year-old Aaron Jones Sr. can still make an impact as an elite pass-catcher. Jordan Mason, good but not as impactful as advertised when he came over from the San Francisco 49ers, is a bigger, younger back but isn’t a playmaker. Rookie sixth-round pick Demond Claiborne is a guy to keep an eye on as a shifty little back with 4.37 speed.

Defense

Creative defensive coordinator Brian Flores blitzes more frequently than anyone else in the league. Flores uses a 3-4 base defense but has several sub-packages and multiple fronts he uses to keep quarterbacks confused. He’ll transition this year from safety Harrison Smith, who is expected to officially retire, and edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, who forced the Vikings to trade him to the Philadelphia Eagles for two third-round picks after the Vikings refused to give him a raise from $19 million per year.

Dallas Turner, who cost the Vikings multiple picks when they traded up in the first round to get him in 2024, led the team in sacks a year ago and is ready to replace Greenard after building NFL-caliber strength the past two years. Smith will be tougher to replace. Jay Ward, who blossomed in Flores’ three-safety looks at the end of last year, enters his fourth year in the system.

The Vikings also used the draft to select four elite defenders who can help Flores right away. One of them is third-round safety Jakobe Thomas, a physical, instinctive player with versatile traits similar to Joshua Metellus, a team leader and the ultimate rags-to-riches Flores guy. Caleb Banks, a top-10 talent who fell to 18 because of a twice-broken foot, is a 6-foot-6, 327-pounder with size to stonewall the run and speed and quickness to be a rare three-down, double-digit sack guy from the inside. He could start alongside third-round pick Domonique Orange — “Big Citrus” — who’s 6-foot-2 and 322 pounds. Orange will at the very least be part of a deep rotation of players in their early to mid-20s. Tackle Jalen Redmond, a 27-year-old rising star whose career began in the UFL, has inside rushing skills that made him one of the best players on a defense that last year ranked third in total defense, fourth in third-down defense and seventh in scoring defense. Second-round pick Jake Golday possesses a skill set that is similar to that of outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, one of the league’s more versatile rush and cover edge weapons. Golday will be groomed to spell Van Ginkel and back up inside ’backers Blake Cashman and Eric Wilson.

At cornerback, Byron Murphy Jr. is an elite player who is in his prime. He also can shift inside to the nickel. Isaiah Rodgers, who had a decent 2025 that included a two-touchdown game against the Bengals, returns on the other side. The Vikings also added James Pierre, mostly a backup in his first six years with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and fifth-round pick Charles Demmings, who turned heads at the NFL Scouting Combine.    

Specialists

Will Reichard is only 25, but the reigning first-team All-Pro heads into his third season as the league’s best placekicker. He’s never missed a PAT, and he nailed 11-of-13 field goals from 50-plus yards last season, including a franchise-record 62-yarder. Veteran punter Johnny Hekker, 36, can be trusted to replace Ryan Wright, who parlayed his best season into more money with the New Orleans Saints. Hekker is a four-time first-team All-Pro who hasn’t missed a game in his 14 seasons. Myles Price, a shifty little receiver built like a running back, led the team in punt and kickoff returns as an undrafted rookie. He had eight long returns, including a touchdown, nullified by penalties. He also struggled with ball security and will be challenged this year by the speedy Claiborne.

Final analysis

O’Connell’s tutelage and Murray’s desperation could combine to resurrect another quarterback’s downtrodden career. The question is whether O’Connell needs to post his first playoff win in his fifth season as Vikings head coach to stay off the hot seat. In January, ownership already fired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the general manager it hired a month before O’Connell in 2022, so patience is wearing thin.