Months earlier than the Minnesota Vikings received 14 of their first 16 video games of the continued season, people corresponding to John Breech of CBS Sports activities predicted that Minnesota would end Week 18 within the basement of the NFC North standings.
Forward of the upcoming “Sunday Night time Soccer” sport between Minnesota and the 14-2 Detroit Lions that may decide the No. 1 seed for the NFC playoffs, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell revealed throughout an look on the “Professional Soccer Speak Dwell” program that he realized his membership could possibly be a Tremendous Bowl LIX contender “throughout the ramp-up interval the primary couple days” of coaching camp.
“We have been very calculated and who we dropped at this crew, the kind of participant, the kind of mentality they’d have, we wished to actually carry guys right here that have been good, robust, liked soccer, liked being nice teammates due to what we constructed right here,” O’Connell advised PFT’s Mike Florio.
O’Connell beforehand didn’t hide
that he was aggravated with how the Atlanta Falcons and former Minnesota beginning quarterback Kirk Cousins got here to a contract agreement early into free company final March. The Vikings responded by signing journeyman Sam Darnold to a one-year deal, and he has flourished beneath O’Connell as J.J. McCarthy has spent his rookie season recovering from a whole meniscus repair.
In line with Pro Football Reference, Darnold is ranked fourth within the NFL with 4,153 passing yards, fifth with 35 landing passes and fifth with a 106.4 passer ranking this season. Some around the league imagine the Vikings will retain Darnold’s rights for subsequent season through the franchise tag to allow them to play him over McCarthy by at the very least January 2026.
“I do imagine these gamers are likely to thrive and we get sufficient of these guys in that locker room with the management and the gamers we already had in it,” O’Connell added concerning the squad the Vikings constructed final offseason. “I assumed it will be very a lot doable for us to have success after which if we constructed it the best means in that darkness when there was no gentle shining on this crew in any respect I feel these groups will be harmful after they’re cast in type of the background and also you simply carry on getting ready, carry on rising. And now we get a possibility to play on the massive stage, within the vibrant lights of ‘Sunday Night time Soccer’ to complete the season.”
As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Vikings as 2.5-point underdogs for the prime-time matchup at Detroit’s Ford Discipline. One might need to assume twice about betting in opposition to O’Connell and Co. although Minnesota suffered a 31-29 dwelling loss to the Lions on Oct. 20.
