Minnesota Vikings linebacker Blake Cashman (51) and offensive deal with Brian O’Neill (75) stroll onto the sector earlier than a divisional matchup in opposition to the Inexperienced Bay Packers at Lambeau Discipline in Inexperienced Bay, Wisconsin, on Nov. 23, 2025. The veteran leaders ready for an additional NFC North showdown as Minnesota tried to safe an necessary late-season highway victory in opposition to Inexperienced Bay. Necessary Credit score: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Photos.
Oddsmakers don’t anticipate the Minnesota Vikings to be a top-tier Tremendous Bowl contender in 2026, however additionally they didn’t anticipate the Seattle Seahawks to win the chip right now final yr. Due to this fact, we’ve got a path outlined for Minnesota to comply with in Seattle’s footsteps.
Minnesota’s ceiling is determined by 5 clear outcomes.
It’s all fairly primary stuff, however, you recognize, it simply has to return true.
What Should Break Proper for the Vikings
A listing of explanation why the Vikings can win all of it.
Minnesota Vikings deal with Christian Darrisaw traces up in opposition to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sep. 19, 2022, at Lincoln Monetary Discipline in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Darrisaw continued establishing himself as one in every of Minnesota’s cornerstone offensive linemen throughout an early-season primetime matchup, serving to anchor the Vikings’ safety schemes in opposition to Philadelphia’s aggressive defensive entrance on the highway. Necessary Credit score: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports activities
Clear Invoice of Well being for the Offensive Line
Each beginning offensive lineman for the Vikings, not named Will Fries, missed video games final yr. Each single one:
Christian Darrisaw (7 missed video games)
Donovan Jackson (3 missed video games)
Ryan Kelly (9 missed video games)
Brian O’Neill (3 missed video games)
The principle guts of Minnesota’s beginning offensive line missed over 25% of the season. The group ended up because the NFL’s 18th-best, in accordance with Professional Soccer Focus, even with accidents. The working idea means that so many accidents most likely received’t rattle the trenches once more.
This can be very important as a result of new Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray has missed about 25% of all profession begins attributable to harm.
No Severe Defensive Regression
These are the Vikings’ defensive rankings per EPA/Play beneath Brian Flores since 2023:
2023: seventeenth
2024: 1st
2025: third
Total 2023 to 2025: 2nd
That’s proper — the Vikings’ showcase the NFL’s second-best protection total with Flores in cost. Make no mistake: no matter occurs with Minnesota’s offense in 2026, it already has a protection ok to win a Tremendous Bowl. That factoid has been slowed down during the last three seasons by offenses that both didn’t attain their ceilings or flamed out on the worst attainable time (i.e., Sam Darnold in Week 18 and the 2024 playoffs).
If Flores’s protection doesn’t take a weird step again, Minnesota has the defensive personnel and training employees to win all of it.
Run the Rattling Soccer
Beneath Kevin O’Connell, Minnesota ranks as follows per rush playcalling share:
Vikings’ Rush Play Share,Since 2022:
2025: 19th2024: 18th2023: 30th2022: thirtieth
That’s not acceptable. No Tremendous Bowl-winning staff runs the ball as an entire afterthought. The Vikings don’t must fairly “establish the run” just like the Mike Zimmer days, however they need to run the ball at a balanced clip and keep away from treating that part of the offense like a ache within the butt.
O’Connell all the time says he needs to “run to set up the pass,” after which doesn’t run the ball very a lot. For the Vikings to win the Tremendous Bowl, they need to name speeding performs greater than the Nineteenth-most within the NFL.
Prime 12 or Prime 15 QB Efficiency from Kyler Murray
The Vikings completed 9-8 final yr whereas trotting out the NFL’s fifth-worst quarterback group per Dropback EPA/Play. To place it plainly — and to substantiate your eye take a look at — J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and Max Brosmer weren’t excellent. They shaped the fifth-least environment friendly quarterback trio within the sport.
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray reacts throughout a house matchup in opposition to the Seattle Seahawks on Sep. 25, 2025, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Murray continued main Arizona’s offense in a key NFC West contest whereas making an attempt to maintain the Cardinals aggressive in the course of the center portion of the regular-season schedule. Necessary Credit score: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Photos
Effectively, if Minnesota grabbed 9 wins with the NFL’s Twenty eighth-ranked quarterback unit, the Vikings now want Murray to climb into the Prime 12 or Prime 15. This could recommend an 11-6, 12-5, 13-4, or 14-3 season.
Murray doesn’t must be Tom Brady always, however he can not play like 2025 Max Bromser. Murray should discover the blissful medium, taking part in turnover-free and dynamic soccer.
The Minnesota Sports activities Curse Ceases
The final time a males’s skilled sports activities franchise received a championship in Minnesota? Thirty-five years in the past. For the reason that Twins received the World Collection in 1991, Minnesota’s 4 main males’s professional groups have mixed for 130 accomplished championship makes an attempt (full seasons from the Twins, Vikings, Wild, and Wolves) with out one other title.
100 and thirty failed seasons.
This may sound weird, so bear with us: the state of Minnesota is due for a championship based mostly on sheer math and chance. Actually, Minnesota sports activities groups ought to rattle off one thing like 5-10 in a row to make up for the championship-less oddity. That’s how chances often work.
Boston has 13 championships since 1992. Minnesota has zero. Minnesotans are actually simply asking for one. Why not the Vikings in 2026?
Symbiosis
Maybe you’ve felt this manner throughout Vikings soccer video games during the last decade: when one factor is working, one other isn’t. For instance, Kirk Cousins performed his greatest ball as a Viking in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and that was proper in regards to the time when the protection may not be trusted.
Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores speaks with reporters on Dec. 3, 2024, following Minnesota’s slender win over the Arizona Cardinals two days earlier. Flores mentioned the Vikings’ defensive efficiency and ongoing changes as Minnesota continued constructing momentum in the course of the common season beneath his aggressive and blitz-heavy defensive philosophy. Necessary Credit score: YouTube
In 2025, Flores’s protection turned out to be nice, however Minnesota has to play Brosmer at quarterback.
Issues like that.
Perhaps as soon as for the Vikings, all sides can jell. For instance, Murray and the offense cook dinner, Flores’s protection does Floresian protection issues, and Will Reichard maintains his All-Professional type.
The Vikings are wildly overdue to showcase full synergy. They will win the Tremendous Bowl in the event that they do it in 2026.
Dustin Baker is a novelist and political scientist. His second novel, The Invaders , is out now. So is … Extra about Dustin Baker
