When doing a Vikings season review, there’s typically the common theme of annual disappoint. Afterall, the Vikings are a franchise that has become synonymous with postseason misfortune and heartbreaking losses. Coming off a season where they overachieved to the tune of 13-4 despite featuring one of the worst defenses in the league, 2023 was supposed to be a reality check for Minnesota. Their season very much started out that way.
The Vikings got off to a disastrous 1-4 start, largely a result of a host of turnovers. At that point, pundits started taking victory laps on their preseason predictions that the Vikings were indeed fraudulent. Then the turnovers slowed down and Kirk Cousins started playing the best football of his life even without Justin Jefferson. The Vikings reeled off three convincing wins, including one over the top seed in the NFC in primetime. Everything was looking up for Minnesota, and it was starting to feel like they could contend in a weak NFC. Then of course, the injury bug struck hard when they lost Kirk Cousins to a torn Achilles.
From there the Vikings managed to stay frisky for a time, despite bouncing between three different backup quarterback options. At one point they even managed to get their Wild Card odds close to 90% according to ESPN. Ultimately though, the season ended with four straight losses as the wheels finally came off the injury depleted squad. Even with the bad finish, the Vikings oddly may have actually shed some of their fraudulent image. The fact that the Vikings were able to finish 7-10 and stay alive in the playoff through the final game without their starting quarterback was a testament to incremental progress they’ve made elsewhere on the roster.
Vikings Season Review: The Good
The Vikings Defense was Solid Under Brian Flores
Nowhere did Minnesota’s incremental progress show up more than the surprising strides they made on defense. The cap-strapped Vikings had very little money to play with in the offseason to improve the unit’s talent level. Yet, they still were able to finish close to the middle of the pack in points and yards allowed with mostly the same roster that finished bottom-three in both metrics in 2022. The credit for that turning around a still talent bereft roster has to go to new Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores.
Flores was replacing failed Vic Fangio prodigy Ed Donatell who last year ran one of the most conservative defenses in the league. Flores’ approach was simply to do the exact opposite of what Donatell did. The Vikings blitzed at rates rarely seen in the NFL in 2023. It was a brilliant way to lean on their veteran safeties to prevent big plays and apply pressure, while covering up for holes on the defensive line and at cornerback. The defense may not have been a top tier unit, but Flores deserves credit for making Minnesota respectable again. The Vikings certainly hope to have him back in 2024 to build on this year’s improvements.
Minnesota’s Young Players Took a Step Forward
Another positive development for the Vikings was the progress made by several of their younger players. General Manger Kwesi Adofo-Mensah came into the year under a lot of pressure to deliver better draft results than he did in his first year heading the front office. For the most part he was successful in his delivery. First round receiver Jordan Addison more or less lived up to his billing, contributing immediately opposite Justin Jefferson. His outlook going into his sophomore season looks relatively bright. On the defensive side of the ball, undrafted phenom Ivan Pace Jr looks like a stalwart at linebacker. Tack on the solid play of third round corner Mekhi Blackmon, and it really looks like a promising group.
The front office also hit a homerun in the early signing of “defensive weapon” Josh Metellus. Metellus went from special teams captain to the leading fan vote getter in the NFC at safety seemingly overnight. The Vikings were smart to lock him up on the cusp of his breakout season. Metellus’ development alongside the start turn of fellow safety Camryn Bynum gives the Vikings a quality unit to build around. As the Vikings continue their slow purge of the old guard this coming offseason, the development of their young players will continue to be instrumental. 2023 was a great step in the right direction on that front.
Vikings Season Review: The Bad
The Vikings Running Game was Mostly Abysmal
It’s tough to decide on who had a worse year, Dalvin Cook or the team that cut him. The front office made the right call in realizing that Cook had lost a step in 2022. With the way their cap situation was setup, it just didn’t make sense to keep paying him elite money. The front office was, however, dead wrong in thinking that Alexander Mattison could be a suitable replacement. Mattison spent most of the first month of the year fumbling the Vikings to their 1-4 start. Things got so bad that the Vikings all but abandoned the run early in the season, becoming extremely one-dimensional.
Mattison eventually started ceding carries to Cam Akers, and that worked for a time. Cam Akers proceeded to tear his Achilles, thrusting Mattison right back into the every-down role. The Vikings finally had a little bit of a breakthrough late in the season after turning to Ty Chandler as the feature back for the last few games. Chandler was able to provide some juice in games against Cincinnati and Detroit and should be back next season. However, that didn’t prevent the Vikings from finishing 29th in rushing yards. That figure is crippling for a team that was relying on backup quarterbacks for over half the season. There is no reason that the Vikings should have had to throw as much as they did with guys like Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullens under center. The Vikings have to figure out how to restore some balance to the offense in 2024.
Injuries Ultimately Derailed the 2023 Minnesota Vikings
As mentioned numerous times throughout, the story of the 2023 Minnesota Vikings cannot be written without the word injuries. It’s an unfortunate part of the game. Some years a team can get incredibly lucky and avoid injuries to their star players. Notably, those are often the teams that are left standing at the end of the season. In other years the onslaught of key players hitting IR never seems to stop. That was the case for the Vikings this year. Between Cousins missing most of the season, Jefferson missing a large chunk of time, T.J. Hockenson tearing an ACL, Jordan Hicks having a weeklong hospital stint, the list just keeps rolling on with impact guys missing time for Minnesota. Not much more needs to be said on the subject; the Vikings simply have to hope for better luck next year.
Main Photo: David Reginek – USA Today Sports
