Analysis: What’s so good about not being bad at the end of this Vikings season?

Any amateur NFL draft expert with the ability to google Mel Kiper Jr. can tell you the tangible drawback of teams being good at the end of a bad season.

So a crazy idea came to mind. Ask Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell what’s so good about not being bad at the end of an ugly season that officially fell short of the playoffs three weeks ago?

“Getting from 4-8 to 9-8 … is not going to count for much in January, that’s for sure,” said O’Connell, “but it’s going to matter moving forward, in my opinion.”

There’s nothing tangible to support that notion, K.O. It’s just a gut feeling. Your opinion. It’s also spot-on right.

So is O’Connell’s desire to play J.J. McCarthy in the season finale against the Packers on Jan. 4. The second-year quarterback who’s missed 25½ of a possible 34 games because of four injuries needs to play if he’s even remotely able to grip the football with his injured throwing hand.

“We’re still in that wildly significant time where any and all reps and experience [matter],” O’Connell said of McCarthy. “It’s another home game at U.S. Bank Stadium. All those things are important.”

We’re also in that wildly significant time where McCarthy just needs to start stacking games that eventually lead to him switching his narrative and proving to teammates, coaches and everyone building a team around him that he can bounce back, play hurt and stay on the field. Sounds harsh, but the NFL is harsh.

Draftniks come armed with a tangible rebuttal, of course.

Had the Vikings given up and were 4-12 instead of 8-8, they’d have the seventh overall pick right now. Instead, they have the 17th pick heading into a season finale in which they’ll host a playoff-bound Packers team that’s locked into the NFC’s seventh seed. A win and the Vikings could be drafting 18th overall, the worst pick that a non-playoff team can earn.

A top-10 pick is nice but comes with no guarantee of success. And it’s certainly not worth what people on both sides of the walls of Vikings headquarters would be thinking, saying and feeling about this team if this were the 53 Stooges finishing out a four-win season.

Being 3-2 in the division, 3-0 since being eliminated from the playoffs and 9-0 in the last nine December games are important mental building blocks for 2026.

“We set out on this journey in some pretty dark times a few weeks back,” O’Connell said. “I laid out the challenge to our team. I laid out the challenge to our coaching staff to navigate this the right way. … To their credit, they’ve answered the challenge.”

Winning. Who knew it could be such a good thing even in bad times?