The most obvious problem the Vikings have faced this season is that injuries at key offensive positions — most notably on the offensive line and at quarterback — have derailed progress on that side of the ball.
That largely explains the Vikings’ 32nd-ranked passing grade per Pro Football Focus, which would be great in a 1,000-team league but is dead last in a 32-team league.
A more vexing problem with less obvious roots is the bottoming out of a once-stout defense.
There, the Vikings are graded No. 22 by PFF after being No. 10 a year ago. Many of us thought they might be top-five this year. Instead, they are going in the opposite direction.
While injuries have hit the defense, too, their problem seems more to be with execution and the meshing of personnel.
Here, we must ask this as well: Are the Vikings just too old?
I examined that on Wednesday’s Daily Delivery podcast and will get into some more comparative detail here at the start of today’s 10 things to know:
- My curiosity with this question started after seeing Bill Barnwell’s social media post showing the Vikings are the third-oldest NFL team this season in terms of snap-adjusted age (which accounts for playing time instead of just adding the ages of all players and dividing by the total number). Broken down by sides of the ball, the Vikings have the 10th-oldest offense and fifth-oldest defense. The pros of a veteran defense are reliability and previous track record. The cons are the potential for decline, injury and overreliance on past performance.
- That said, the Vikings were the second-oldest team last season using the same metric and had the second-oldest defense. That team had a strong defense and went 14-3 in the regular season. So we can’t just say age equals defensive struggle or that having a veteran defense is automatically a bad idea.
- What is troubling is this: This is year four of the Vikings’ “competitive rebuild” under Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell, and they are still relying disproportionately on veteran free agents instead of young drafted players. They experienced the pros of an older roster last year by hitting on virtually every free agent they signed. They are experiencing the cons this year with veterans like Ryan Kelly (32, injured reserve), Javon Hargrave (32) and Jonathan Allen (30) failing to provide critical upgrades on the interior of the offensive and defensive line. If they were hoping to copy and build on last year’s plan, while giving young QB J.J. McCarthy ample opportunity to grow into his role, it just hasn’t worked.
- We could witness a shift in 2026 when the Vikings figure to have double-digit draft picks and will need to shed veteran salaries, as Ben Goessling recently wrote. A more interesting question: With the Vikings 8.5-point underdogs at Detroit on Sunday and the trade deadline coming two days after that, will they pivot to more youth even sooner?
- I asked similar age-related questions on the podcast about the Wolves and Wild. The Wolves have the sixth-oldest roster in the NBA this season and need to be worried about regressions from Mike Conley Jr. and Rudy Gobert. The Wild had the sixth-oldest roster in the NHL last season but are No. 20 this season. Are their early-season growing pains, which have led to a 3-8 record if we lump all losses into one group, indicative of a blended roster still trying to incorporate more youth?
- I wondered why the Vikings didn’t sign a veteran QB, as they did Wednesday, when they determined J.J. McCarthy wasn’t ready and knew Carson Wentz was playing hurt.
- Also on Wednesday’s podcast, Randy Johnson joined me to break down last weekend’s struggles for the Gophers football team and men’s hockey team.
- Thursday’s podcast will feature Star Tribune columnist La Velle E. Neal III.
- I was very wrong about the Blue Jays. I thought the Dodgers would win the World Series in five games after their epic Game 3 win in 18 innings. Instead Toronto showed tremendous resolve in winning Game 4 and turning the series into a best-of-three.
- The NBA does not look good in allowing Terry Rozier to continue playing after a gambling investigation in 2023.
