Five extra points: Vikings’ problems vs. the Seahawks go back to the NFL draft

Sunday’s 26-0 loss at Seattle — the Vikings’ most humiliating defeat since last being shut out 34-0 by Green Bay 18 years ago — isn’t just a quarterback issue. It’s an overall general manager problem. Sustained success isn’t possible when your GM gets lapped by his peers annually in the draft. Throwing $300 million at other teams’ aging free agents can’t replace building core starters and quality depth among players entering their prime at three to five years, or generally ages 23 to 26. The Vikings have four players on their roster who were drafted three to five years ago — one from the last year under Rick Spielman (2021) and three from the first two years under Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (2022-23). Two are regular starters (Christian Darrisaw, Jordan Addison). Darrisaw didn’t play Sunday.

As for the rest of the NFC North, the Packers have 18 players and 12 starters who they drafted from 2021-23 while the Lions have 13 players and 11 starters, and the Bears have six players and five starters. Feel free to say, “Wow.”

We tend to think of the Vikings as a proud, consistent franchise. Maybe we should amend that thinking as they fell to 4-8 and all but secured a 16th consecutive season of being unable to string two playoff years together. Yep, the last time this team made the playoffs in consecutive seasons was 2008-09. Let’s measure the stink level of that amazingly consistent stretch of inconsistency. Since 2000, the Vikings have made the playoffs 10 times. That’s tied for ninth most. But they’ve put together consecutive playoff seasons only that one time.

They are one of only five teams with one or fewer streaks of fewer than three seasons of making the postseason since 2000. The others: Chicago, whose only streak was 2005-06, and Washington, Jacksonville and Cleveland — none of whom have reached the playoffs in back-to-back years since 2000. It’s come to this: The Vikings being mentioned in the same breath with, gulp, Cleveland.

Max Brosmer was awful on an undrafted rookie level of awfulness (although his 32.8 passer rating was only 1.4 lower than first-rounder J.J. McCarthy’s Lambeau Field debut debacle the week before). But he got no help in getting comfortable from his side of the ball.

How many times have we said, written and back-patted Justin Jefferson and Addison as one of the best receiving duos in football? Well, they let Brosmer down when he needed them to step up early and keep this game from becoming the joke that it became. Brosmer was 4 for 4 for 26 yards and a first down when he dropped back to pass on second-and-9 from his 27. He threw a great ball 15 yards downfield that a wide-open Addison dropped. That came on the Vikings’ second possession and led to a second straight punt. Two possessions later, Brosmer was 6 of 9 for 46 yards and two first downs, and the Vikings trailed only 3-0. It was first-and-10 when Jefferson dropped a ball thrown to him a yard from the first down.

If Addison and Jefferson catch those two balls, Brosmer starts 8 of 10 for about 76 yards, and he’s a whole lot more comfortable than what he morphed into en route to completing 19 of 30 for 126 yards. Spread some of that blame around to the stars.

On Seattle’s next possession, Darnold threw into triple coverage. Josh Metellus, Eric Wilson and Harrison Smith were there. Metellus reached up and batted the ball down instead of going for the pick that would have been routine a year ago. A few plays later, Dallas Turner’s first strip sack resulted in Seattle recovering en route to a 15-play field goal drive.

The Vikings did have two takeaways — their first in four games — but lost the turnover battle 5-2. A year after they led the league with 33 takeaways, including a league-high 24 interceptions, the Vikings have 11 takeaways and three interceptions, tied for 30th.

It’s especially embarrassing for an NFL team to be down only 10-0 with over 31 minutes left and have its opponent start playing as if that lead is insurmountable. How else can we explain Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald easing up and not bothering to use one of his three timeouts when his defense sacked Brosmer at the Vikings’ 24-yard line with 1:50 left in the first half? He allowed the Vikings to punt the ball at 1:12. Seattle then ran three plays from near midfield and waited another 13 seconds before Macdonald called his first timeout with 23 seconds left. Probably fearing a Vikings’ defensive score more so than anything, Macdonald didn’t even try for a touchdown before settling for a 56-yard field goal and a 13-0 halftime lead.

Seattle then took the second-half kickoff and did what few teams do anymore — not go for it on fourth-and-1 from the opponent’s 36-yard line. A 54-yard field goal made it 16-0, which probably felt like 48-0 to Macdonald. And to Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, whose QB whispering talents were no match for what Seattle’s defense did to Br-O-smer.