The Minnesota Vikings Can Be A Dangerous Team | 2023 NFL Team Previews

the Minnesota Vikings finished the 2022 regular season with a 13-4 record and won the NFC North for the first time since 2017. it was a great year for the team and star receiver Justin Jefferson was on his way to winning the offensive player of the year award as he would go on to have a 128 catch 1809 yard 9 total touchdown season in his first year in head coach Kevin O'Connell's system quarterback Kirk Cousins would go on to throw for over 4 500 yards and 29 touchdowns however for all of the positives on the offensive side of the ball they still lost in the Wild Card round of the playoffs and had a negative point deferential and if anybody was talking about the Minnesota Vikings last year aside from how good Justin Jefferson was it was always that they were frauds and that this team would be exposed in the playoffs and after losing to Daniel Jones and the Giants in the Wild Card round those people were validated and everything they had been feeling for months came true but now we're at a point where people are kind of underestimating the Vikings heading into the season and the question is how far can the Vikings go well we're going to try and answer that in today's video now let's begin foreign today's video by discussing what the Vikings are going to try to do offensively in 2023 at least from a philosophy standpoint and that is to run the football more than they did in 2022. Kirk Cousins finished fourth in the NFL in passing attempts last year and there is no doubt the Vikings want to be a more complementary team than they were last year Minnesota finished 28th in rushing attempts and 27th in rushing yards and not surprisingly when you run the football that little relative to the rest of the league their yards per attempt were low as well as the average just 4.1 yards per carry which ranked 26th in the league and if you take a look across the conference at either the Eagles or 49ers they both run the football very well and a lot of times each of those teams get up early pound the rock down the opposing team's throat and play bully ball and there's really nothing more deflating in the NFL than knowing a team is going to run the ball right at you and there's nothing you can do to stop it and all pro linemen don't exactly grow on trees so it's not as simple as hey let's go draft the next Quint Nelson or whoever because guys like that again are very rare so what the Vikings are going to try to do more this year is have two receiver sets and run a lot of 22 personnel which is two backs and two tight ends in the field and have both CJ ham and free agent acquisition Josh Oliver be used in the Run game to try and help get the yards per carry up and Rome isn't going to be built in one day with this so there will probably be a lot of bad plays and plays that only get a yard or even just back to the line but Kevin O'Connell does not want to repeat last year in terms of how disproportionate the ratios were in passing and running the football and what's nice about 22 Personnel is there's still two receivers on the field which we anticipate to be Justin Jefferson and 2023 first round pick Jordan Addison and by having Jefferson the defense can't leave him one on one and load the Box even with the Vikings having too beefier guys out there in ham and Oliver so this will present a lot more favorable matchups for everyone and just because the Vikings will run a lot more 22 Personnel does not mean TJ Hawkinson won't catch passes I expect there to be a lot more play action this year and if the Vikings play their cards right offensively they can really keep teams off balance all game long because opposing defenses won't have an idea of what's coming at them if they load the box and try and stop Madison who I do believe is an underrated running back then oh hey we can throw the ball to the 2022 offensive player of the year or if they want to both load the box and double team Jefferson then we can give Jordan Addison a one-on-one and that's where Addison's strengths are as a player creating separation so for the Vikings offense this year JJ will of course get his and continue to be one of the best players in all of football but by having him on the field and also ultimately trying to beef up in the Run game this opens the offense up in a big way quite frankly I would be surprised if Justin has a back-to-back 1800 plus yard season because at the end of the day there are a ton of mouths to feed on this offense but I do think he will go over 1600 yards for the third consecutive season and with more 22 personnel which will only help the team down in the red zone and when the field gets really condensed defenses will certainly try to stop the Vikings from pounding it in inside the two or three yard line and despite the Vikings finishing as bad as they did last year in all Russian categories believe it or not they finished seventh in rushing touchdowns with 18 as a team last year and when the Vikings get down in the Red Zone this year I fully expect them to leave Justin Jefferson out wide and basically say to the other teams look we can run the ball in here with Alexander who is a big back or we can get a touchdown by throwing to Justin Jefferson and JJ's career high in receiving touchdowns is 10 which he achieved back in 2021 but I would be pretty surprised if he doesn't have 12 or 13 this year I think Justin will finish the year with something along the lines of a 115 catch 1600 yard 12 touchdown season in year four and for the Vikings offense there's no reason this team can't be a top 8 scoring unit for the second consecutive year one player that will have to step up this year but really two is both guards and Ezra Cleveland and Ed Ingram and especially Ed Ed allowed 58 pressures in 2022 along with 11 sacks which ranked first and third most in the entire NFL and what was frustrating at times for the 2022 Vikings was Ed would step on Kirk's foot before Kirk could get out from under Center and if you're competing for a championship the way the Vikings internally think they are you cannot have these types of mistakes and for Ed this wasn't a one-time oopsie mistake this happened a few times and I get he was a rookie in 2022 but no Super Bowl caliber team is doing this time and time again I know some people have their concerns with Alexander Madison and Jordan Addison stepping in and replacing Dalvin cook and Adam thielen but if they step into the role the way they should it should be a seamless transition and especially for Addison in 2022 Adam thielen had 716 yards which equates to just 42 yards per game along with zero 100 yard games and even zero 75 yard games for that matter so if Addison can't do this then the Vikings probably drafted a bust or a minimum a very disappointing player as for Alexander Madison replacing Dalvin Dalvin had the lowest yards per carry of his career and given his aging and has a lot of wear and tear on his body it should not be a surprise that Dalvin was declining in 2022 and from weeks 11 through 18 which equates to eight games Dalvin averaged less than 3.8 yards per carry had zero 100 yard games and had just two rushing touchdowns and for a full 17-game season that that would have put Dalvin on Pace forge's 948 yards rushing so for the people that think Dalvin is irreplaceable I certainly don't think that is the case and for the Vikings to succeed this year and to get back to the playoffs to try an avenge last year's playoff loss I don't say this for many teams but week one for them is a must win their first three games are home against the bucks then go to Philly on Thursday night in week two then play the Chargers at home in week three and I do think the Eagles will be a loss for Minnesota as I think the Eagles have a more talented roster and it will especially show in the trenches this is a game I have circled as a loss for the Vikings which makes week one that much more important and if somehow some way the Vikings win in villain week two I would be extremely surprised and that's putting it mildly week three against the Chargers is a toss-up but I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Vikings lose not trying to be a pessimist just more realistic about this Justin Herbert is one of the best quarterbacks in the entire league and the Chargers have a very complete roster and you cannot under any circumstance start out Owen 3 and expect to go anywhere so while yes the Bucks aren't expected to be very good this year you don't want to mess around and find out put this team away early in exit 1-0 and the Vikings have a very difficult schedule this year as they play the Chiefs 49ers Eagles and Bengals all throughout the year so when they play a team they should beat on paper they have to and their final four games of the year are no picnic heading into the postseason they play in Cincinnati home against the Lions home against the Packers then go back to Detroit for the season finale finishing the season with the Bengals and three straight division opponents is tough for anybody and it's especially tough when two of those final three games could determine whether you have a home playoff game or are going to be a wild card team and the Vikings defense in 2022 was painful to watch as they allowed 400 yards or more in 10 games last year which also includes the playoff loss to the Giants they also allowed 300 passing yards or more in eight games which included a 382-yard performance by Mac Jones and a 369 nice yard performance by Jets backup Mike White and a storyline that's going under the radar heading into the 2022 season is how much the defense changed from last year to this year both stylistically speaking and Personnel wise too it was imperative the Vikings bring back the Neo Hunter and they did as Daniel has a one-year 20 million dollar deal and when he has double digit sacks this year for the fifth time in his career assuming he stays healthy of course I think the Vikings will do everything they can to give him a long-term contract while Hunter had and I don't want to say only because that's dismissive as to what he did last year but while he had 10 and a half sacks in 2022 he had an impressive 70 pressures which was a tie for seventh in the NFL and the reason I like Daniel so much in 2023 specifically is you have to remember he was still getting back up to speed feed after not one but two season ending injuries in back to back years and I do expect the Neil's sack numbers to go up a little bit this year and to get back to the 14 sack player he was in 2018 and 2019. bringing Daniel back for this season was essential because if they didn't they wouldn't have a number one pass rusher and there's only so much you can do from a coverage standpoint without having the pass rush get home at least consistently that is but new defensive coordinator Brian Flores will be doing a lot to ensure the Vikings defense is not a laughing stock for the second consecutive year 2022 first round pick Lewis scene is looking good in Camp and I am eager to see a safety Duo of him and Harrison Smith and a quiet Edition the Vikings made this offseason was bringing in former Cardinals Corner Byron Murphy with Andrew booth and Lewis scene expected to take steps this year along with Murphy and of course the six-time pro bowler Harrison Smith I don't think the Vikings are as hopeless on defense as some people believe they also have second year linebacker Brian asimwa who I am very high on entering the year as they think he has potential to be a starter for the next several years depth with this defense is a concern and if they have a corner or two go down then it could get ugly like it did for them in 2022 and that also applies to any defense not just the Vikings after Daniel Hunter at past Usher it is a combination of guys and Marcus Davenport was a low risk High reward signing as he could have 9 or 10 sacks this year or he could have one or two and like with Jordan Addison on the offensive side of the ball the situations will be very favorable for Davenport because like we've said so many times with Addison and the same thing applies to Davenport is he will never be the main focus of the opposing offensive line that will be denil 99 of the time but the Vikings also have DJ wanum who is 26 years old and is entering a contract year and DJ like anyone else wants to perform from well in that contract year so we can make north of 10 million dollars next year if everything goes right for him that's obviously pie in the sky but it's not completely unrealistic either after the season the team will have a lot of money to pay between JJ TJ Hawkinson Christian darasol and Daniel Hunter and they will of course have a big decision on franchise quarterback Kirk Cousins the Vikings entered the 2023 offseason in a tough situation and between releasing High salaried veterans while remaining competitive I think they did a good job when you factor everything in nobody was going to trade for Adam thielen at 20 million per year or Dalvin cook at north of 10 million per year and nobody did now this team will probably regress in the win column as back-to-back 13-win Seasons he's hard as hell for anybody but you can convince yourself that if they get a few breaks here and there in the playoffs this time and not the regular season they can go a long way the Team MVP breakout players ceiling and floor are on the screen and I hope you enjoyed and if you did please like the video and subscribe it's only about 28 of people watching are subscribed and it makes a big difference until next time please be safe and have a great day love you guys

Channel: Football Analysis

Views: 48,866

Keywords: football analysis, Brett kollmann, alex rollins nfl, thinking football, j&d productions, thatsgoodsports, mikerophone, urinatingtree, fivepoints vids, Barry mccockiner, the football scout, tom grossi, pat mcafee show, shorts, NFL draft, American football, tubfrog, rich eisen show, Samuel gold, that franchise guy, vikings, Minnesota vikings, Minnesota, packers, Green Bay packers, Wisconsin, lions, Detroit lions, Michigan, bears, Chicago bears, Justin Jefferson, Kirk cousins, Illinois

Id: 5zDVEzK5lcY

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023