NFL Analysis
10/16/24
7 min read
Unbeaten Vikings Capitalizing on Free Agent Haul Heading Into Lions Showdown
Entering their showdown this Sunday with the Detroit Lions for first place in the NFC North, the unbeaten Minnesota Vikings are the NFL’s most surprising team through the opening six weeks of the 2024 season.
Even more remarkable is that eight starters are new to the team as 2024 free agent acquisitions and are playing at a very high level.
That’s a credit to the Vikings’ player personnel department headed by GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the coaching staff led by head coach Kevin O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who both played a significant role in helping to identify these free agents as great fits and coaching them up so quickly on the team’s offensive and defensive schemes.
As a former NFL general manager and team president, I wanted my primary roster-building to be through less costly draft choices and using the more expensive free agency route to fill in the gaps and augment what we did via the draft. I hoped my unrestricted free agent signees would make the roster and contribute to a playoff team, but I was happy if I got a couple of starters out of a free agent class.
Minnesota's Impressive Offseason
What’s happening in Minnesota this season is extremely rare. Yes, the Vikings have likely future Hall of Famers in WR Justin Jefferson and safety Harrison Smith leading the way as former first-rounders on offense and defense, respectively.
The team also drafted bookend offensive tackles Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill high in recent years as stars on a fine offensive line, and top sacker Pat Jones (five sacks) was a 2021 third-round pick.
Beyond that, for the most part, the free agent additions signed by Adofo-Mensah have made the difference for a Vikings team projected by most analysts to finish last in what has become the NFL’s best division. All four teams have at least four wins through the first six weeks, a first since the NFL went to eight divisions in 2002.
The vultures were especially circling after last year’s starting QB Kirk Cousins and top pass rusher Danielle Hunter departed in free agency.
Bolstering The Offense
On offense, QB Sam Darnold and RB Aaron Jones are key new free-agent additions. Darnold was considered a first-round bust and merely a one-year, $10-million bridge for a few games until 2024 first-rounder J.J. McCarthy was ready to start. That narrative changed when McCarthy suffered a meniscus tear in the first preseason game, which required surgery and put him out for the year.
Darnold was 21-35 as a starter with the Jets, Panthers, and 49ers and threw 52 interceptions in his first four seasons. He now ranks seventh in passer rating at 103.4 (which would be a career-high for a full season by more than 11 points). His 11 touchdown passes rank third on a per-game basis.
Much credit for his emergence goes to O’Connell, a former NFL quarterback who keenly understands the difficulties of playing the game’s most crucial position. O’Connell runs the offense and has coached Darnold, who always had the talent but committed too many turnovers in the past because he was less cautious and usually played with weak supporting casts and lesser coaching.
Darnold is benefiting from excellent support in Minnesota—from the coaches and players led by the three-time Pro Bowler Jefferson (26 catches, 450 yards, four touchdowns) and Jones (350 rushing yards, 4.9 yards per carry), who the Green Bay Packers released after he refused to accept a pay cut for a second straight season.
Darnold has a solid offensive line and other top skill position players, including 2023 first-round WR Jordan Addison. To further boost the offense, he should have Pro Bowl TE T.J. Hockenson back this week or for the following Thursday night game at the Los Angeles Rams.
Flores' Defensive Resurgence
Then, there’s defensive coordinator-of-the-year Brian Flores’ frenetic blitz-happy defense that boasts six 2024 free-agent starters.
At least three of these newbies on defense are having Pro Bowl-caliber seasons. After Hunter signed with Houston for $25 million per year, edge Jonathan Greenard essentially changed places with Hunter (for $19 million per year, and he’s three years younger).
Greenard has four sacks, and his 29 pressures rank second per game to the now-injured Aidan Hutchinson of the Lions.
Blake Cashman also left Houston to return to his hometown on a three-year, $7.5 million per year deal. He’s having a massive impact as an every-down linebacker who relays Flores’ play calls. Cashman has a team-leading 40 tackles, five passes defensed, one sack, and four quarterback hits.
Flores was the Miami Dolphins head coach when edge/OLB Andrew Van Ginkel was drafted in the fifth round in 2019. Flores knows well how to best utilize Van Ginkel as the Vikings’ "Swiss Army knife" defender who moves all over the field and has Pick-6s against both New York QBs — Daniel Jones and Aaron Rodgers — as critical plays in those victories.
For the season, Van Ginkel also has three sacks, five quarterback hits, 19 tackles, three tackles for loss, and three passes defensed.
Add to the defensive equation a massive upgrade at cornerback with five-time Pro Bowler Stephon Gilmore and long-time starter Shaq Griffin, who each have one pick for a Vikings team that leads the league with 11 interceptions.
Defensive lineman Jerry Tillery is a former Chargers first-round pick who has helped the second-ranked Minnesota run defense and provided interior push to the pass rush.
Part of the reason the Vikings hit free agency so hard this year is that a few of their recent high draft picks did not pan out, most notably in 2022 with first-round safety Lewis Cine and second-round corner Andrew Booth, who are no longer with the Vikings.
This year’s first-round pick, Dallas Turner, is contributing as a rotational edge player, and there are high hopes for the 21-year-old McCarthy’s future.
A Pivitol Week 7 Showdown
It doesn’t matter in the final analysis how a winning team is put together. The bottom line is the Vikings already have beaten three 2023 playoff teams — the 49ers, Texans and Packers.
They had 11 sacks (of their 20 on the season, which ranks second per game) and six interceptions against the excellent young quarterbacks for those three teams — Brock Purdy, C.J. Stroud, and Jordan Love. They also picked off Rodgers three times in the Week 5 win against the Jets in London.
The NFC’s top seed through seven weeks is on the line when the Lions take on the Vikings and Minnesota’s boisterous crowd on Sunday.
It will be Flores' defense's biggest test so far against the defending NFC North champion Lions, their No. 1 scoring team, and the third-ranked offense, which is effective running and passing.
Detroit just torched the Cowboys’ defense for 184 rushing yards, and Jared Goff passed for 315 yards and three touchdown passes in its 47-9 road beatdown.
O’Connell, Darnold, and Company will try to take advantage of the Lions’ defense, which just shut down Dak Prescott and the Dallas offense but is now missing their best player in Hutchinson.
If the networks and league office had a crystal ball to predict that the Vikings, with their extraordinary free agent haul, would be 5-0 at this stage, it likely would've been a can't-miss prime-time game instead of a noon CT start.
