A 4-yard touchdown run by Jahmyr Gibbs was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Gibbs’ score put the Lions up 31-9 over the Vikings in what was the biggest game of the regular season. The winner would get the top seed in the NFC. The loser would have to go play on the road next week. With only 5:14 left in the game, Gibbs’ touchdown all but ended this game, and offered some foreshadowing for how the Vikings’ season would end.
It wasn’t just that he scored. It was how he scored. Gibbs was first hit by the defense at the 4-yard line, but kept his legs churning. The Lions’ offensive line kept pushing. Gibbs was carried in, putting the final nail in the coffin.
Simply put, the Vikings were outmuscled. They were punched in the mouth by a stronger, tougher Lions team. The following week, they were punched again, tougher Rams team.
It’s a lesson they’ve taken to heart. Nearly every single move the Vikings have made this offseason has been to make themselves a stronger, tougher, more physical team.
What’s changed
In free agency, Minnesota dished out a combined $103.5 million in guaranteed money on the interior of both lines. They signed center Ryan Kelley, guard Will Fries, and defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave.
In the draft, they spent their lone top-100 pick on guard Donovan Jackson.
They also acquired running back Jordan Mason in a trade with the 49ers, adding much-needed depth and power to the backfield.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell has emphasized this offseason that the 2025 Vikings are going to be very different from his previous teams.
“I think the things we’ve done in free agency, from a standpoint of the interior offensive and defensive lines, couple that with Aaron Jones being back and then acquiring a player like Jordan Mason, I think a physicality that I want to play with,” O’Connell said in an interview with ESPN’s Kevin Clark in late March. “We’ve thrown the ball at a pretty world-class effective clip for three years with Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold last year. I want to run the football, I want to get back to the truest nature of where the foundation of this offense was, which is running the football, marrying the run and the pass, generating explosives that way, and trying to be an effective early-down offense that can sustain for 17-plus weeks.”
Lesson learned?
O’Connell is right. The rushing attack was a big issue for the Vikings last season, especially down the stretch. In their final seven games of the 2024 season, the Vikings averaged only 96.1 rushing yards per game (which would’ve ranked 27th in the NFL) and mustered -0.054 EPA per rush (17th in the NFL).
In that same seven-game stretch, they also allowed 26 sacks, nearly 4 per game. While some of that can certainly be blamed on Sam Darnold holding on to the ball for too long, it’s also fair to say the offensive line certainly did no favors.
While JJ McCarthy taking over at quarterback gets the majority of the attention, perhaps the biggest thing that will make or break the 2025 Vikings is how this new-look offensive line will perform, with potentially three new starters, all on the interior.
An offensive line of Christian Darrisaw, Donovan Jackson, Ryan Kelly, Will Fries, and Brian O’Neil looks very good on paper, with the goal of making life as easy as possible for McCarthy in his first year as a starter. If this unit stays healthy, it could be the best Vikings offensive line in a long time.
The Vikings’ lack of physicality hurt them defensively, too. In their 4 losses last season, Minnesota allowed a combined 519 rushing yards, nearly 130 per game. Plays like Gibbs’ 4-yard touchdown in Week 18 were a fairly common occurrence.
While Allen and Hargrave may not quite be the players they once were, they still offer some extra beef in the interior of what is otherwise a very strong-looking defense. The two are explosive, pass-rushing defensive tackles who, at the very least, should be fun toys for Brian Flores to play with on 3rd down.
Going forward
The end of the 2024 season was a wake-up call for the Vikings. This is a team coming off a 14-win season, but just couldn’t seem to break into the top tier of the NFL. I believe that a lack of physicality, especially in the trenches, is why. Based on how they’ve approached the offseason, the Vikings do too. They’ve learned their lesson. Time will tell if they did enough.
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