The Minnesota Vikings Just Changed EVERYTHING.. | NFL News (Stephon Gilmore, Sam Darnold)

uh that means he is out for the season that according to Vikings head coach Kevin oconnell that means JJ McCarthy's NFL debut will have to wait until 2025 and the Vikings will be going with Sam darnold as their starting quarterback for the foreseeable future people should understand that like even if JJ McCarthy were fully healthy there's a strong likelihood that Sam darnold would have been the Vikings starting quarterback in week one and possibly uh for several weeks this season so they'll go with him for longer than I think they might have planned but they are very happy with the way he has looked and the way he has performed in Training Camps so far you know you guys I'm just going to go ahead and jump straight into the Minnesota Vikings at this point because this team man as we all know now put together a great off season this year and with everything we got to see in the preseason it really has made me a lot more confident in what this team is going to be able to accomplish this year they filled in a lot of weaknesses and we saw those things pop out in their preseason games even though we didn't get a big sample size of it so I can't wait to see how much they're actually going to end up helping because if they help as much think they're going to this team actually will be pretty scary but before get into why I exactly believe that if you like Vikings content just like this make sure to go down and hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any Vikings videos as we get closer and closer to the regular season okay so to get right back on topic with the Minnesota Vikings this team of course came into this off season with a lot of things they needed to do and a lot of decisions they needed to make and the first biggest decision they made was moving on from Kurt Cousins and that left Sam darnold and JJ McCarthy as the two quarterback options heading into this season now as we know now JJ McCarthy is no longer an option due to him going down with an injury which does suck but I think Sam darnold was going to be the starter anyway and I think Sam darnold has a great shot to prove a lot of people wrong with how good he ends up playing darnold is a guy that's been in a terrible situation for the entirety of his career until now and when he has gotten to play in decent situations he's actually played really good so I think that might be what we see on the Vikings especially with Kevin okono calling the plays Kevin okono always does a great job at putting his quarterbacks in a great position to succeed and I know for a fact he's going to make Sam darnold's life easy and he's going to utilize what Sam darnold does best and if he does that I have no doubt that Sam Darnell will be at minimum a really good game manager now at his Peak he could be a lot more than that because of how strong of an arm he has but at the minimum he's going to be a good game manager and I'll take that all day long with all the talent that the Vikings have when talking about this Talent on offense it all starts of course with that guy Justin Jefferson and he is going to be healthy heading into this season which means the offense is automatically going to be pretty good when Justin Jefferson is on the field the Vikings offense thrives and when he's not on the field they struggle a little bit so having this guy on the field is obviously a huge huge deal and I expect him to put up ridiculous numbers once again just like he does every single year doesn't matter who the quarterback is or what defense the Vikings are playing against this guy makes plays week in and week out and he is going to have to be the defense's number one concern which is going to leave all of these other talented players open as well the first guy that comes to mind is of course that guy Jordan Addison who had an outstanding rookie season and I only expect him to get better with the more snaps he plays especially since TJ Hawkinson isn't going to be there for the Vikings for the start of the season this leaves Jordan Anderson as the true number two option on this team and while some people might be scared of that I'm actually excited for it because we're going to see this guy get thrown in the fire and we're going to see him get a lot of targets and I think he's going to thrive in that type of situation we saw him Thrive whenever Justin Jefferson went down with an injury last year so I think he'll be just fine especially since it's his second year in the system now and that makes up arguably one of the best receiver Duos in football it's going to be really tough to guard both of them and then when you add to that you have some other solid guys to throw the ball to too like Brandon Powell and jayen Naylor you have some good options down the depth chart that Kevin okono and Sam Don can use to their advantage so as far as passing the ball goes I think the Vikings are going to be pretty successful in doing that especially when TJ hackinson comes back but even though the passing game is going to be good I don't think that's going to be what the Vikings rely on simply due to this running game probably being extremely effective the Vikings this off season as we all know signed that guy Aaron Jones taking him from a division rival and uh if you're a Vikings fan you know pretty well how good this guy is he is easily one of the best running backs in the league whenever he's healthy not only as a true running back between the tackles or outside the tackles but also as a receiving threat and that's not only going to give the Vikings another guy to throw the ball to but it's immediately going to make this run game really really good because of how efficient Aaron Jones is on the ground he's going to find a way to average over four yards per carry and if you're averaging over four yards per carry you're going to have a really good rushing attack and that's exactly what the Vikings are going to get now to go along with Aaron Jones you also have that guy Ty Chandler who I think is a great running back too to go along with Aaron Jones because of how explosive he is he's shown us time and time again he can make plays when he gets the opportunity and even though he only got seven carries this preseason he's still averaged 4.7 yards a carry which is what you expect from him especially if he's only getting a limited amount of snaps so the running back Duo is really really good and I expect Kevin ok conell to use them in a pretty creative way to make this run game something special and then when you add to that the offensive line is going to be pretty solid as well in my opinion I just don't see a world where this offense doesn't put up great numbers and I honestly think if they live up to the expectations that I have for them that they'll be a top 10 offense in the League this year which is obviously going to make them a pretty hard team to beat but as we all know even if they have a great offense and they have a top 10 offense and they're putting up great numbers they still need a defense to go along with that or they're still not going to be able to win football games and while some people might disagree I actually think the Vikings defense is going to be pretty solid just like the offense the Vikings made a ton of moves this offseason to make this defense better and just recently they made one of the bigger moves of this entire off season by going out and signing the veteran Stephon Gilmore to add to this secondary Stefon Gilmore I know is getting up there in age but at the same time when you watched him play last year for the Cowboys he actually played really really good and he was their quarterback one last year which shows you that he still has a lot left in the tank the only downside of him is he is a little bit slower than he used to be in his prime but as far as everything else goes he's still right there with the best of them he can play press man coverage because of how good his technique is and he also can play zone coverage because of how smart he is you just got to put him in a good position to succeed you can't put him in a bad situation where he's guarding a really fast receiver because that's the only place you're going to see him get beat we saw him lock down a lot of great receivers last year on the Cowboys even guys like AJ Brown so I wouldn't be surprised at all if he ends up being the quarterback one on this team and he ends up being a huge reason why this defense has success now to go along with Stefon Gilmore in the secondary you're still going to have that guy Byron Murphy Jr who I like a lot you of course have Shaquille Griffin who you also added this off season who I think is going to help out you still have a Caleb Evans and you have Makai Blackman who I don't think played bad last year as a rookie at all so I think your corner room as a whole is pretty deep and it's pretty talented and I trust that Brian Flores is going to use all of these guys to their best ability and use them in a super creative way to cause a lot of trouble for offenses now when you look at the safety room in this secondary they're also really good as well because you have Cameron bayam back there who's one of the better young safeties in football and you still have that guy Harrison Smith who's also getting a little bit older but he's still played at a pretty high level last year and I don't expect him to fall off too much so even though the secondary is the biggest worry coming into this season I actually don't think they're going to be that bad and when you pair with that that they're going to have an elite front seven in my opinion it should make their life even easier when it comes to the front seven the first thing you notice is the defensive line because they are absolutely stacked here starting with their first round pick Dallas Turner who's had a great preseason and then moving on to the guy you got in Jonathan grard and the other guy you got in Andrew van GLE who is also going to contribute in a big way so pretty simply said you should be able to rush the quarterback and you should be able to get after him at a pretty consistent rate especially when Brian Flores mixes in Sim pressures and stuff and then when you move back to the linebacker room you're also pretty talented here because you added Blake Cashman who is one of the more underrated linebackers in the entire NFL right now and you still have Ivan Pace Jr who obviously has already proven himself to be a really good player as well so those two guys are going to make up a great linebacker Duo to pair with what you have on the defensive line and that like I said makes up a great front seven that should be able to not only slow down the Run but also get after the passer and that should make everything else on the defense follow behind them and it should make the secondary's life not too hard if that happens the way I think it's going to this defense has a chance to be pretty good as well to go along with this offense and if that's the case I just don't see a world where this team doesn't find themselves in the playoffs even if that might sound a little crazy to some people