Vikings Offseason 2026

[Danchat]

On 2/26/2026 at 10:51 PM, TheLeviathan said:

I officially have no idea what they're doing.

The beatwriters have linked the Vikings to every single QB that's available which is absurd, it's not as if they're going to sign 3 of them. What is clear to me is that they want nothing to do with starting JJM in any 2026 games, as for the particular QB who will be the Week 1 starter...

I think it's going to be one of the QBs that get cut and we pick them up for the vet minimum (with offsetting language making it nearly free). Kyler Murray or Geno Smith make the most sense to me, I think Mac Jones is out of the running due to his price. Kirk maybe, Rodgers is going back to Pittsburgh, Colts aren't letting Jones leave. The reports from the Saints are that no team has called them about Carr, so I don't think we are going after him.

They just don't have the money to do something like outbid the Colts for Jones, they also need money to spend on other positions. It makes sense to take advantage of the discount QBs thanks to the ridiculous deals they previously signed and spend what (relative to the rest of the league) little money we have on other positions of need.

[TheLeviathan]

10 hours ago, Danchat said:

The beatwriters have linked the Vikings to every single QB that's available which is absurd, it's not as if they're going to sign 3 of them. What is clear to me is that they want nothing to do with starting JJM in any 2026 games, as for the particular QB who will be the Week 1 starter...

I think it's going to be one of the QBs that get cut and we pick them up for the vet minimum (with offsetting language making it nearly free). Kyler Murray or Geno Smith make the most sense to me, I think Mac Jones is out of the running due to his price. Kirk maybe, Rodgers is going back to Pittsburgh, Colts aren't letting Jones leave. The reports from the Saints are that no team has called them about Carr, so I don't think we are going after him.

They just don't have the money to do something like outbid the Colts for Jones, they also need money to spend on other positions. It makes sense to take advantage of the discount QBs thanks to the ridiculous deals they previously signed and spend what (relative to the rest of the league) little money we have on other positions of need.

It does feel like Murray is inevitable and I hate that so much.  

Some day we're going to get a breakdown of where the KOC/JJ marriage broke down and led to this bitter divorce.  It's the most passive aggressive I've ever seen any front office.

[nicksaviking]

I actually don't hate a cheap Murray move, only because it would presumably be a short-term bridge situation.

I'd really like to have the option of this team having a mobile QB, and this would be a good test case to see if KOC can and is willing to let a guy improvise. I mean all of the other options are awful anyway. Presuming there's no Allen/Burrow/Jackson scenario, there's nobody they're going to get that we're going to be happy with. 

[Danchat]

40 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

It does feel like Murray is inevitable and I hate that so much.  

Some day we're going to get a breakdown of where the KOC/JJ marriage broke down and led to this bitter divorce.  It's the most passive aggressive I've ever seen any front office.

I don't like Murray all that much either (Jacoby Brissett had the Cardinals' passing game running better!), but there is upside to tap into unlike most other options.

I think KOC was really taken aback with how much JJM struggled and had no answers until he simplified the offense, which took way too long. He just assumed he could smooth out JJM's rough spots and get him to play at a Darnold-like level by the end of the season. He's never coached up a young QB before, not with any prior coaching stops or here... looks like he needs a veteran to run his system. Speaking of which...

3 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I'd really like to have the option of this team having a mobile QB, and this would be a good test case to see if KOC can and is willing to let a guy improvise. I mean all of the other options are awful anyway. Presuming there's no Allen/Burrow/Jackson scenario, there's nobody they're going to get that we're going to be happy with. 

Given how many QBs are likely to be in the 2027 class, I think we take another shot then. Just depends where we are picking... but I have almost zero faith in KOC to choose the right guy and coach him up.

[nicksaviking]

26 minutes ago, Danchat said:

I don't like Murray all that much either (Jacoby Brissett had the Cardinals' passing game running better!), but there is upside to tap into unlike most other options.

I think KOC was really taken aback with how much JJM struggled and had no answers until he simplified the offense, which took way too long. He just assumed he could smooth out JJM's rough spots and get him to play at a Darnold-like level by the end of the season. He's never coached up a young QB before, not with any prior coaching stops or here... looks like he needs a veteran to run his system. Speaking of which...

Given how many QBs are likely to be in the 2027 class, I think we take another shot then. Just depends where we are picking... but I have almost zero faith in KOC to choose the right guy and coach him up.

If given the opportunity, I'd have the Vikings trade their 2026 1st for a 1st next year. 

[Vanimal46]

 

[Vanimal46]

Adam Schefter reporting that the Vikings are open to trading Jonathan Greenard. He should have multiple teams interested in him, so maybe we can squeeze out a 2027 1st for him? Any picks in return for him I'd prefer to be in the 2027 draft.

[Mike Sixel]

35 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Adam Schefter reporting that the Vikings are open to trading Jonathan Greenard. He should have multiple teams interested in him, so maybe we can squeeze out a 2027 1st for him? Any picks in return for him I'd prefer to be in the 2027 draft.

A 27 first is my hope! And I think it is realistic (esp if the Vikes throw in a 4th or 5th in 27). Either JJ works out at QB, or they take one in 27.....

[TheLeviathan]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

Adam Schefter reporting that the Vikings are open to trading Jonathan Greenard. He should have multiple teams interested in him, so maybe we can squeeze out a 2027 1st for him? Any picks in return for him I'd prefer to be in the 2027 draft.

I much prefer that.  Problem is that he wasn't dominant last year and the stats weren't great.  I think those of us who watched him saw the force he still is,but I can't help feeling like this is selling low.

[TheLeviathan]

3 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

 

He's not wrong.....but there's a reason why Jacoby took over last year and the Cardinals offense suddenly started producing.  Wilson, Harrison (when he was healthy), and McBride all surged in production along with the offense as soon as he was gone.

I get the luster he has.  I might be proven terribly wrong here.....but Murray ain't Darnold.

[nicksaviking]

31 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

He's not wrong.....but there's a reason why Jacoby took over last year and the Cardinals offense suddenly started producing.  Wilson, Harrison (when he was healthy), and McBride all surged in production along with the offense as soon as he was gone.

I get the luster he has.  I might be proven terribly wrong here.....but Murray ain't Darnold.

They sat him so he didn't get injured for 2026 and lock in his contract.

I like Brissett, but as a backup. The Cardinals went 1-11 when he started and those players only surged because they were garbage offensively in the 1st half and then were slinging garbage time passes for the last quarter and a half. As someone who had a vested interest in Trey McBride, he was sitting at about four fantasy points going into the fourth quarter just about every week, then scored a dozen in the last ten minutes.

And I don't think there's much luster with Murray. The other options are luster-less too though.

[Vanimal46]

HUGE loss for the Bears. Wow

[nicksaviking]

Good for him. Leave while your still healthy and wealthy.

And screw the Bears.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

He's not wrong.....but there's a reason why Jacoby took over last year and the Cardinals offense suddenly started producing.  Wilson, Harrison (when he was healthy), and McBride all surged in production along with the offense as soon as he was gone.

I get the luster he has.  I might be proven terribly wrong here.....but Murray ain't Darnold.

Really, the one thing about Murray that I like, is that he'll 100% for sure start the season as QB1. 

I know others have suggested that they'd rather see JJ start than go with the Mariota, Brissett, Garoppolo, Flacco, Wentz kind of guys. And I agree, JJ would have a decent shot to keep his job. And I don't want him to.  

From my view, the absolute worst outcome is if JJ is better than last year, but not elite. And it seems to me those are like  95% odds. ANY improvement is going to be met with optimism after what we saw last year. But if he's looking like CJ Stroud, Bryce Young or even Jordan Love, there's a significant chance the Vikings ride with him longer, and that level of QB play isn't anywhere near satisfactory enough. 

Don't give him a chance to be just average enough to put you in QB purgatory.

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

They sat him so he didn't get injured for 2026 and lock in his contract.

I like Brissett, but as a backup. The Cardinals went 1-11 when he started and those players only surged because they were garbage offensively in the 1st half and then were slinging garbage time passes for the last quarter and a half. As someone who had a vested interest in Trey McBride, he was sitting at about four fantasy points going into the fourth quarter just about every week, then scored a dozen in the last ten minutes.

And I don't think there's much luster with Murray. The other options are luster-less too though.

Wins and losses are not a good metric for QB judgment IMO.  Yest, the Cardinals lost a lot of games but they had one of the most injury plagued rosters in all of the NFL.

You can't look at these game logs and tell me it was his fault they were losing.

And if McBride is your concern, he averaged 6 catches, 70 yards, and .2 TDs per game with Murray and 8 catches, 80 yards, and .8 TDs per game with Brissett.

My point is not to put Jacoby on a pedestal, but to point out just how much better everything in the Cardinal offense got as soon as Murray was gone.  Again, living out here and seeing a lot of their games, that wasn't by accident.  He has a tendency to not use the full scope of his weapons, he can't challenge defense deep, and he run himself into stupid plays.  

[Vanimal46]

4 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Wins and losses are not a good metric for QB judgment IMO.  Yest, the Cardinals lost a lot of games but they had one of the most injury plagued rosters in all of the NFL.

You can't look at these game logs and tell me it was his fault they were losing.

And if McBride is your concern, he averaged 6 catches, 70 yards, and .2 TDs per game with Murray and 8 catches, 80 yards, and .8 TDs per game with Brissett.

My point is not to put Jacoby on a pedestal, but to point out just how much better everything in the Cardinal offense got as soon as Murray was gone.  Again, living out here and seeing a lot of their games, that wasn't by accident.  He has a tendency to not use the full scope of his weapons, he can't challenge defense deep, and he run himself into stupid plays.  

Murray certainly has flaws, otherwise he wouldn't be cut outright. He's a clear upgrade at QB over McCarthy, and for likely the veteran league minimum price. I also put the Cardinals just slightly ahead of the Jets as far as competent organizations go, so I'm not reading too much into Murray's history with the team.

[TheLeviathan]

17 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Murray certainly has flaws, otherwise he wouldn't be cut outright. He's a clear upgrade at QB over McCarthy, and for likely the veteran league minimum price. I also put the Cardinals just slightly ahead of the Jets as far as competent organizations go, so I'm not reading too much into Murray's history with the team.

This is our QB trauma speaking.  I get where you're coming from, but this the trap we always talk ourselves into:

Empty wins.

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Really, the one thing about Murray that I like, is that he'll 100% for sure start the season as QB1. 

I know others have suggested that they'd rather see JJ start than go with the Mariota, Brissett, Garoppolo, Flacco, Wentz kind of guys. And I agree, JJ would have a decent shot to keep his job. And I don't want him to.  

From my view, the absolute worst outcome is if JJ is better than last year, but not elite. And it seems to me those are like  95% odds. ANY improvement is going to be met with optimism after what we saw last year. But if he's looking like CJ Stroud, Bryce Young or even Jordan Love, there's a significant chance the Vikings ride with him longer, and that level of QB play isn't anywhere near satisfactory enough. 

Don't give him a chance to be just average enough to put you in QB purgatory.

Going with Murray would be a disaster.

[Vanimal46]

39 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

This is our QB trauma speaking.  I get where you're coming from, but this the trap we always talk ourselves into:

Empty wins.

Wins is what KOC needs to keep his job. If Murray signs here to be QB 1 he has no more excuses. He’s gotta win a playoff game or else this org is on pace for a major rebuild. New GM, new HC, likely trading away Jefferson, etc. 

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

Wins and losses are not a good metric for QB judgment IMO.  Yest, the Cardinals lost a lot of games but they had one of the most injury plagued rosters in all of the NFL.

You can't look at these game logs and tell me it was his fault they were losing.

And if McBride is your concern, he averaged 6 catches, 70 yards, and .2 TDs per game with Murray and 8 catches, 80 yards, and .8 TDs per game with Brissett.

My point is not to put Jacoby on a pedestal, but to point out just how much better everything in the Cardinal offense got as soon as Murray was gone.  Again, living out here and seeing a lot of their games, that wasn't by accident.  He has a tendency to not use the full scope of his weapons, he can't challenge defense deep, and he run himself into stupid plays.  

But again, they were only better offensively in the second half, largely when the other team was more concerned with running the clock than they were preventing competitions.

And as a mostly career backup, the temptation to go back to McCarthy would be immense.

[nicksaviking]

45 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Going with Murray would be a disaster.

On a one year, league minimum deal, how? Giving McCarthy a chance to be just-good-enough could set you up for long term disaster.

[TheLeviathan]

9 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Wins is what KOC needs to keep his job. If Murray signs here to be QB 1 he has no more excuses. He’s gotta win a playoff game or else this org is on pace for a major rebuild. New GM, new HC, likely trading away Jefferson, etc. 

That's part of my problem I guess.  We're chasing KOC's job security rather than making him prove that he can deliver on the bet he had us place.

I'm just all done with the 9 win purgatory.

[TheLeviathan]

3 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

But again, they were only better offensively in the second half, largely when the other team was more concerned with running the clock than they were preventing competitions.

And as a mostly career backup, the temptation to go back to McCarthy would be immense.

His TDs did spike in the second half but it's not like the rest of his stats indicate there was some dramatic shift.  They just punched it in more often.

And again, piloting one of the most banged up teams in the NFL last year.  Murray had a largely healthy roster and was decidedly "meh"...as he has been for a long time.  A terrible down field thrower, prone to injury, and frustratingly limited.

[Vanimal46]

3 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

His TDs did spike in the second half but it's not like the rest of his stats indicate there was some dramatic shift.  They just punched it in more often.

And again, piloting one of the most banged up teams in the NFL last year.  Murray had a largely healthy roster and was decidedly "meh"...as he has been for a long time.  A terrible down field thrower, prone to injury, and frustratingly limited.

I’m not saying Murray is absolved of all blame, but who was their OC calling plays? Was he limited by a bland play caller?

I know they had a heck of a time trying to get Marvin Harrison Jr going this year… Beyond that I pay so little attention to Cardinals football.

[nicksaviking]

2 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

His TDs did spike in the second half but it's not like the rest of his stats indicate there was some dramatic shift.  They just punched it in more often.

And again, piloting one of the most banged up teams in the NFL last year.  Murray had a largely healthy roster and was decidedly "meh"...as he has been for a long time.  A terrible down field thrower, prone to injury, and frustratingly limited.

You just said you didn’t want to chase 9 win seasons but you’re advocating for a very good backup QB. Thats about as middle of the road as you get. The boom or bust Murray either hits his potential (probably not) or makes it clear it’s time to hit reset. 
 

If the Vikings trade JJ this year, then I don’t care who the QB is because we know change is coming in 2027. But if he’s still here, the top priority needs to be to force them to go all in to address the position in 2027. Good chance they won’t be ‘forced’ to do that if JJ gets to play and plays like Bryce Young.

Use Murray like other teams have used Russell Wilson. Too big of a name to let your crappy alternative option play, then as expected it doesn’t work out, the pressure to draft a QB or sign or trade for a big name QB will be unavoidable.

[nicksaviking]

6 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

I’m not saying Murray is absolved of all blame, but who was their OC calling plays? Was he limited by a bland play caller?

I know they had a heck of a time trying to get Marvin Harrison Jr going this year… Beyond that I pay so little attention to Cardinals football.

Ha, you’ll be happy to hear their OC was Drew Petzig, who now is the Lions new OC. Good luck!

[Vanimal46]

3 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Ha, you’ll be happy to hear their OC was Drew Petzig, who now is the Lions new OC. Good luck!

So I can bet on the under for Lions wins this season? The world is healing… The NFC North makes sense when the Lions are bottom feeders. 

[TheLeviathan]

53 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

You just said you didn’t want to chase 9 win seasons but you’re advocating for a very good backup QB. Thats about as middle of the road as you get. The boom or bust Murray either hits his potential (probably not) or makes it clear it’s time to hit reset. 
 

If the Vikings trade JJ this year, then I don’t care who the QB is because we know change is coming in 2027. But if he’s still here, the top priority needs to be to force them to go all in to address the position in 2027. Good chance they won’t be ‘forced’ to do that if JJ gets to play and plays like Bryce Young.

Use Murray like other teams have used Russell Wilson. Too big of a name to let your crappy alternative option play, then as expected it doesn’t work out, the pressure to draft a QB or sign or trade for a big name QB will be unavoidable.

To be clear, I'm not listing Jacoby's stats to advocate acquiring him.  I'm using them to show how a semi competent career backup outshined Kyler Murray.

 

It isnt pro-Brisset.  It's anti-Kyler.

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

That's part of my problem I guess.  We're chasing KOC's job security rather than making him prove that he can deliver on the bet he had us place.

I'm just all done with the 9 win purgatory.

This. It's a disaster if we're chasing empty wins. 

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

I’m not saying Murray is absolved of all blame, but who was their OC calling plays? Was he limited by a bland play caller?

I know they had a heck of a time trying to get Marvin Harrison Jr going this year… Beyond that I pay so little attention to Cardinals football.

Same playcaller pretty much.  Here's what I know....when Murray got benched...suddenly Wilson was hitting big plays downfield.  And Jacoby did all that with Harrison largely hurt and with the team running out their 4th string running back.

I'm just saying...down here....the analysts were all rejoicing that Kyler got hurt.