We’re just about ready to start the 2026 season. Well, as Minnesota Vikings fans, anyhow. If you’re a New England Patriots or Seattle Seahawks fan….what are you doing here in the first place?
Kidding aside, there are plenty of questions for a Vikings team that hasn’t won a playoff game since Jan. 5, 2020. That’s right — before COVID.
So we asked the experts from Daily Norseman in our latest edition of the roundtable:
Who surprised you most by making the team?
Brandon Warne: I’m going with Brett Thorson. Not because I think he didn’t deserve
it, but because I thought with how the team is currently constructed, they’d go with the veteran at punter, too. I also thought that if they really regarded Thorson that highly, he probably could have been stashed on the practice squad. I was wrong. They regarded him even more highly.
Christopher Gates: As for who I’m most surprised made the team, I think I’d have to go with Zemaiah Vaughn. For those saying “Who,” that shows how few spots were really up for grabs on this roster going into this season. Vaughn currently sits as CB5 on the roster, and I wasn’t sure if he was as good this preseason as Da’Veawn Armstead was, but the Vikings decided that Vaughn was the guy to take that spot. I suppose when you get that far down the depth chart, it’s sort of interchangeable, but that was a bit of a mild upset in my opinion.
Warren Ludford: Ben Yurosek. I would think with Josh Oliver and Max Bredeson, they wouldn’t need a third blocking TE/H-back on the roster.
Dave Stefano: Jacob Thomas. UDFA out of James Madison, and Flores was giving him flowers in pressers while he was lining up veterans like Jay Ward. That’s not supposed to happen. Brett Thorson beating Hekker is a close second — cost and leg win, but cutting a proven holder/punter that late still feels like a Teasley/O’Connell “we actually mean the youth movement” statement. Four TEs and Max Bredeson also landed heavier than I projected heading into Sunday.
Shawn C: Brett Thorson. While there were a few unexpected moves, the only thing that truly surprised me was Thorson beating out Johnny Hekker. There’s a lot on the line this season, and I assumed the proven vet – especially one with Hekker’s resume – would be a foregone conclusion. It’s a huge responsibility for an undrafted rookie, serving as punter and holder for Will Reichard.
Who surprised you most by not making the team?
BW: By proxy, I guess I have to say Johnny Hekker, right? But he remains unsigned, so I suspect he’s their fallback plan if for some reason Thorson is a disaster. If we know one thing as Vikings fans, it’s that the kicking game rarely matters much in games. /s
CG: I’m pretty surprised that Walter Rouse isn’t on the team right now, honestly. Not just because I thought he played pretty well this preseason, but because I thought he offered a lot of versatility along the offensive line. He had gotten some time at both guard and tackle, and given the injury issues that the Vikings have had on the offensive line in recent years, I thought that sort of versatility may have been something they could have found valuable. But, like Vederian Lowe a couple of seasons ago, Rouse is in New England now, so apparently the coaching staff saw things differently than I did.
WL: Walter Rouse. Although I get they were able to trade him and probably knew Keegan and/or Samac, or others they liked better, would be available.
DS: Johnny Hekker, then Tavierre Thomas [yes, he is on the practice squad now]. Hekker wasn’t clearly beaten on tape; they just preferred the cheaper, bigger-leg IPPP kid. Tavierre had a two-year extension and lived on special teams last year — cutting him because Jacob Thomas ate his lunch is the kind of cold roster math I respect, but I didn’t have it as a lock. Zavier Scott losing the RB3 job to Claiborne is less shocking once you watch the preseason tape. Walter Rouse getting moved instead of just waived was the “wait, they’re actually getting a sixth for that?” surprise.
SC: Tavierre Thomas. The easiest choice because they signed him to a two-year extension in the offseason, with $1.95 million guaranteed. He saw significant field time last year and was a proven special-teamer (and, I believe, the unit’s lead tackler). I’m glad to see him back on the practice squad.
What practice squad player do you think makes the biggest contribution this season?
Editor’s note: For the sake of discussion, we have omitted the most obvious answer of Kyle Van Noy.
BW: I’m going with Dillon Bell. I just love the total talent package and he initially made the roster before some finagling had to be done. If he can add some value on special teams, I could see him being active on game days in short order.
CG: I’m going to go a bit out of left field and go with DeeJay Dallas. Aaron Jones isn’t getting any younger, and even though he did manage to play all 17 games last season, he has shown a propensity for getting banged up. Dallas showed some flashes as a runner early in his career in Seattle, and could step into the backfield as an option should anything happen to Jones or Jordan Mason. He also has some skills as a returner, too, so he could potentially make an impact on that front as well.
WL: Tavierre Thomas. But it depends on injuries and who gets called up. Thomas could get called up for special teams duty. Not really expecting much from any of the practice squad guys, though.
DS: I hope this doesn’t happen, but Minnesota’s 53-man backfield is Jones, Mason, Claiborne, and fullback Bredeson. That is a good room until it isn’t. Jones is 31. Mason is a between-the-tackles hammer who has never been asked to carry a full-season passing-down load here. Claiborne is a rookie who won the RB3 job over Zavier Scott. If either starter — or both — goes down for multiple weeks, you do not want the next man up to be “hope the kid is ready” plus a fullback. That is why Teasley put Dallas on the practice squad on Sept. 2 instead of leaving the taxi squad as a pile of camp bodies.
Dallas is not a secret feature back. He is a 27-year-old, 5-10, 225-pound fourth-round pick (Seattle, 2020) with 84 career games, 124 rushes for 538 yards (4.3 YPC) and four TDs, 64 catches for 407 yards and two scores, and 89 kickoff returns at 25.3 yards with a 96-yard touchdown in Arizona in 2024. That kick-return average is still among the best of any active back. He also has punt-return work from the Seattle years. That is not a “change-of-pace flyer.” That is a grown man who has already played in this league on Sundays when someone else got hurt.
SC: Dillon Bell. Huge fan of Bell’s, and I was excited to see him make the initial 53-man roster and then return to the practice squad. He’s got a diverse skill set ideal for 11-personnel and special teams, is a strong blocker, and would be the call-up if any wide receiver misses time. I wouldn’t be shocked if he saw significant snaps this season.
Harry the Hitman is back; on a scale of 1-100, what is your surprise level? What are your expectations for him?
BW: I’ll say….60. I figured he’d be back, but the further we went into training camp and the preseason without a helicopter flying out with Ryan Longwell, Steve Hutchinson and Jared Allen out to get him, the more I became convinced he might just be done. I think he’s going to play maybe half the snaps — maybe even as a subpackage guy as the season goes on — and will be just as valuable in the classroom/film room, if not more, than he is on the field.
CG: I’ll go with a 22. (See what I did there?) I think that when he didn’t announce his retirement around the same time that C.J. Ham and Adam Thielen did last season, the suspicion was that he was going to be back. He played a career-low percentage of the defensive snaps last year, and I don’t expect him to go back out there and be an iron man again this season or anything like that. I think Brian Flores is going to continue to use him as sort of a de facto “coach on the field” sort of player who can still be used to do some pretty good things like blitzing in big spots and making sure this defense runs the way it should.
WL: 50. I figured at a minimum he’d skip training camp, but it seemed like he was waiting until the season started to make his decision. I expect him to perform like last season. He’s definitely lost a step but his ability to read offenses and help get the defense in the right play/position is valuable but difficult to quantify. Hopefully he spends a lot of time this season passing on his knowledge to the rest of the safety group.
DS: Surprise: 25. They did give him the farewell treatment in Week 18, post-June 1 cut him for cap, and spent all summer saying the door was open. So it’s not a really big surprise. But signing it eight days before the Packers, after the whole summer of “is he actually coming back,” still made me wonder, but it seemed like it would happen. Losing Jamal Adams almost seemed to ensure it for me.
Expectations: He’s the pre-snap communicator Flores actually trusts, the guy who lets Metellus play rover, and the mentor for Jakobe/Jacob Thomas. If he gives you 8–10 splash plays and keeps the secondary from looking lost in Week 1, that’s a win. The Christmas Lions game last year was the reminder he’s still got one more year of “I see it before you do.” Don’t ask him to be 2017 Harry. Ask him to be the adult/player coach in the room and on the field. Plus, add another interception to his tally and secure his future seat in Canton.
SC: On the surprise scale, it was only about a 10. It never seemed like the Hitman was going to retire quite yet. He clearly loves playing in the Brian Flores system and was still performing at a high level in Year 14 (68.9 PFF overall grade, 33rd among 98 safeties). That said, I do expect a notable drop-off from the nearly 800 snaps he played last year. I’m sure the plan is to phase him back in over the first month or so to ensure he’s fresh for the critical late season and (hopefully) playoff stretch. The fact that there are five other safeties on the roster may hint at that (Big Nickel or not). And he’ll be worth every penny for the leadership and experience he brings to the film room and on the sidelines on Sundays alone.
Give me your season prediction: What will the Vikings look like at the end of the season? What else do you have to say?
BW: I think they’ll go 10-7 and be right in the mix for the division crown. I’m not a huge believer in the Bears — they feel like the 2023 Vikings to me — and I think the Packers and Lions are good, but by no means unbeatable. This might only be a one-win improvement in the standings, but it’ll feel night and day different from last season — and competent late-season quarterback play will be the difference.
CG: I really, really want to believe this team is going to be better than it was last year. The defense is still going to terrorize people as long as they can stay relatively healthy (because if we have to get too deep into this depth chart at too many spots. . .oy). The offense, on the other hand, is still a question mark for me. I’ve made it clear that I’m not a huge Kyler Murray believer yet, and I’ve also made it clear that I’ll be more than happy to be proven wrong. As it stands now, however, I’m hard-pressed to pick the Vikings to have a significantly better win-loss record than they had in 2025. I’ll put them at 10-7 as it stands right now, and they’ll be fighting for a playoff berth until the end of the season. Will they get there? I’ll give it a solid… maybe. How’s that for confidence?
WL: 12-5. My guess is that the Vikings will compete with the Lions for the division title.
DS: 10-7, wild-card, lose a road playoff game if the run game is still theoretical and Kevin O’Connell reverts to his love for long, developing plays in search of explosives. You’ll know that when it is third-and-1, and he lines up in shotgun. I want the record to be higher. Heck, I think the team can win the division! Murray in KOC’s offense should work on paper — but we just watched a preseason with one offensive touchdown. I’ve heard “we’re going to be physical in the run game” almost every August since O’Connell’s arrival. I’ll believe KOC, Keith Carter and Frank Smith when Mason and Jones are actually falling forward on third-and-2 in October.
Off my chest: The Minnesota Vikings were founded in 1961. First game, first purple jersey, first Tarkenton scramble off the bench against the Bears. That is 65 seasons in the books before this one starts, and 2026 is season 66.
We already know the rest of the résumé by heart, which is why the annual “look how high the winning percentage is/look how many playoff berths / look how many Hall of Famers and still no ring” posts land like a wet sock. Those numbers are true. They are also the least interesting thing about this franchise to anyone who has actually lived it. Four Super Bowl trips, four losses — IV, VIII, IX, XI — and the last of those was January 1977. Half a century of “close,” “wide left,” “next year,” Minneapolis Miracle, 15-1, 14-3, Favre-to-Rice, Keenum-to-Diggs, and then in late January going quiet again.
For those of us who remember Grant’s teams in person, or at least remember being told about them by someone who did, the hope this year is not another tidy regular-season graph result. It is that there is still room in this league for a little magic in season 66 — Murray running KOC’s offense, Flores’ defense with Hitman back in the huddle, Jefferson still the best player on the field — and that it ends on February 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium with Super Bowl LXI. Valentine’s Day. First-ever ESPN/ABC Super Bowl. The one that would finally close the sentence that started in 1961.
That is the only stat that still matters to the old-timers: not how often we made it, but whether this is the year we finish it. Can we finish what was started in ‘61 in Super Bowl 61? Please let it be so. SKOL.
Now go beat Green Bay!
SC: Already on record for 12-5, and I’m sticking to that. If Flores had left, I’d have serious doubts about making the playoffs. We went 9-8 last year despite the 3rd-worst quarterback play in the NFL by passer rating, the worst for a Vikings team in at least 12 years. If Kyler Murray gets anywhere near his 2024 level in KOC’s offense, that’s 12 wins right there, with an easier slate (on paper) than last season, giving us more wind at our backs. Oh, and the exasperating “make the playoffs one year, miss the next” pattern is in our favor, too.
