With players now set to arrive for training camp at the TCO Performance less than a month from now, the 2026 offseason for the Minnesota Vikings is essentially complete.
It has certainly been anything but a quiet offseason for Minnesota this year, as the team has gone through a number of significant changes in the locker room, with the coaching staff, and inside the front office.
Looking back on the last few months, and specifically at the roster, which members of the Vikings have had a great offseason, and who has had one they would rather forget?
Minnesota Vikings Winners and Losers of the 2026 offseason
Winner No. 1
Kyler Murray - QB
After spending the last seven years with an Arizona Cardinals organization that is one of the worst-run franchises in the entire NFL, Kyler Murray gets to start a new chapter in his pro career with Minnesota this year.
Murray will no longer have to pay for team-issued meals, and if he emerges as the Vikings' QB1 for the 2026 season as everyone expects him to, he'll get to play with arguably the best group of skill players he's ever shared the field with during his time in the league, led by receivers Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.
Winner No. 2
Jordan Addison - WR
Speaking of Addison, Minnesota gave him a nice confidence boost this offseason when they decided to pick up his fifth-year contract option in April. By doing so, the Vikings have agreed to, at the very least, guarantee that the receiver will make, at minimum, $18 million in 2027.
A contract extension could also change that amount, but we still have to also wait and see if Minnesota will even be the team to pay Addison that $18 million for the 2027 season.
Either way, the young receiver is set to get a major pay boost after the 2026 campaign if he doesn't do something dumb off the field to screw it up, which, unfortunately, hasn't been a guarantee for him.
Loser No. 1
J.J. McCarthy - QB
After last season's disaster of a showing, the Vikings really had no other choice but to bring in a more experienced quarterback to compete with J.J. McCarthy for the starting signal-caller job.
Is it something that could motivate McCarthy to perform better? Sure, but Minnesota probably wouldn't have signed someone like Murray, who has 87 career starts, if they were truly okay with McCarthy winning the QB1 job.
Who knows? Maybe getting a chance to take a step back will benefit McCarthy in the long run, and he will actually be a winner from this offseason. But, for now, he's not.
Loser No. 2
Ivan Pace Jr. - ILB
Once believed to be the latest UDFA gem discovered by Minnesota, Ivan Pace Jr. is entering a training camp and preseason where he might not be a member of the team after all of it.
Pace did re-sign with the Vikings earlier this year, but the team also re-signed Eric Wilson and used a second-round draft pick on former Cincinnati linebacker Jake Golday.
Those moves don't exactly scream Minnesota wants to keep Pace around for the 2026 season, so the 25-year-old defender certainly has his work cut out for him this summer.
Winner No. 3
Dallas Turner - EDGE
In his third year with the Vikings, Dallas Turner has an incredible opportunity this upcoming season after Minnesota made the decision to trade Jonathan Greenard to the Philadelphia Eagles in April.
Now, Turner will take over Greenard's spot in the Vikings' starting defense opposite Andrew Van Ginkel and see if he can live up to the expectations that were given to him when Minnesota selected him in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Based on some of the flashes Turner displayed out on the field last year, meeting those expectations shouldn't be too difficult for him in 2026.
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