This season has not been the fairytale year Minnesota Vikings fans had hoped for with a new quarterback running a stellar offense and a veteran defense, but the 2025 story is building up to be more of a nightmare than anything.
The Athletic's Alec Lewis recently hopped on his podcast to discuss everything Vikings after the team came back from their mini bye week, recovering from the 37-10 beatdown delivered by the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 8.
Lewis answered a fan question to respond to something he had written in an article about tension that might be growing within the Vikings. He went into more detail about the different feelings the 2025 team has compared to other years when they are winning.
"It's felt to me really going back to the spring that like there's been an underlying tension with this team. And its staff and players [are] a part of it.
You just get the sense that the joy that has been there in two of the three seasons where they have won double-digit games, you just don't feel that. You just don't feel like it is as their everyday is as downhill as it seems like in the past.
I said that, I wrote that there are multiple people familiar with the team dynamic to have talked about this, but I'll say that part of what has made Kevin O'Connell so great in his role is the feeling that there's always an underline joy, there's an awareness, there's a calm within the storm and you just haven't felt that as much and I thought it was important to mention."
Minnesota Vikings could be facing some trouble in the locker room after rough start
There's been a lot of negative press about the Vikings over the last couple of weeks, from how they handled J.J. McCarthy's recovery from a high ankle sprain to the latest issues with Carson Wentz. Minnesota let Wentz play through an injury that worsened to the point that he was placed on injured reserve.
Much speculation has surrounded how players within the organization have felt about the Vikings' handling of Wentz's situation. Whether these are valid remains to be seen.
It doesn't help that the team is off to a 3-4 start on the year and is at the bottom of a very competitive NFC North division.
The defense has struggled over the last two games, allowing an average of 32.5 points per game. Minnesota's offense has moved away from much running and is letting an injured Wentz throw it more than 30 times per game.
There's a lot of uneasiness now in Minnesota with how the Vikings will respond. If things don't get turned around in Week 9, with McCarthy expected to return, the season might end up being considered a wash.