While it's been about 50 years since the Minnesota Vikings last went to the Super Bowl, they also rarely have a disastrous season.
There's the infamous 1984 campaign, under the overmatched Les Steckel, which led to Bud Grant unretiring for the following season. Hindsight might diminish the appeal of it, given his injury-truncated career, but it sure would've been nice to have the opportunity to draft Andrew Luck after going 3-13 in 2011. An ill-timed late-season win over Washington removed that possibility of completing a
In a case of ideal timing, a loaded quarterback class for the 2024 NFL Draft aligned with the Vikings going 7-10 and missing the playoffs as Kirk Cousins missed the end of the 2023 season due to a torn Achilles. Of course, a four-game losing streak to end that season still didn't put them high enough in the first round to get the quarterback they coveted most (Drake Maye) or another they apparently liked a lot (Michael Penix).
Even last season, a 4-8 start lined things up for enough losses to net a fairly high draft pick this past April. And, of course, they won five straight games as J.J. McCarthy found his way against a sampling of the worst defenses in the league, and the Green Bay Packers didn't care about Week 18. It might have been nice to benefit from a last-place schedule this season, but they didn't even get that done due to a season sweep of the Detroit Lions.
The Minnesota Vikings made a list outlining a scenario that will never be allowed to happen
An easy refrain regarding the Vikings is this: "never bad enough to get a high draft pick (and thus, a true young franchise quarterback), and never good enough to win a Super Bowl." For all the good things the Wilfs have done as owners over the last two decades, supplying resources, etc., they also seem to be fine operating in that middle ground.
A 2027 draft class that's projected to be loaded with talent might compel some teams to...let's say give up on the 2026 season at some point.
Writing for Athlon Sports, analyst Andrew Perloff explored the idea (with concern) that the 2026 season might become a race to tank for the highest possible pick in the 2027 draft.
The usual suspects as we head into this season, the Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins, fall into the "Surefire Tanks" category for Perloff.
Six teams fall into Perloff's "Waiving the White Flag Late" category, including the Vikings.
"The Vikings have way too strong a coaching staff to end up with a top-3 draft pick. But they’re in a strong division and their two QBs, Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy, could go either way this season. If the playoffs appear to be out of reach, Minnesota could shift its focus toward securing a better spot to find their guy in the ’27 draft."
There's certainly a chance the Vikings finish last in a good NFC North this season. But a full-on tank is not happening under any conceivable circumstance.
Entering his fifth season, the stakes are high for head coach Kevin O'Connell.
If Murray and McCarthy somehow both fail, Carson Wentz would still be around to keep things afloat under center like he did last season. Beyond that, O'Connell is not going to embrace tanking if his job status would become more tenuous with each mark in the loss column.
While it might be advantageous for the Vikings to just bottom out this season, if things go badly enough, history and the sum of current circumstances say it will not happen.
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