The Minnesota Vikings had a disappointing 2023, but which members of the organization had the biggest letdowns last season?
The Minnesota Vikings came into the 2023 season with big goals. The Vikings won 13 games in 2022 and their first division title since 2017, and despite the subtraction of several veterans, they still looked to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
Unfortunately, the Vikings came up short, finishing with a 7-10 record.
While the season has led to an offseason full of questions, it also opens up a time of reflection where Minnesota has to assess what went right and what went wrong.
Many Vikings had disappointing years, but some were more of a letdown than others.
So, who were some of the biggest disappointments from last season, and what could it mean heading into the 2024 offseason?
6th-most disappointing Viking of 2023
Jonathan Bullard - DL
Jonathan Bullard didn’t have massive expectations among fans entering 2023, but the coaching staff seemed to rely on him for a key role.
According to PFF, only Harrison Phillips (838) played more snaps along interior defenders than Bullard’s 643 last season, yet Bullard finished with the lowest overall grade at 46.4.
Bullard’s overall grade was just part of the problem as he also posted career lows in run defense (53.8) and pass-rush (46.9) grades.
The 30-year-old also managed just nine pressures on 325 pass-rushing snaps (2.7 percent pressure rate) and his highest missed tackle rate (5.1 percent) since he missed 10 percent of his tackles with the Seattle Seahawks in 2020.
Nobody expected Bullard to become Aaron Donald, but he was still disappointing.
Phillips was asked to do too much thanks to the ineffectiveness of the players around him, and Bullard logged a worse grade than free-agent disappointment Dean Lowry and T.J. Smith.
This could leave Bullard departing in free agency and the Vikings looking for an upgrade this spring.