Vikings currently hold the most meaningless streak in the NFL

Following their preseason loss to the Tennessee Titans on Saturday, the Minnesota Vikings have now lost their last nine preseason games, dating back to August 24th of 2019. The Vikings' nine-game preseason losing streak is currently the longest in the entire NFL.

Oddly enough, Minnesota actually used to be one of the most successful teams in the preseason under former head coach Mike Zimmer. During Zimmer's first six years with the franchise, the Vikings won 20 of their 25 exhibition matchups, including 12 of their first 13 games.

Under current head coach Kevin O'Connell, however, Minnesota still hasn't been able to come up with a preseason victory. The Vikings lost all three of their exhibition contests under O'Connell last summer, and this year, they've been on the losing side of the scoreboard in both of their matchups.

So why hasn't Minnesota been able to win a game under their current head coach yet? Well, it has a lot to do with O'Connell's approach to the league's annual exhibition season.

The Vikings have held out the majority of their starters in each of their preseason games this summer, and they did the same thing in all three of their exhibition matchups last year.

O'Connell seems to prefer his starters getting their summer reps in a more controlled environment, like a joint practice with another team, rather than a preseason game where the action is more spontaneous.

Minnesota's current head coach would also clearly prefer to have his starters healthy for the regular season, when the games actually count, instead of risking their health in a meaningless preseason contest.

This was not the approach taken by Zimmer during most of his tenure with the Vikings. Minnesota's starters would typically appear in multiple games during the preseason, and sometimes, it would result in the team losing a player for a significant amount of time due to injury (see Irv Smith Jr. in 2021).

So while the Vikings might not be earning as many wins in the preseason under O'Connell, the biggest victory for the franchise under their new head coach has been the ability to enter the regular season with most of their starters as close to 100 percent health as possible.