A five-game winning streak to end with a 9-8 record cannot obscure how the Minnesota Vikings had an absolutely disappointing 2025 season. It's also typical Vikings to rally in such a way when a double-digit loss season could've landed them a top-10 pick in April's NFL Draft.
ESPN's Kevin Seifert summed things up perfectly after the Week 18 win over the playoff-bound and resting their starters Green Bay Packers.
The Vikings finished 9-8, a half-game out of the NFC playoffs.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) January 5, 2026
They will pick No. 18 in the 2026 draft, the lowest spot of any non-playoff team.
Can't have a more no-mans-land season than that.
Despite the struggles of quarterback J.J. McCarthy, both to stay healthy and perform well when he was available, Minnesota finished in the no man's land Seifert described so well. Four of those five wins to end the season came over teams that also missed the playoffs, and as mentioned, the Packers treated the regular-season finale like a preseason game.
But wins count no matter how they look, and the Vikings once again couldn't even tank properly from when they were 4-8 after being shut out by the Seattle Seahawks in Week 13.
One stat sums up the difference for the 2025 Minnesota Vikings
In 2024, Minnesota went 14-3 with a +12 turnover differential (tied for third-best in the league). This season, that turnover margin flipped to -9 (tied for third-worst in the league).
A drastic drop-off in takeaways defensively, from a tied-for-league-high 33 in 2024 to 21 this season, of course, had something to do with that.
But the other side of the equation had more to do with that 21-play difference year-over-year, and Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report recently highlighted that as the one stat that defined the 2025 season for the Vikings.
"The Vikings committed an NFL-worst 30 turnovers during the regular season. Sure, they had quarterback troubles and faced the NFC's toughest schedule, but that's still a huge concern entering a critical offseason for the franchise."
McCarthy threw 12 interceptions in his 10 starts this season. In his five starts under center, Carson Wentz threw five interceptions. And finally, with four interceptions when he started that afore-mentioned game in Seattle, Max Brosmer accounted for the rest of the Vikings' league-most interception total.
Add in nine lost fumbles, including two each by McCarthy, running back Jordan Mason, and running back Zavier Scott, and you get to that nice round total of 30 turnovers.
With multiple turnovers in all four of their one-score losses, taking care of the ball better in just one of those games could have put Minnesota in the playoffs.
Whoever is under center for the Vikings next season, after the lack of ability to do so literally defined the 2025 campaign in a negative fashion, their No. 1 task will be taking a lead role in curtailing the volume of turnovers.