“The Athletic Football Show” is spending the run-up to the 2026 NFL season breaking down all 32 teams, and the Minnesota Vikings preview centered on one big question: what does this offense actually become with Kyler Murray?
Robert Mays said the thing that has him most intrigued is “the entire experiment on offense.” He pointed to the way the 2024 Vikings attacked the field in the intermediate-to-deep areas, especially outside the numbers, and said Murray’s best trait lines up with that part of the game. Mays called Murray’s touch on those throws “beautiful” and noted that the kinds of sail routes Minnesota wants to use fit what Murray does best.
He also drew a clear line between Murray and what Sam Darnold was doing a year ago. Darnold led the NFL in passing yards on intermediate and deep routes in the seams and outside the numbers in 2024, and Mays said that was a major part of the Vikings’ success.
The tricky part, in his view, is that Minnesota used a lot of under center play-action with Darnold, especially when he was setting up in the pocket after the fake. Murray has done some under center play-action in Arizona, but Mays said it was usually built around bigger fakes that got him moving outside the pocket.
He added that Murray’s frame makes it hard to replicate the same type of pocket work Minnesota had with Darnold.
Dave Helman focused on the defense, especially the rookie class, and said he wants to see how fast Brian Flores can get the group up to speed in the first month of the season. He said the Vikings took four big-time defensive draft picks and that there’s reason to be optimistic, even if some of the early signs look as realistic as expected.
Helman singled out Caleb Banks as the one that raised the biggest questions for him, pointing to the foot injury that kept Banks rehabbing and limited his offseason. By contrast, he said Domonique Orange “looks very fun,” and added that Orange already looks capable of helping as a run defender.
He also liked what he’s seen from Jake Golday, saying Flores has used him off the edge and through the A gap. Golday finished the preseason with 11 tackles and a pressure, and Helman said he expects him to have a role quickly.
Derrik Klassen’s concern was the back end of the defense. He said the secondary worries him now the way it did last year, and he believes the talent there is worse than it was a season ago.
Klassen noted that Harrison Smith was still in the building last year as a veteran presence and said that could still happen this year, but he laid out a group that includes Byron Murphy, Josh Metellus, Theo Jackson, Isaiah Rodgers and Jay Ward. In his view, Byron Murphy is the only player on that list he’s certain is a good football player.
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