The Minnesota Vikings didn’t exactly cruise past the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon, but they did what they needed to do: hang around, absorb the punches and then close hard. After trailing through three quarters, Minnesota ripped off 15 unanswered points in the fourth and walked out with a 39-22 win.
It was messy. It was uneven. But for a team looking for something better after last year’s disappointment, it counted as a welcome reset.
A lot of the story starts with the quarterback switch, and the Vikings were justified in putting Carson Wentz in the QB2 spot. That choice raised eyebrows earlier in the week, with some expecting J.J.
McCarthy to back up Kyler Murray after he lost the starting job. Instead, Kevin O’Connell went with Wentz, and that call paid off in the way coaches usually want it to: steady play, no panic and enough big throws to keep the offense moving.
Wentz didn’t light up the stat sheet, finishing 12-of-19 for 133 yards and three touchdowns, but he delivered the kind of baseline performance O’Connell had talked about all offseason. He hit Justin Jefferson on a 39-yard touchdown on a free play in the second quarter, then later found T.J.
Hockenson for a 16-yard score in the third to keep Minnesota in the game. And when the Vikings got the ball back on a turnover on downs late in the fourth, Wentz helped engineer a nine-play, 83-yard march that ended with Aaron Jones scoring from three yards out to put Minnesota ahead for good.
That sequence also sharpened the spotlight on Murray, whose Vikings run may already be on shaky ground. His day unraveled almost immediately when he threw an interception to Keisean Nixon on his first pass as the starter.
The offense never found much rhythm behind him either, with negative runs and false starts piling up on the first two drives, per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. Then came the helmet-to-helmet hit from Javon Bullard that knocked him out of the game.
It may be too soon to say Murray will never start again for Minnesota, but the situation is obviously fragile. He’s on a one-year contract, which always made this a prove-it stretch. The opener didn’t help, and if Wentz keeps winning while Murray is out, the backup could turn this into something bigger.
There were positives on defense, too, especially the return of Harrison Smith. The 37-year-old safety is back for a 15th season and told CBS’s Tracy Wolfson it will be his last, and even in limited action he reminded everyone why Minnesota needed him. PFF had Smith on just 16 snaps, but he still managed a tackle, two pressures and nearly picked off a pass late in the fourth quarter when the ball bounced off his hands and into James Pierre’s arms.
The difference when Smith wasn’t out there showed up in a big way. Green Bay hit Jordan Love to Christian Watson for an 81-yard touchdown while Smith was on the bench in the second quarter. Minnesota’s defense has plenty to clean up after Love threw for 387 yards and two touchdowns, but Smith still looks like a vital piece as he gets back into game shape.
Another encouraging sign came from Dallas Turner, who stepped into a bigger role after Jonathan Greenard was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. Turner responded with the kind of performance that can change how a season feels for a young defender. He led the team with seven pressures and added a sack on 28 pass-rushing snaps, according to PFF, and he seemed to grow more dangerous as the game wore on.
Not every offseason investment looked so smart. Will Fries had a rough opener, and that matters because Minnesota spent big in free agency last year, with former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah committing $269.5 million in total contract value, according to Spotrac.
Fries, who signed a five-year, $87.7 million deal, finished with a 60.0 overall grade from PFF and gave up three pressures and a sack. Only Blake Brandel graded lower among Vikings starters, at 52.0.
It’s just one game, but if Fries doesn’t clean it up, he could end up lumped in with the 2025 free-agent disappointments like Jonathan Allen, Javon Hargrave and Ryan Kelly.
The running game didn’t look explosive for much of the afternoon, but it did enough when the Vikings needed it most. Minnesota finished with 107 yards on 34 carries, a 3.14 yards-per-carry average that won’t turn heads. Still, O’Connell stuck with it, and the payoff came late: a 28-yard run by Mason helped set up the go-ahead touchdown by Aaron Jones, then another rushing score followed after a Love fumble with 4:48 left to seal it.
And then there was Jefferson, who looked every bit like the star Minnesota needs him to be. After a frustrating 2025 campaign, he was back in rhythm on Sunday, catching eight passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns while giving the Packers’ secondary fits all afternoon.
His first touchdowns at U.S. Bank Stadium since December 2024 were a strong reminder of what he can do when the quarterback play supports him.
If this version sticks, Jefferson looks ready for a much bigger season.
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For a team still trying to build any momentum around its new quarterback, the sight of Murray heading to the sideline was the biggest storyline of the day. Medical expert David J. Chao said the footage showed neurological signs consistent with a concussion, leaving the Vikings to sort through a debut that was supposed to answer questions and instead raised a much more unsettling one. [Read more 🡒]
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Wentz responded by helping turn a difficult start into a 39-22 comeback win in Green Bay, settling in quickly and finding Justin Jefferson for multiple scores. He finished 12 of 19 for 133 yards and three touchdowns, a performance that did more than steady the Vikings for one afternoon. It also gave Minnesota a backup situation that now looks a lot more consequential than it did when camp ended. [Read more 🡒]