Training camp has a way of talking Vikings fans into almost anything.
The fresh faces are out at TCO Performance Center, the energy is back, and there’s already plenty of buzz around players like Charles Demmings and Tai Felton. Demmings has become an early favorite for Mr.
Mankato, while Felton is being viewed through the lens of a possible K.J. Osborn-style second-year jump.
That’s the fun part of this time of year. The cautionary part is harder to ignore: for Minnesota, last season proved that camp excitement can vanish fast once the games start counting.
That lesson was written all over 2026.
The Vikings entered that year with bigger expectations than they have now. They were 14-3, had most of the roster back, and spent heavily in free agency to patch the holes.
J.J. McCarthy was supposed to take over as the franchise quarterback.
Even in the preseason, the mood stayed upbeat. McCarthy only played a series, but fans still had reason to feel good about where things were headed.
Then the season began.
McCarthy never settled in once the games mattered. His play was marked by errant throws and bad decisions, and the early warning signs weren’t obvious beyond a few shaky practices. The result was a 4-8 start, a flood of memes, and a long stretch of frustration that didn’t end until the Super Bowl, when Sam Darnold lifted the Lombardi Trophy.
And McCarthy wasn’t the only one who failed to match the summer hype.
Max Brosmer was last year’s camp darling, and his preseason finale against the Tennessee Titans’ starters pushed the Vikings into a late overhaul of their quarterback room. The “ Purple Purdy ” nickname followed him around, and the hype only grew as McCarthy and Carson Wentz struggled. But Brosmer’s first career start in Seattle was rough, and Christmas brought another beating against the Detroit Lions’ defensive line.
The same pattern showed up elsewhere on the roster. A year ago, Christian Darrisaw’s knee looked fine at this stage, and even though there were concerns about his multiligament knee injury, he was back to drills by the end of minicamp and his training camp absences were treated as routine maintenance. Once the season opened, though, he spent the year in and out of the lineup while Justin Skule handled the edge rushers coming off the line.
Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison also gave fans reasons to believe last summer. Jefferson’s hamstring issue and Addison’s suspension were seen as temporary problems, and McCarthy was still firing passes toward the nosebleeds. But Jefferson never quite looked like himself, Addison finished with a career-high six drops, and even Adam Thielen ’s Minnesota powers couldn’t keep him from ending up with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
There have been plenty of training camp standouts in Minnesota who never carried that momentum into the fall. Gabriel Murphy didn’t even make the team.
Bo Richter settled in as a special-teams player. Akayleb Evans and Cam Dantzler flashed early before their time in Minnesota faded away.
Sure, there are exceptions. Stefon Diggs once showed up as a fifth-round pick and ended up on the receiving end of the Minneapolis Miracle.
So yes, Demmings could become something more than a depth piece. But he could also end up being just that.
The same skepticism applies to the team’s new ideas in the run game after bringing in Keith Carter as offensive line coach and Frank Smith as assistant head coach. It’s interesting on paper, but there’s still no guarantee Kevin O’Connell will lean on it when it’s third-and-one.
That kind of skepticism may not be the most cheerful way to approach camp, but it fits where the Vikings are right now. They haven’t won a playoff game since 2019 and haven’t gone to the playoffs in back-to-back years since the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
So if Demmings turns into a demon or Demond Claiborne breaks loose for a 75-yard touchdown in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers, fans will absolutely be able to say they saw it coming. But after everything that went sideways last year, the safest approach is simple: wait and see.
In a season where seeing is believing, the Vikings have created their own version of training camp noise - and it naturally takes some of the shine off the hype.
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