The Vikings opened their 2026 season with a comeback win over the Packers on Sunday afternoon, and even if the performance wasn’t clean, Minnesota will take the result and move on to a Week 2 NFC North matchup with the Bears.
There was plenty to sort through after the opener, with a few players building real momentum and others leaving Sunday looking for a reset.
Carson Wentz ended up as one of the day’s biggest positives. Minnesota made the move to keep him as the No. 2 quarterback over J.J.
McCarthy because Kevin O’Connell believed Wentz would give the Vikings their best shot if something happened to Murray, and that situation arrived in the first quarter. Wentz didn’t light up the box score - he went 12-of-19 for 133 yards and three touchdowns - but he steadied an offense that looked like it was ready to unravel.
Outside of an interception in the end zone that disappeared because of a defensive holding penalty, he handled the game with the kind of veteran calm last year’s team didn’t always have in the second half. He may not be Minnesota’s answer for the whole season, but he did enough to make another start next week feel very possible.
Jared Turner also came away looking like a winner. After a rookie season in which he played sparingly, he broke through with a team-leading eight sacks last year, and that progress helped push Minnesota to trade Jonathan Greenard this offseason when the veteran asked for a “market correction” on his contract.
One week into the new season, that decision already looks stronger. PFF had Turner down for seven pressures and a sack on only 28 pass-rushing snaps.
He also drew a key offsides penalty that erased Trey Smack’s 40-yard field goal try and pushed Matt LaFleur into going for it on fourth down. Instead of Green Bay moving ahead 25-18, Minnesota got the stop and later finished the job with Aaron Jones’ go-ahead touchdown.
Turner won’t get credit for every little piece of that sequence, but his opener was about as good as it gets.
O’Connell belongs on the winners side too. The first three quarters didn’t do him any favors, and it was fair to wonder whether he was being out-coached early.
Murray’s injury gave him a built-in out, but Minnesota still had to make the right calls to pull the game back. One of the biggest was sticking with the run.
The Vikings averaged just 3.1 yards per carry, yet they still ran it 34 times. That commitment paid off with Jordan Mason’s 18-yard run late in the fourth quarter and touchdown runs from Jones and Mason to finish the comeback.
For a coach who took heat last season, Sunday showed a little adaptability.
On the other side, Kyler Murray’s day went off the rails almost immediately. He was supposed to be the headline of Minnesota’s debut, but his night lasted just 11 plays before he entered concussion protocol after a hit from Javon Bullard.
Even before that, things were messy. Murray opened with a throw that went to Keisean Nixon and never really found a rhythm with the offense.
If he’s cleared, he would likely start against the Bears, but Wentz’s performance made the idea of riding the hot hand a real possibility.
Theo Jackson also had a rough one. Not long ago, he looked like the next man up behind Harrison Smith, but Sunday flipped that script in a hurry.
Jackson played 43 snaps and posted the second-lowest grade on the team at 37.0, with only Josh Metellus lower at 29.7. His biggest miss came on a Love pass to Christian Watson, and that mistake turned into an 81-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Smith will get the attention, but if Jackson keeps playing like that, his snaps could start disappearing as Jacob Thomas, Jakobe Thomas, and Jay Ward battle for time.
Will Fries rounds out the list of losers. Big-money guards always carry weight in Minnesota because of the Steve Hutchinson comparisons, and Fries is already feeling that pressure.
He finished with the second-lowest grade among the Vikings’ offensive linemen at 59.9, behind only Blake Brandel’s 51.5. More troubling, he gave up three pressures and a sack on 30 pass-blocking snaps.
For one of the few holdovers from the notorious 2025 free-agent class, Fries is under the microscope already, and his struggles don’t help an offensive line that was one of Minnesota’s biggest problems last season.
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Kyler Murrays Vikings Debut Just Took A Frightening Turn
Kyler Murrays first appearance in a Vikings uniform took a harsh turn before it could really settle into a rhythm. The quarterback was struck helmet-to-helmet by Packers safety Javon Bullard, a hit that drew an unnecessary roughness penalty and quickly changed the feel of the game for Minnesota, especially with Murray then forced to leave and backup Carson Wentz stepping in.
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 🡒]