Kevin O’Connell sat down in a chair in his office overlooking the Vikings practice fields early in training camp. The Vikings coach had everything meticulously mapped out, practically to the minute, on color-coded sheets on his desk.
O’Connell is a planner. He makes plans on top of plans. He spent two long days on a Zoom call with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel before camp carefully scripting a pair of joint practices in microscopic detail down to the number of reps every starter and backup would get in each drill.
His vision for the 2025 season began to take shape in the immediate sting of a playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams in early January when he acknowledged that his team must “solidify the interior of the pocket, starting first and foremost.”
The Vikings did that, and considerably more, becoming a big offseason spender by “really focusing on building the idea of the 2025 Vikings,” General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said on the eve of training camp.
That idea remains intact, but the NFL’s uncompromising nature has delivered a harsh reminder that even the best plans are only as secure as that day’s injury report.
“We are in the entertainment business, but every other facet of the entertainment business is scripted. We are not,” O’Connell said. “We have to figure out a way to write our own lyrics, write our own scripts.”
Case in point: Carson Wentz will start at quarterback on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, meaning Max Brosmer is one snap away from leading the offense in a regular-season game, thus handing the ball to Cam Akers and throwing passes to Adam Thielen.
That scenario figured nowhere in the realm of possibility when O’Connell assembled his team for camp because Brosmer was an undrafted rookie free agent No. 4 on the depth chart and the other three weren’t even on the team.
The Vikings are knee-deep in it right now. It’s only Week 3 and a dozen players were listed on the injury report Wednesday. Ten were either limited or didn’t practice at all. Many of the injured would fall under the category of being foundational players, including quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
O’Connell has been quick to note that injuries are never an excuse for a team’s performance. Sympathy points aren’t kept on the scoreboard because every NFL team deals with injuries to some degree.
Some seasons they hit like a monsoon, though. That’s what it feels like with the Vikings. One after another, wrecking continuity as the season lifts off the ground.
For as much time and money that organizations invest in sports science advancements, the reality is that injuries ultimately come down to luck. The game is played so fast and collisions are so forceful that injuries are inevitable. It’s just a matter of how many, when and to whom? O’Connell barely played his starters in the preseason to preserve health. Now, two games in, the team is scrambling to fill holes.
The before-after image of every NFL season is always fascinating. The amount of time, energy and attention devoted to analyzing and predicting what will happen in previewing the season becomes all-consuming. Then games start, and everything that had been talked about and anticipated for months can change abruptly.
That and a keen eye when constructing a roster on the front end. Outside observers pay less attention to players 30-50 on the depth chart until injuries put the team’s scouting savvy in the spotlight.
The Vikings’ 2023 season serves as a case study for how sideways things can go. A hamstring injury limited Justin Jefferson to 10 games, and Kirk Cousins’ Achilles tendon tear mid-season initiated a game of musical chairs at quarterback. Four quarterbacks started multiple games.
“The greatest teams in this league handle injuries and adversity very well,” said Thielen, a 12-year veteran. “The longer you’re in this league you realize that it’s so important to just find a way to keep pushing, even though things aren’t exactly how you draw them up as far as having all 11 starters on the field. It’s just not likely to have that happen every game.”
He’s right. The circumstances might stink, but the season doesn’t pause and complaining doesn’t solve anything. This is life in the NFL. Seldom do things go exactly as planned. The Bengals will be without Joe Burrow on Sunday, too.