The Minnesota Vikings had smooth sailing for most of 2024. The Vikings had a rough two-game losing patch in October before finishing the regular season with a 14-3 record.
The Vikings were then blown out 27-9 by the Los Angeles Rams in the wild card a week after dropping a Week 18 contest with the Detroit Lions that decided the winner of the NFC North.
In contrast to 2024, the start to this season has been a grind for Minnesota. The Vikings started 1-1 before second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy suffered an ankle sprain that has sidelined him for the past five games.
The team has gone 2-3 with Carson Wentz as the starting quarterback, but he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in a 37-10 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 8.
The Vikings are 3-4 before getting set to play the Detroit Lions on the road on Sunday.
Per Alec Lewis of The Athletic, there has been tension brewing in the Vikings locker room since the spring that has continued into the season.
"It just feels, it’s felt to me really going back to the spring that there’s been like an underlying tension with this team,” Lewis said on “The Alec Lewis Show” Tuesday. “And its staff, the staff is a part of it, the players obviously. But you just get the sense that the joy that has been there in two of the three seasons where they have won double-digit games, you just don’t feel that.”
The Vikings have lost two games in a row, and the upcoming schedule looks daunting. Following the Lions on Sunday, Minnesota will play a Baltimore Ravens team that should be motivated with the return of Lamar Jackson in Week 10.
Detroit then plays NFC North opponents the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers in back-to-back weeks before closing November out with the 5-2 Seattle Seahawks.
Lewis thinks there hasn’t been as much joy surrounding the locker room as in seasons past.
“You just don’t feel like… Their everyday is like as downhill as it seemed like days in the past were,”
Lewis said. “And… I wrote that there are multiple people kind of familiar with team dynamics who have talked about this.
“But, I’ll say that I just, part of what has made (head coach) Kevin O’Connell so great in his role is just the feeling that there’s always, like, there’s like an underlying joy. There’s an awareness, there’s a calm within the storm, and you just haven’t felt that as much."
Lewis didn’t provide more details as to what the catalyst was for the tension.
The Vikings appear to lack confidence heading into the meatier part of the season. Minnesota is going to need to rely on its 2024 first-round pick, McCarthy, to be a leader when he returns to the field if the team hopes to return to the playoffs.
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