It’s no secret that Kevin O’Connell has had a tendency, a preference — maybe even an obsession — with throwing the ball. “Establishing the run” has never been a part of his vocabulary. And yet, his offenses have still largely been among the best in the league.
Now, with essentially a rookie quarterback in 2025, it makes all the sense in the world to dial back his flamethrowing offenses of the past and lean more on the run game. Regardless of the quarterback, the Vikings have been flashing a giant, Will Fries-sized neon sign all summer long about their new offensive plans.
Since 2022, the Vikings have thrown the ball at an extremely high clip. In O’Connell’s first and second years with the team, they passed on nearly 64% of their plays, the third-most in the league. There’s a guy you may have heard of named Justin Jefferson at wide receiver, so it’s hard to critique such a high rate.
Still, the offense was obviously lacking any semblance of balance. Last season, that passing percentage dropped significantly for the first time to just 57% or 15th in the league. Sure, Sam Darnold was a bit of a wild card heading into the year, but there’s more to this picture.
Despite all you may believe in your heart of hearts, O’Connell wants to run the ball. His high passing percentage has been more of a product of the roster construction than his hellbent fixation on setting up in shotgun and five-wide on third-and-one. Now in 2025, he may finally get his chance to prove it. Earlier this spring, O’Connell flat-out said that he wants to take that step towards becoming a great rushing team.
“We’ve thrown the ball at a pretty high clip, like a world-class effective clip for three years, with Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold last year,” O’Connell said. “Now, I want to run the football. I want to get back to the truest nature of where the foundation of this offense was, which is running the football.”
We started to get a glimpse of the true KOC last year, after running back Aaron Jones set a career high in rush attempts on his way to 1,138 yards. Now, the Vikings have the team to be even better and more balanced. Up until this point, there wasn’t a clear avenue on offense to heavily feature the run game. Now, their draft and free-agent acquisitions have echoed O’Connell’s sentiments, and for the first time in his tenure, the Vikings are built to tote the rock.
Minnesota went out and bought a shiny, new interior offensive line this summer, and with that comes great potential. Former Indianapolis Colts and newly acquired guard Will Fries was the fifth-ranked guard in the league last season in run-blocking with a PFF grade of 84.9. Ryan Kelly, also from the same Colts line that powered the eighth-best rushing attack in the league, and rookie Donovan Jackson complete the picture, offering major upgrades from Garrett Bradbury and Blake Brandel. Already with two great tackles on the roster, the Vikings potentially have one of the better offensive lines in the league, something that eluded them for years.
Beyond the offensive line improvements, the Vikings also added running back Jordan Mason, creating a true one-two punch at the position. With Jones now entering his age-30 season, Minnesota needed assurances, and went out and got a player who has averaged 5.3 yards per carry over the course of his career. It’s challenging to predict what the snap splits will ultimately be, but expect both runners to be heavily involved in 2025. With the added depth, Minnesota will be less one-note compared to 2024, when they had no one else to help shoulder the load behind Jones.
Now comes the scary, reactionary part of this equation. The Vikings are starting a young, unproven quarterback and lack quality depth at wide receiver. But how do those concerns play into this new, balanced offense? The answer is probably: not as much as you think.
While it likely isn’t prudent for any team to go out and throw 40 times a game with a rookie quarterback, the Vikings won’t shy away from letting J.J. McCarthy sling it. You don’t take a quarterback 10th overall to hand the ball off every play. Still, Minnesota has created a roster that ensures O’Connell doesn’t need to draw up a Screw it, Justin is down there somewhere every other play.
While quarterback and receiver are definitely a bit of an unknown, they won’t be driving forces in the transition to a better rushing team. The Vikings will almost surely run the ball more in 2025 than they did in O’Connell’s first few years, but it won’t be to cover up their perceived passing concerns. They’ll run the ball because, well, it’s what this team was built to do.