Top 10 most Minnesota Vikings-esque Vikings stories of 2023
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Vikings are a tragicomic figure, a sort of pigskin Pagliacci. Too successful for fans to abandon them entirely and too woebegone to be celebrated without pause. For each step they take toward ultimate glory, a commensurately precipitous fall awaits.
As documentarians Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein argued in their exceptional "History of the Minnesota Vikings" series this year, though the Vikings have never won a Super Bowl, the franchise may be the most storied in American sports. And while 2023 likely won't go down as one of the most memorable years in Vikings history — for better or worse — there were still plenty of stories that were quintessential Vikings tales. Stories of misbegotten hope, massive letdowns, miraculous endurance and more.
Here, in no particular order, are the 10 stories from 2023 that best sum up the Vikings as a franchise.
Kirk Cousins injured while playing the best ball of his career
Wherever you land on Kirk Cousins, he's the closest thing the Vikings have had to a franchise quarterback in a long time. And this year, his second in Kevin O'Connell's offense, he was playing the best football of his career. In eight games, Cousins completed 69.5% of his passes for 2,331 yards, 18 touchdowns and five interceptions. He still ranks sixth in EPA/play among QBs, according to Sumer Sports.
And again, regardless of your Cousins take, one thing no one can take away from him is his durability. Since joining the Vikings, he's started all but two games, and neither of those were due to injury. So of course, this year, when he was on fire and the offense was humming, he suffers a season-ending Achilles injury. To add insult to injury, the tear happened at Lambeau Field. If that doesn't sum up the Vikings, what does?
5-game win streak after losing Justin Jefferson
Well, here's another strong contender. The Vikings started the season 1-4, and in their fifth game, star wide receiver Justin Jefferson – the best player on the team and arguably the best WR on the planet – suffered a hamstring injury that would eventually put him on injured reserve. Vikings' fans were grief-stricken, mourning a lost season just one year after going 13-4.
So what did the Vikings do? Rip off five straight wins, of course, including two against division rivals and one against the NFL's best team, the San Francisco 49ers. Giving fans hope when all seems lost is quintessential Vikings.
Losing to the Giants in the playoffs
Speaking of hope, how about that 2022 season? O'Connell's rookie season as head coach ended with 13 wins and an NFC North title, plus an Offensive Player of the Year award for Jefferson.
The Vikings were back in the playoffs! And they had a home matchup with the 9-7 New York Giants! Vikings fans were ready for a run!
Unfortunately, the Giants had other plans on Jan 15. They led for most of the game, but the Vikings had a chance to tie things up late. Down 31-24 with less than two minutes left, facing a 4th and 8, Cousins hit tight end T.J. Hockenson. Normally a good thing — but Hockenson was several yards short of a first down. The Giants got the ball back, and the Vikings went home downtrodden. The next week, the Philadelphia Eagles crushed the Giants 38-7. Vikings fans know a thing or two about that.
Joshua Dobbs gives Vikings fans false hope
After Cousins' injury, rookie Jaren Hall took over the starting gig. His time at the top didn't last long, though, because he suffered a concussion on the second drive of his first start. Joshua Dobbs, whom the Vikings had traded for just days prior, came into the game. Despite his inexperience with the team, he led them to a comeback win against the Atlanta Falcons.
Then, a week later, Dobbs came out throwing heaters against the New Orleans Saints. Though the offense faltered later in the game, the team held on to win 27-19. The Vikings' season, once thought lost due to the Jefferson and Cousins injuries, looked suddenly alive. "The Passtronaut," as Dobbs was dubbed due to his background in aerospace engineering, was the most popular man in Minnesota.
Then it all came crashing down. The Vikings lost to the Denver Broncos, then Dobbs threw four interceptions in a loss to the Chicago Bears. Fifty scoreless minutes against the Las Vegas Raiders were enough for O'Connell to pull Dobbs and put in Nick Mullens, who led the Vikings to the only points of the day in a 3-0 win. Mullens was named the starter for the next game, and despite the Vikings losing, he's holding onto the job for now.
Taylor Swift snubs Vikings
This was the year Taylor Swift decided there were more worlds to conquer and set her sights on the NFL. A rumored romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was confirmed when Swift started attending his games and cheering from a suite. After attending a win over the Bears in Kansas City and another in New York against the Jets, the Vikings were next on the schedule.
But Swift didn't show! She snubbed the Vikings, who lost to the Chiefs 27-20, disappointing Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and countless Swifties across the state.
Rookie WR Jordan Addison caught speeding
Aside from disappointing fans, there is perhaps no greater Vikings tradition than the wide receiver who courts controversy. Randy Moss, Percy Harvin, Stefon Diggs — a great lineage of playmakers whose off-field antics were as dramatic as their on-field accomplishments. So when Justin Jefferson bucked the trend by being, by all accounts, an excellent teammate and upstanding citizen, Vikings fans probably felt an amorphous longing. Enter Jordan Addison.
Addison was the 23rd overall pick in this year's draft. He was college football's most productive receiver at Pitt before transferring to USC, and the Vikings identified him as the perfect No. 2 to Jefferson. Then, in July, just three months after he was drafted, Addison was pulled over in St. Paul for going 140 mph on Interstate 94. According to a citation, Addison told the officer he was speeding because his dog was having an emergency.
It should be said that Addison has shown great maturity in his response to the situation, and coaches and teammates have nothing but good words to say about him. In addition, he's having a stellar rookie season, to the tune of 64 catches for 824 yards and nine touchdowns through 14 games.
Jake Browning leads comeback win
As impressive as the Vikings' drafting and development of wide receivers has been, their track record with quarterbacks has been somewhere between disappointing and disastrous. The graveyard of failed Vikings QB prospects is vast. But every so often, one of them rises from the dead to affront his former team. Such was the case when Jake Browning led the Cincinnati Bengals to a win over the Vikings.
The Vikings signed Browning as an undrafted free agent in 2019. He never appeared in a regular season game for the Vikings, which isn't that surprising for someone who went undrafted. But since taking over for injured Bengals QB Joe Burrow, Browning has won three of four starts and thrown for 1,180 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions.
Browning admitted after the game that it meant a bit more to beat the Vikings. He also recounted the story of his cutting, which painted the organization in a less than flattering light. After a big play during the win, he looked directly into a camera and shouted, "Should've never f---ing cut me!"
There's no telling where Browning's career will go from here. And when he came to the Vikings, he had no path to becoming a starter. But his comeback win against the team that slighted him fits firmly with the thematic arc of Vikings history.
"Madden 24" trailer drags Kirk Cousins
It's a common criticism that the Vikings don't get much appreciation or coverage in the national conversation. And when they do get coverage, it's not usually positive (see last season's discourse about a 13-4 team with a negative point differential). So when the trailer for "Madden 24" dropped, most fans probably weren't surprised when a Vikings player was the trailer's fool.
Cousins appears in eight seconds of the 1 minute and 16 second trailer. In that eight seconds, he throws an interception to Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs, gets bodied on a block on the return and is taunted by defensive end Micah Parsons. Not the spotlight for which Vikings fans have clamored, unfortunately.
Survey ranks U.S. Bank Stadium ugliest in the world
Opinions have been split on U.S. Bank Stadium since its opening, with some hailing it as a brutalist masterpiece with world-class amenities and others likening it to an iron turtle that ruins the downtown Minneapolis skyline. At least one survey aligns with the latter take.
British-based building supplies outlet Buildworld conducted a survey, the results of which showed US Bank Stadium is the ugliest stadium in the world, and just outside the top 10 for ugliest buildings period.
Prize free agent Marcus Davenport plays 118 defensive snaps (so far)
The Vikings seemed to solidify their pass rush this offseason, giving the underpaid Danielle Hunter a new deal to keep him happy and signing Marcus Davenport from the Saints to replace the traded Za'Darius Smith. The Vikings gave Davenport a one-year, $13 million contract. In return, thus far, they've received 118 snaps of defensive play due to injury.
In Davenport's defense, he was impactful in the limited time he did play, and injury's aren't necessarily a player's fault. But it's very Vikings for their prized free agent to be watching most of the season from the sideline.
With the 2023 season still in full swing and the Vikings' playoff aspirations up in the air as of yet, there's still time to add to the list of "most Vikings" stories. What could these magicians of misery have up their sleeves? A heartbreaking finish or an out-of-nowhere run is equally likely, given the team's history.
