The Green Bay Packers play the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday to open the 2026 regular season. Kyler Murray is obviously the big factor for Minnesota in this first game, but there are several other new faces that will determine the outcome of this first NFC North matchup.

So, our Packers beat writer Wendell Ferreira asks our Vikings writer Tyler Forness about the most pressing topics ahead of the game.

How has Kyler Murray performed so far?

There were a lot of questions about how Kyler Murray would fit within Kevin O’Connell’s offense, especially because neither he, nor his predecessors in Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan have ever had a quarterback with this kind of mobility before, as their quarterback. It’s still a major question mark whether it will end up working or not, but if training camp and the preseason is any indication, it’s going to work.

Murray has spent the majority of his time in the NFL in an Air Raid-type system, which is less about generating explosives and more about moving the ball down the field. Now, he’s going into an offense that is predicated on generating explosives down the field, and one that works more under center than in shotgun, and that’s a big change. The operation under center looks clean and natural, something that will be huge going into the season. He still needs to put it all together, but it’s primed to work in a big way.

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Beyond the quarterback, what has changed on the Vikings since last year?

It feels like a lot has changed, but there have been two main changes, with one on each side of the football.

Kevin O’Connell has done a great job in designing an explosive downfield passing game, but something that he’s struggled with was a creative run game. It’s felt stale for a few years, and that has improved ten fold thanks to the addition of Frank Smith as the assistant head coach. After serving as Mike McDaniel’s offensive coordinator for the last four seasons, his wide zone approach with motion that has meaning every time it’s used will be huge in impacting how things will get better offensively.

On defense, it’s going to ride on the back of new defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen. They moved on from two veterans in Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave, and instead moved toward more of a youthful approach. The No. 1 veteran on the team is Jalen Redmond, who is going into his third NFL season, along with two rookies in first-round pick Caleb Banks and third-round pick Domonique Orange. That approach could pay massive dividends, but it will see some bumps in the road.

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The Packers have a lot of familiarity with the Vikings and Brian Flores’ defense at this point. Is there any weakness specific to the 2026 version of this unit that Matt LaFleur could exploit?

Simply put: it’s what I mentioned above. The defensive line is very young and inexperienced, but they are very talented. The key to taking advantage of them will be two fold. First, in the running game, being able to get underneath their pads and forklift them up will be a priority, especially with a player like Banks, who is 6-6 and 327 pounds and has rough pad level.

Secondly, it’s maintaining gap control when dealing with Flores’ pressures in the passing game. He does a great job attacking gaps and forcing offensive lines to think, which in itself creates pressure on the quarterback. Jordan Love has seen some success against Brian Flores, but it’s been intermittent at best. Dealing with the pressure packages is the biggest factor when the Vikings are on defense, and that is a tough ask for anyone, just ask Jared Goff.