Vikings’ biggest questions are heavy on both sides of the football, from Kyler Murray to Brian Flores’ defense
Sunday’s Vikings win over the Packers gave us a lot of intriguing elements to break down, and the film gives us more questions.
The Minnesota Vikings pulled off an improbable 39-22 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, but the win didn’t come without concern.
It started with the concussion suffered by Kyler Murray on just the 11th snap of the season. It cratered the vibes to a very low level, but luckily, things ended up taking a big step forward later on in the afternoon, thanks to Brian Flores’ defense.
While we learned a lot about what the Vikings could be this year, we still have a lot of questions.
How good can Kyler Murray be?
This is the obvious biggest question facing Minnesota. The tough part is we don’t know how good Murray is going to be, and it creates a difficult task when it comes to projecting the Vikings forward.
On Sunday, Murray played just 11 snaps under center. He completed 3 of 5 passes for 19 yards and an interception. That interception itself was the result of a whiffed blocking assignment by guard Will Fries. Within the context of the play, the Packers sent six blitzers against five blockers in an empty set. The whole idea behind that six-on-five disadvantage is to let the edge rusher through because it’s the longest path to the quarterback and it’s easier for Murray to evade that guy versus an interior rusher. Murray is supposed to either escape or get the throw off quickly.
Unfortunately, Fries whiffed his assignment, and it became a huge factor. The read itself made sense. Throwing the slot fade against single coverage is the right call. If Murray had layered it out and put it on more of a rope, we’d be having a different conversation. Instead, he thew a chalupa and allowed Keisean Nixon to get underneath for the pick.
That was frustrating, but the broader picture showed flashes of promise. Murray evaded pressure, picked up around 8 yards on a scramble before getting out of bounds, and completed a nice third-down pass to wide receiver Justin Jefferson. The run game showed intriguing wrinkles, including motion that matters, Max Bredeson in the mix, and Murray operating out of pistol on the first snap of the game with something Minnesota had worked on during training camp.
We really don’t know what the run game fully looks like with Murray under center because it’s going to differ from when Carson Wentz is out there. Murray adds the element of being able to run the football himself. Pair that with the fact that he suffered a concussion during the game, and now the question isn’t just what the offense looks like with Murray. It’s whether Murray will even play on Sunday. He was in meetings on Monday, which was massive because that helps get a jump start on the concussion protocol.
A lot of questions surround Murray, but not all of them are bad.
Dallas Turner’s breakout performance
Now for some positivity. How good can Dallas Turner be?
Pressure numbers will vary depending on who is calculating them because different outlets have different thresholds for what qualifies as a pressure, similar to how drops are calculated differently. NextGen Stats had Turner with 10 pressures, seven of them quick pressures. Pro Football Focus credited him with nine. Even so, nine is a bonkers number for a guy entering his third year and his first season as a full-time starter.
There were questions about how Turner would handle taking over the Jonathan Greenard role. After one game, Minnesota should feel pretty good about it. He looked fluid dropping into coverage, bullied Packers offensive tackle Jordan Morgan consistently on the outside, and did so with power, leverage, speed, and quickness. Four seconds into the Vikings’ defensive season, Turner got a hit on quarterback Jordan Love. Then he hit him six more times for seven on the day. He added a sack in the fourth quarter that helped seal the win, coming right before the strip sack.
The question now is not whether this can last, because nine pressures is unsustainable on a game-to-game basis. What we should be asking is simple: how explosive will he be on a regular basis? Are we talking about an All-Pro caliber player, or is this a flash in the pan where Turner settles in as a quality starter who never threatens to make a Pro Bowl? A lot still needs to be answered, but the first impression is great.
The Theo Jackson problem
This one carries a more negative connotation. Theo Jackson was at one point viewed as the Vikings’ fourth starter at safety behind Cam Bynum, Josh Metellus, and Harrison Smith. He was that good during training camp in 2024. Unfortunately, that did not manifest in 2025, when he took poor angles and fit the run in a relatively negative fashion.
It was a surprise to see Jackson get so much playing time on Sunday. Jay Ward didn’t see the field, and Jacob Thomas got just 10 snaps. With Smith playing only 25 snaps, it was the Theo Jackson show.
The problems showed up quickly. In the first quarter, Packers wide receiver Christian Watson caught a slant pass and took it 81 yards to the house. Why? One key factor was Jackson taking a bad angle. He took a bad angle on the DK Metcalf play against the Pittsburgh Steelers last season too.
At a certain point, if a player is always taking bad angles and that doesn’t seem to improve, why should the coaching staff keep trusting him to figure it out? He’s coming from depth as the last line of defense. Poor angles in that role are devastating. There was a run during training camp where running back Jordan Mason got Jackson out over his skis because of a poor angle fitting from depth, and Mason took it around him for a long gain. The Vikings’ social team shared it because it was a nice play by Mason, but it exposed Jackson once again.
It raises a lot of questions about why Jackson is the guy spelling Smith.
Harrison Smith’s snap count
Smith signed just a week before the season started, and because this is Harrison Smith, there’s no learning curve with Brian Flores’ defense. He’s already familiar with his surroundings. However, the idea that he would come in and play immediately right away had its skeptics. He made it sound like he was going to play, and I expected to see him more than 25 snaps.
It looked like the Vikings saved him on a pitch count for the fourth quarter, which ended up being a smart decision for those high-leverage situations. But because he didn’t play much early on, you have to wonder how many of the first-half issues were tied to Smith’s absence. Is this going to be a trend throughout the season? Smith is entering year 15 after being a first-round pick in 2012. If he plays at a high level, it’s going to be great. But the age factor has already presented itself in a negative way by Week 1, simply through the snap limitation.
Will Fries isn’t inspiring confidence
When the Vikings signed Fries, I was all for it. There was a gamble involved because he was coming off a broken leg, and he really only had five games of great tape worthy of an $18.5 million contract. Unfortunately, that gamble hasn’t resonated for Minnesota.
Last season, Fries only missed 12 snaps after returning from the broken leg he suffered in Week 5 with the Indianapolis Colts in 2024. But he was inconsistent, sometimes making flat-out bad mistakes. The offensive line was rough in its entirety, but Fries was the only guy you could count on to be there. Having all that rehab during the 2025 offseason raised questions about how much it impacted his ability to build strength and work on technique. This offseason was different, and Fries talked about it during training camp, saying he felt a lot better and ready to go.
That hasn’t translated to success. He got bulldozed multiple times. As I mentioned earlier, the Murray interception was arguably his fault because he completely misread the blocking assignment, and he whiffed on a couple of run plays as well. Fries was getting beat up by a multitude of different players.
I have concerns that he just might not be that good. If that’s the case, we have to have a long conversation. If you cut him after the year, it’s $12 million dead on the salary cap, you save around $9 million, and then you still have to pay a starting-caliber guard or potentially use a first-round pick. I need to see more from him because otherwise he’s just a worse version of Ed Ingram, and that’s a problem because Ed Ingram was perfectly fine and is doing pretty well with the Houston Texans.
Special teams was a disaster at times
We didn’t even touch on how rough special teams looked on Sunday under Matt Daniels. From the Bo Melton long return to the Dallas Turner offsides on fourth-and-6 that gave Green Bay another opportunity, there’s cleanup needed. The Turner offsides ended up being okay, but the process of going offsides in that situation and giving the Packers a chance is not something you can repeat.
Here’s the problem: the coverage units and penalties were brutal all last season, and has been an issue during his tenure. At what point are the benefits with the return game and kicking operation not going to be enough to overcome the deficiencies?
