It’s time for the world to take the 2024 Minnesota Vikings seriously

It’s time for the world to take the 2024 Minnesota Vikings seriously.

Beating the Giants in the season opener, even in convincing fashion, only carried so much weight. This one is another story. What the Vikings just put together was a wire-to-wire win over one of the best teams in the NFL. Sunday’s 23-17 victory over the 49ers at U.S. Bank Stadium serves as a statement to the rest of the league that this Minnesota team is for real.

All along, Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings have believed that they have a special group on their hands. They don’t care that Vegas sportsbooks put their preseason win total at 6.5 games, one of the lowest numbers in the league. They don’t care that national power rankings articles labeled them a bottom-ten team. They don’t care that no one outside of their building gave them much of a chance to do anything after losing Kirk Cousins this offseason.

All that matters is that the Vikings themselves believed in their roster and their potential to do great things this year. Now, during a 2-0 start, they’re showing the country where that belief comes from.

“I love this team,” O’Connell said after the game. “It takes a result sometimes for people to see it, and I understand that. … I’m most proud of what led into this football game. There’s a lot of individual performances we could talk about, but this was the epitome of building a football team with a mindset through many, many months ago of what we wanted to play like, how we want to battle, and ultimately how we want to come together and find a way to win a football game.”

After declining to match the Falcons’ top bid for Cousins in March, the Vikings signed Sam Darnold to be their bridge to the rookie quarterback they knew they were going to draft. That rookie, J.J. McCarthy, is out for the season, so this is Darnold’s show in 2024. Through two weeks, the former No. 3 overall pick has displayed what O’Connell and the Vikings saw when they decided to bring him in.

Darnold threw two more touchdown passes on Sunday, including a 97-yarder to Justin Jefferson. He delivered several clutch throws on third down during the Vikings’ drive in the fourth quarter that put them up by nine and effectively sealed the game. He did throw a pick in this game, but for the most part, Darnold has looked poised, confident, and accurate while operating O’Connell’s complex offense. The 27-year-old, who struggled so much with the Jets and Panthers earlier in his career, is off to the kind of start to this season that the Vikings envisioned when they signed him.

“The amount of work that goes into that position, on your quarterback journey, when everybody decides that you cannot play — we always believed in him,” an emotional O’Connell said. “Awesome to go watch him go do that thing. Really proud of Sam Darnold.”

It helps that Darnold gets to play with Jefferson, who continues to demonstrate why he’s the best wide receiver in football. The Vikings always thought that this offense — with O’Connell calling the plays, Jefferson and others catching passes, and a quality offensive line up front — provided the perfect environment for Darnold to succeed.

O’Connell deserves to be talked about as one of the best offensive coaches in the NFL. The same is true for Brian Flores among defensive coaches. His group came up with timely play after timely play for the second consecutive week, helping spur the Vikings to this 2-0 start. The 49ers moved the ball effectively for much of the game, but the Vikings’ defense forced two takeaways and recorded five sacks while holding San Francisco to a 2-of-10 mark on third down and 1-of-3 on fourth down.

This is a deep, veteran-laden defense that looks like one of the league’s best so far. Holdovers from last year like Ivan Pace Jr., Josh Metellus, and Harrison Smith have been outstanding so far. Pat Jones II, a rotational edge rusher in a contract year, has four sacks in two games.

An underrated group of newcomers has also fit in perfectly. Blake Cashman, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Jonathan Greenard, three of the Vikings’ first additions in free agency this year, combined for 19 tackles, 3 sacks, and 4 pass breakups against the 49ers. Cashman, who has taken over green dot duties, was incredible. Van Ginkel had a pick-six last week and was hugely impactful again in this game. That’s not to mention other newcomers, including former DPOY Stephon Gilmore, first-round rookie Dallas Turner, and solid veteran linemen like Jihad Ward and Jerry Tillery.

With this roster and this coaching staff, the Vikings should be viewed as a legitimate playoff contender in the NFC. They never trailed on Sunday in a win that could’ve been less stressful if not for two turnovers in the red zone that led to seven points the other way. You have to be a pretty good team to do that against the defending NFC champions.

It’s still very early in a 17-game season, but it’s time to take these Vikings seriously.

“This game demonstrated who we can be,” Cashman said.

“We’ve been playing good ball, good team ball,” Metellus said. “If we keep playing consistent like that, I don’t see what can stop us.”