We’re well into the month of June, and fans of the Minnesota Vikings are wondering exactly what the team is going to look like in 2024 as they embark on a brand new era. According to at least one of the Really Smart Football People™ out there, fans of the purple really don’t have a whole lot to look forward to.
The football writing staff at SI dot com debated who the “least improved” teams in the NFL are as things stand right now, and someone named Gilbert Manzano cast his vote for our favorite squad.
Manzano also declared in the story that he’s picking the Vikings to finish 3-14 this year, which. . .I’m sorry, just LOL.
Now, part of this I guess I understand. Say what you will about Kirk Cousins, and lord knows that everybody has already, but at this point he’s a significantly better quarterback than Sam Darnold or J.J. McCarthy, although the latter is a largely unknown commodity. Then again, Justin Jefferson is back healthy, Aaron Jones is a huge upgrade at running back, Jordan Addison is one of the best young receivers in the NFL. There really shouldn’t be much of a drop-off on offense, if any.
As far as the defense, you can certainly make the argument that Danielle Hunter is better than Jonathan Greenard, as Manzano does. You can also make an argument that Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Dallas Turner are better than Hunter, D.J. Wonnum, and whatever the hell that was Marcus Davenport did last season. The defense was solid last year until everyone just got gassed because the offense couldn’t sustain drives or stop turning the ball over, and it would be hard to argue that the defense, as a whole, isn’t more talented than it was last year.
