Vikings Preseason Week 1: Is There Reason for Optimism?

The Minnesota Vikings debuted several rookies in their preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders. The early returns are positive. Is that enough to be optimistic about the team?

Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images

Process and performance matter more than points in the preseason, so the Minnesota Vikings’ 24-23 win against the Las Vegas Raiders isn’t itself any cause for celebration. Instead, the game revealed some elements of the Vikings’ roster that could produce both optimism and pessimism, depending on how important one views each facet of team-building.

The Vikings presumably don’t care too much about their all-defeated preseason record under Kevin O’Connell, but they did shake that monkey off their back with the walk-off field goal under rookie kicker Will Reichard

Minnesota nearly gave up on the opportunity to kick a response game-winner by punting down two with under two minutes to go on 4th and 4. They used all three timeouts to get the ball back after pinning the Raiders deep, and a 1:39 drive from Jaren Hall was enough to set up a relatively easy 38-yard kick to take the lead back after losing it to former Vikings kicker Daniel Carlson in the third quarter.

Once we peel away that summary and look at the individual player performances, what do we see?

The Vikings Offense Is Set Up For Success

The Quarterback “Battle” Remains Unchanged

There had been reason to be concerned about Sam Darnold being handed the starting job by the Vikings, but one hopes that the drive we saw from the starters in the preseason game can put some of those worries to rest.

It’s difficult to seriously argue that 12 plays should overwhelm the history of play a seasoned veteran has put on tape over their career, but it was a great Darnold dozen. At least two of Darnold’s four incompletions (on eight attempts) were drops, one by Jalen Nailor and the other by Ty Chandler.

Darnold had a number of impressive throws, including a deep one to Nailor – who, drop aside, stood out this game with fantastic production – layered over a linebacker

As for the rookie, J.J. McCarthy started off somewhat sharp but ended his first drive early with a pick to Jack Jones as he evaded pressure coming off of a blitz – a correct pickup, but poor pass protection from Kene Nwangwu allowed Robert Spillane into the pocket.