The Vikings are ultimate proof that there are two totally disparate, but oddly parallel, conversations that happen in regards to an NFL team each year: 1) What is best for the organization, and 2) what is the best for each person in the locker room at a given moment who could care less about the holistically crafted 10-year business plan presented by some Harvard MBA during their front-office interview.
Minnesota continues to butt up against a theoretical ceiling. The best option for this franchise remains to tether itself to Kirk Cousins in the interim and to make marginal and affordable roster improvements that will not scramble the salary cap, in an effort to eventually find a safe landing space with a high-upside rookie passer on an affordable, nonguaranteed contract. There’s a theoretical idea of what can phase the Vikings out of what was an older team when Mike Zimmer was fired in 2021.
Then there is a much simpler version of the business plan under second-year coach Kevin O’Connell on Sunday: F--- it, we’re going to win a game with Joshua Dobbs, who still hasn’t been able to drop his bags off at the hotel after flying here from Arizona at the trade deadline.
