Two NFC playoff hopefuls will kick off their preseasons on Thursday night when the Minnesota Vikings travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks. The Vikings won the NFC North Division in 2022 and will look to repeat as champions in 2023. The Seattle Seahawks earned a wildcard berth in 2022 thanks to the surprising play of 2022 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, quarterback Gino Smith. The opening kickoff on Thursday night is scheduled for 10:10 PM EST.
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The Minnesota Vikings finished tied with the second-best record in the NFC last year at 13-4 but looks can be a bit deceiving. Despite winning 13 games, the Vikings finished with a negative point differential thanks to a number of single-digit wins coupled with blowout losses. The Vikings were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round and the team made several changes this offseason. Former Miami head coach Brian Flores comes in as the team's new defensive coordinator, hoping to bring a more aggressive, physical style to a defense that struggled at times last year. The Vikings also release two stalwarts on the team's offense, wide receiver Adam Thielen and running back Dalvin Cook. Justin Jefferson, arguably the NFL's best wide receiver, should help ease the transition without Thielen while Alexander Mattison has had frequent in-game reps behind the injury-prone Cook over the last couple of seasons. Quarterback Kirk Cousins is heading into the final year of his contract and, at 34, is heading into a critical season.
Position battles will be at the forefront of the Vikings' preseason opener. While Alexander Mattison will take over feature-back duties for the Vikings this season, the position as his primary backup is up for grabs. Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu and DeWayne McBride should all get equal opportunity to earn the job this preseason. Another key position that will be evaluated will be at cornerback. Byron Murphy Jr. and Akayleb Evans are listed as the starters currently but that could change during camp.
“For me, we'll gauge it, as far as through the joint practices and things, but I definitely want to see some guys play, as far as younger guys that are off to great starts in training camp, and that's across the board in that room and then just understanding how we can be smart and knowing part of the thing when you challenge your team to p ractice the way are and have two joint practices, we've got to be smart with our group, but we'll determine all of that, situation by situation and get with Flo' and 'Hat' (Daniels) and see what we need to see from the standpoint of allowing these guys to have a complete case for not only making the team but guys we're looking forward to define roles.
“As you guys know, we're playing a lot of personnel groupings, we're doing a lot of different things,” Vikings 2nd year head coach Kevin O'Connell said. “We can really carve out nice roles for a lot of people. The depth chart may end up being what it is, but we're going to play a lot of people and activate a lot of guys' skill sets within the defense.”
He really is HIM pic.twitter.com/7XoKZXQ4bx
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) August 8, 2023
The Vikings finished the regular season at 13-4 in 2022 but were 0-3 during the preseason in O'Connell's first year as head man in Minnesota. O'Connell will spend much of this preseason evaluating key positional battles at running back and cornerback. In addition, quarterback Cousins, without a credible backup, will likely see very little reps during the preseason. Defense will be the focus of the preseason for Minnesota as they try to adapt to Flores' new system over the next month. Expect more regulars to compete on defense than on offense.
Key Injuries: Don't expect many starters to see action on Thursday night, particularly on the offensive end.