Vikings Have Best Work Environment In NFL, But Key Cuts Must Be Made

You want a great place to work? There may be no better place than the Minnesota Vikings franchise if you want to gain employment in a situation that will allow you to feel good about yourself as an individual.

The Vikings earned the highest grades from the NFLPA when it comes to treatment of families, nutrition, weight room, strength coaches, training room, training staff, locker room, and team travel.

The report card did not hesitate in saying that the Vikings are at the head of the NFL class. “The Vikings are a shining example of what is possible when a concerted investment is made in both staffing and facilities.”

While Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell have put a shiny, bright image to the team, it actually starts with owner Zygi Wilf.

Vikings players believe Wilf is willing to spend money to upgrade the facilities, and that assessment makes sense since the Vikings have gone through three significant upgrades in recent years.

The team’s 40-acre, 277,00 square foot training facility has received near-unanimous praise. Nearly every player believes that the team has enough strength coaches, while all players feel that they receive top-level individualized care and instruction.

Instruction for NFL players? This may be the category that means the most to improvement from year to year. Coaches who can reach players at the professional level and coax improvement out of them are rare.

Players improve as a result of experience and their offseason work. Film study helps them find weaknesses in their opponents, but actual improvement in technique and skill level that comes from coaching instruction is quite rare.

If O’Connell and his staff can continue to drive improvement from their own leadership and teaching, that will be the gift that keeps on giving.

Those kind of offseason grades are nice and something to build off of, but the 2023 Vikings are going to be made or broken in large part by what happens in the next two months.

The Vikings are more than $20 million over the cap, and moves have to be made quickly. Several of these moves will be uncomfortable, because if the Vikings are on the road to improving on defense, they have to get rid of several big-name players who don’t produce to the level of expectations.

That means nearly anyone on the defensive side can go. The issue is not a defensive team that fell below expectations in 2022. That does not tell the story. The Vikings have been poor on the defensive side of the ball for the last three years.

It’s not just a matter of scheme, and that’s something that was addressed with the firing of Ed Donatell and the hiring of the more aggressive Brian Flores.

Big names that have been integral to the team have to be pared from the roster. It seems that Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell have been working in lock step to this point and the moves they have made in their first 15 months have been exceptional.

But now the really challenging part of the job is ratcheted up. Should the Vikings keep edge rushers Danielle Hunter and Za’Darius Smith, linebackers Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks and safety Harrison Smith? Are offensive stalwarts Dalvin Cook and Adam Thielen past their expiration dates? Does the money spent on these players help the team or hurt it?

It’s great that there is plenty of happiness among the employees who work for the Vikings organization. However, the Vikings fell short last season, just as they always have. They must get closer to playing dominating football and ruling the NFC than they have been in the past.

Whether that can happen in 2023 is debatable, but the Adofo-Mensah/O’Connell partnership won’t be considered successful until the Vikings can get to a Super Bowl.

The clock is ticking, and they have two, maybe three more years to get there.