On paper, GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the Minnesota Vikings have put together a rock-solid roster for the 2025 season. The team has a chance to be even better than last year’s squad that won 14 games and made a run for the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
NFL analyst Lou Scataglia is among those pumping the breaks, however.
Like any team, the Vikings have some question marks on both sides of the football, including a patchwork defensive secondary. The position group most are focusing on is quarterback, as first-year starter J.J. McCarthy is set to take the reins with a seriously subpar group of reserves behind him.
Scataglia recently dropped a bold win-loss projection for the 2025 Vikings for NFL Spin Zone. He predicts Minnesota will struggle to be half as good as last year’s squad that was led under center by Sam Darnold.
Guys, let’s pump the brakes on the Minnesota Vikings a bit. This team is essentially starting a rookie QB in the 2025 NFL Season, and while I understand the hype with JJ McCarthy especially given recent rookie QB success, McCarthy is a different player.
He’s just 22 years old and does not have the wealth of collegiate experience that Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels have. Nix and Daniels having all of that football under their belts is a huge reason why they found immediate success in the NFL.
The Vikings may largely be a decent team, but they’ll finish with a losing record in the 2025 NFL Season and be on the outside looking in. That doesn’t mean all is lost, as this roster is quite good and could really hit their stride in the 2026 season when McCarthy gets that crucial first year under his belt.
Minnesota will go from 14 wins to at most eight in 2025.
McCarthy might be the biggest X-factor in the NFC this season, as the narrative has shifted against the 22-year-old QB in the national media. Vikings’ coaches and players have talked McCarthy up throughout spring workouts, but that hasn’t stopped pundits from spewing their prognostications of doom.
There could definitely be some growing pains, especially early in a brutal regular-season schedule that opens with back-to-back night games followed closely by a two-week trip abroad. But Kevin O’Connell and company won’t be asking McCarthy to be Brett Favre. As long as he’s making smart decisions, protecting the football and distributing the rock to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson — like he watched Darnold do at a Pro Bowl level last fall — Minnesota’s offense should be fine.
Will the Vikings flirt with 14 wins again? Obviously, that’s highly unlikely. That 2024 season was the second-best in franchise history in terms of regular-season record.
But can Minnesota flirt with double-digit wins and an NFC playoff berth in 2025? With their current roster and high expectations, anything less would be a major disappointment.
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