The Minnesota Vikings seem to have realized the error of their ways. Choosing J.J. McCarthy over Sam Darnold, who is now a Super Bowl champion, came back to bite them, as they went from 14 wins in 2024 to an underwhelming 2025 campaign.
Now, they’ve brought in Kyler Murray, who seems like the likely bet to be their new starting quarterback. However, the fans don’t think the roster is perfect all of a sudden, with one player and position drawing the most attention by far.
Minnesota Vikings Need Help in the Secondary
It would be easy to see the production from the Vikings and assess the problems with the offense. Ranking at number 28 on PFSN’s Offense Impact Metric, they were among the most disappointing units in football.
However, a lot of the problems boil down to their quarterback issues. Despite excellent personnel at every step of the roster, McCarthy wasn’t the franchise savior that many touted him to be as a first-round pick.
Instead, he finished at number 37 on PFSN’s QB Impact Metric (QBi), while recording more interceptions (12) than passing touchdowns (11). That gave their team a hard ceiling that they could never realistically escape.
With Murray, who ranked 21st in QBi across his five games, they shouldn’t have a major disadvantage at quarterback. As a result, the fan base believes the offense can fix itself instead of getting more talent through the 2026 NFL Draft.
On PFSN’s Mock Draft Simulator, nearly half of the Vikings’ selections have gone to the safety position, with defensive positions accounting for the top-3 picks and cumulating to over 75% of all selections made by the Vikings fan base.
However, safety was the clear favorite among all position groups, accounting for 47.1% of the pie. Among the safeties available in the draft, too, the fan base was smart with their choices at number 18.
An astounding 34.4% wanted Minnesota to go after Dillon Thieneman out of Oregon. By comparison, no other player received more than 8.4% of selections. Ranked as the second-best safety prospect on PFSN’s Big Board, Thieneman has star written all over him.
He’s explosive and fluid in coverage, with excellent spatial reasoning, route vision, and reaction speed, and he’s tenacious and disciplined in support, with sharp play recognition, inspiring angle consistency, and incredibly sure tackling at the contact point.
Thieneman doesn’t quite have elite top-end fluidity, but he’s an extremely rangy and explosive athlete, and that athletic floor, paired with his elite mental game and translatable physicality, insulates his value as a future impact starter with schematic versatility.
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It is understandable why the fan base is in love with him. And he fills a major area of need for the Vikings. Despite ranking at number four on PFSN’s Defense Impact Metric last season, no individual safety from Minnesota ranked inside the top-40 on PFSN’s SAF Impact. Moreover, Harrison Smith is no longer on the team, and he needs to be replaced.
The arrival of Thieneman could significantly boost their defensive capabilities and push them even higher on the totem pole. It remains to be seen if the organization is in lockstep with its fans, but the Oregon product would be a near-perfect pairing for this roster.
