VikingsTerritory Breakdown - A Minnesota Vikings Radio Show

So, that’s why, five years after we lost the original Purple J.J.—the dreamer, creator and hardest-working podcaster I ever knew—we wanted to bring back that voice from the archives. We are in the doldrums of the NFL offseason, and scheduling conflicts occasionally conspire against our “big shot” talking heads, so we decided to fill in with an inspiring blast from the past. All the old pods can st...

Do you want to go camping? The Vikings have been—they broke mini-camp last week at TCO Performance Center in Eagan and are now preparing for Training Camp to be held in August at the same place. There were several story lines coming out of mini-camp and others going into training camp—including the quarterback saga, which never seems to abate for this franchise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz co...

The Minnesota Vikings’ OTAs (Organized Team Activities) continued this week and, as per usual, plenty of news has come out of TCO Performance Center. The announcement that the Vikings hired former Seattle Seahawks assistant GM Nolan Teasley as their new general manager grabbed the headlines, while the continuing quarterback strife percolated online and on the field.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWi...

Now, while this quote does not exactly smack of the West Side Story’s Jets and Sharks-type rivalry, it doesn’t sound like all is kumbaya either. As it shouldn’t. If anything came out of the first days of OTA’s, it’s that the quarterbacks got the message that there will be a true competition—which was not the case for McCarthy, the erstwhile “anointed one,” last season. So, until these teammates ar...

But as the big-time draft event slips into memory, the NFL tantalizes us with the schedule to get us speculating on the coming season even more. So, the fellas at the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast—Joe Oberle, senior writer at vikingsterritory.com and purplePTSD.com, and Mark Craig, NFL and Vikings writer for the Star Tribune and startribune.com—plan to do. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz co...

Let the footballs fly. The Vikings began working out their newly acquired rookies last week at TCO Performance Center, and for the Vikings, that was a lot of them. They reportedly signed eight of their nine draft choices (with the exception of linebacker Jake Golday—whose “gold day” has been delayed). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our c...

With the 2026 NFL Draft in the rearview mirror (and the mock drafts for 2027 already coming out), it is time for the teams to finish their post-draft work and start preparing for their OTAs (Organized Team Activities). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Vikings had nine picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. They made three trades, took five defensive players and four offensive players—including four linemen, two running backs, two in the secondary and no wide receivers (although grabbed four undrafted wideouts). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for adver...

The 2026 NFL Draft starts on Thursday, April 23, but so does the future of the Minnesota Vikings. It could be argued that this is the most consequential draft for the team in the past decade or two, but then they are all fairly consequential, particularly if you miss on your picks. The Vikings come into this draft having done their share of pick-missing during the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah era, so the pr...

Will they trade up or back in the draft (as former GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did in the past); will they stand pat and take the BPA (best player available); will they surprise fans and take a QB (very doubtful, but you never know); or will they strengthen the offensive and defensive lines, which will rank low on the “wow” meter? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for...

The NFL draft nears like some ominous apparition quietly flapping its ratty black wings through a rising mist toward a stalled Vikings ship in still and murky waters. Too much? Maybe not. It should be an exciting time, but for Vikings fans, dread always attends the draft until that first trade of their top pick for a later-round selection or it’s retained and a player such as Troy Williamson is se...

The NFL owners and coaches met in Arizona this past week for the annual league meetings, and that means media access to some of the teams’ top personnel. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell spoke and intimated his plans for the Purple’s 2026 quarterbacks Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertisin...

But for now, during the offseason, the Wentz signing raises a number of questions. Certainly, it makes sense for Wentz (on the back nine of his career) to resign with the team he grew up following and rooting for. But what does it mean for the Vikings—and in particular one third-year QB names J.J. McCarthy? There are those who believe his days are numbered in Minnesota (we, here, are not among the...

It’s the offseason in the NFL, where speculation trickles down from the sky (or internet) and lands like so much wet, March snow, becoming frozen and as slippery a slope as any Purple prediction. It often means little and is gone in a trifling, yet sometimes that speculation holds and the Vikings get their guy. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information a...

The biggest potential free agent for the Purple, however, is quarterback Kyler Murray, who was released by the Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday. Most observers have the Vikings as the odds-on-favorite to land him. (But, at press time, Murray was scheduled for a visit and a physical at TCO Performance Center, and no signing had yet been announced.) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https:...

Reports from ESPN surfaced this week that the first two cuts/trades are imminent: defensive tackle Javon Hargrave and running back Aaron Jones. Both are old (33 and 31, respectively and expensive ($21,453,382 and $14,550,000 in cap hits, respectively). That is a start, but there is plenty more to do. While the Vikings are known to be over the cap, potential trade partners, if they exist at all, wi...

During the NFL offseason, it is time to look forward, backward and sideways (and in this case we look at the Minnesota Vikings). There is always plenty to look forward to, as this is the season of speculation designed specifically for Purple prognostication. And, as far as the Vikings are concerned, there is a great history of individual performances, near misses and more than an odd or exceptiona...

Congratulations to Sam Darnold—let’s just get that out here right away before too much lamenting and self-loathing over what could have been cloud one of the best football reclamation stories in league history. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kwesi was relieved of his duties on January 30. And while the disappointing 2025 campaign was not all his fault, by any stretch of this imagination, plenty of blame can be laid at his feet. Since becoming the GM in 2022, Kwesi has produced uneven drafts at best and woefully unproductive ones annually. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our c...

The Vikings are out of the Super Bowl this season. We have known this for some time as they were eliminated long before the regular season ended. But some former Vikings made it: former Vikings quarterback and current Seattle Seahawk Sam Darnold will face off against New England Patriots Garrett Bradbury (C) and (WR) Stephon Diggs (the first two players were Vikings last season, the latter, Diggs,...

With a winning record of 9-8 this season, the Minnesota Vikings finished just one-half game out of the playoffs this season. (The Green Bay Packers made it ahead of them thanks to their tie in Dallas.) But you would hardly know it given the wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding how the 2025 season went for the Purple. Injuries derailed them and spotty quarterback play cemented an early end to th...

Vikings need to get a more veteran QB in house to compete with J.J. McCarthy for the starting job next season. So, who could it possibly be? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The good news: The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers 16-3 in the season finale; they finish the season on a five-game winning streak and outside the basement of the NFC North Division; and quarterback J.J. McCarthy returns from injury to get the win and help finish off a 9-8 season. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collectio...

Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said before the game against that Detroit Lions that he wanted his team to be the Grim Reapers and wield a death knell to the visiting Lions’ playoffs hopes. And while they did that with a 23-10 victory, a more appropriate guise would have been The Grinch (in the first act of that famous holiday program), as the Vikings defense took away all the Lions’...

The low-scoring, injury-riddled slugfest aside, the Vikings find themselves at another inflection point of their season, awaiting (on Monday) news on the severity of McCarthy’s injury. It’s important he finishes the season on the field for both his own development and the organization’s ability to evaluate him. Thus far, complete evaluation of the second-year QB has proved difficult, as he missed...