Minnesota Vikings Starters: Then And Now

While thinking about potential Minnesota Vikings lineups, I started thinking about those lineups compared to what the team put on the field only two years ago. The 2020 season was a rough one. COVID. Empty stadiums. The Vikings defense was shredded by injuries. That rough season started with the Green Bay Packers in an empty US Bank Stadium. It was a strange game in a strange season. Here’s a comparison of a potential 2022 Vikings lineup vs the Vikings starting lineup in that strange game against the Packers. 

Offense

	2022			2020
QB	Kirk Cousins		QB	Kirk Cousins
RB	Dalvin Cook		RB	Dalvin Cook
FB	C.J. Ham		FB	C.J. Ham
WR	Justin Jefferson		WR	Adam Thielen
WR	Adam Thielen		WR	Olabisi Johnson
TE	Irv Smith Jr.		TE	Kyle Rudolph
LT	Christian Darrisaw		LT	Riley Reiff
LG	Ezra Cleveland		LG	Dakota Dozier
C	Garrett Bradbury		C	Garrett Bradbury
RG	Ed Ingram		RG	Pat Elflein
RT	Brian O’Neill		RT	Brian O’Neill

Right or wrong, the Vikings waited a few weeks before putting rookie Justin Jefferson in the starting lineup. There’s no debating the end results of that decision but Jefferson’s spectacular rookie season could’ve started a couple weeks earlier than it did. He was ready in Week 3. He was probably ready in Week 1. 

That offensive line? There was a time when Pat Elflein was going to be a franchise cornerstone. Dakota Dozier? Didn’t go well. There’s potential in the 2022 offensive line. Unlike recent attempts to fix the offensive line, high-end draft picks make up the current group. The Vikings playmakers haven’t been well protected for more than a decade. There’s potential now that they might be. 

Defense

	2022			2020
DE	Dalvin Tomlinson		DE	Ifeadi Odenigbo
NT	Harrison Phillips		DT	Jaleel Johnson
DE	Armon Watts		DT	Shamar Stephen
OLB	Danielle Hunter		DE	Jalyn Holmes
ILB	Eric Kendricks		LB	Eric Kendricks
ILB	Jordan Hicks		LB	Anthony Barr
OLB	Za’Darius Smith		LB	Eric Wilson
CB	Patrick Peterson		CB	Mike Hughes
CB	Cameron Dantzler		CB	Cameron Dantzler
NB	Chandon Sullivan		NB	Holton Hill
S	Harrison Smith		S	Harrison Smith
S	Lewis Cine		S	Anthony Harris

Injuries shredded the Vikings 2020 defense. It started in training camp with Danielle Hunter’s “tweaked”back. It continued through the season. The season-ending defense was a shadow of an NFL defense. The defense that was taken apart by Alvin Kamara and the New Orleans Saints on Christmas Day looked more like a defense typically seen in a fourth preseason game. The safeties and Eric Wilson were the only starters still available to start in December. The rest of the defense was practice squad players and street free agents. 

The 2022 Vikings will be debuting a 3-4 front for the first time since the early 1980s. On paper in June is far different than on the field in September. On paper in June, they do look the part. Some say that it takes a couple offseasons to fully switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4. Right now, it looks like the Vikings made the switch in a single offseason. The players still have to learn and and play the new defense. I like the potential of the 2022 Vikings defense. Then again, I liked the potential of the 2020 Vikings defense in June. That’s when Danielle Hunter and Michael Pierce were supposed to be a part of it. Neither played a snap in 2020. It hurt. It hurt a lot. I love the potential of Hunter and Za’Darius Smith on the edge. Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks at linebacker. Harrison Smith and Lewis Cine at safety. The defensive line rotation. The cornerback rotation? I can’t wait to see this defense on the field. 

Looking at the 2020 and 2022 starters, there’s really no comparison. The 2020 offensive line was a mess and had no direction. The 2022 offensive line is filled with high-end draft picks and appears to be headed in the right direction. If for no other reason, the offense is improved simply by having Justin Jefferson on the field. The defense? Criticism of the 2020 and 2021 defense has always annoyed me. Those defenses were shells of what they were supposed to be. Injuries will always be a part of football. How a team handles those injuries is usually the difference between a good and a bad season. The injuries that the Vikings defense dealt with the past two seasons were beyond anything considered reasonable. That was especially true in 2020. The injuries started in training camp and continued through each game. By the end of the season, the Vikings were relying on players that weren’t part of the team in August. Or October. There were a few other things in play but this shredded Vikings defense was a big reason Mike Zimmer is no longer coaching the team. 

I’m looking forward to the 2022 Minnesota Vikings.