ESPN Analyst Picks Vikings as Team Set to Decline in 2025

Oct 20, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings fans react late during the fourth quarter against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker–Imagn Images.

The 2025 NFL regular season is right around the corner, and as a result, this next week or two is prime opportunity for many analysts to get out their final predictions for the season.

Which teams will rise? Which teams will fall? Which teams will be the biggest surprises? Which teams will be the biggest disappointments? These are just a few questions that many are trying to answer.

And according to one ESPN analyst, the Minnesota Vikings could be a team set to decline in 2025 following their playoff appearance last season.

ESPN Analyst Picks Vikings to Decline in 2025

Aug 9, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) on the sideline against the Houston Texans in the second quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell recently put out his annual piece breaking down which teams he believes are set to decline in 2025. The Vikings were listed among the five.

Barnwell lays out a few reasons behind this, one being Minnesota’s unusually high winning percentage in one-possession games last season. Of course, the Vikings went 8-1 in games decided by a single score. Barnwell doesn’t see that happening again in 2025, laying down a comparison between Minnesota’s 2023 fall from the playoffs following their 2022 success.

“The Vikings went 8-1 in one-score games last season. If they had done that after the 2022 season, Kevin O’Connell would be lauded as the game management wizard of his generation. Instead, they went 4-8 in one-score games between those two seasons, and while things might have been different if Kirk Cousins had stayed healthy, four of those losses came in the first five weeks, when Cousins was on the field. O’Connell is still an excellent coach, but he’s probably not going to win 88% of his close games again,” Barnwell wrote.

It’s a fair expectation, particularly considering the Vikings will be running J.J. McCarthy onto the field, who has never started a regular season NFL game.

Bumps in the road should be expected from the young QB, particularly considering how thin Minnesota’s wide receiver room could be at the start of the season. There inevitably will be a few mistakes that cost the Vikings wins here and there during McCarthy’s first starts.