Darren Hails looks back at the Minnesota Vikings news from Thursday, 3 September to Wednesday, 9 September 2026. Harrison Smith returned for a 15th season, Kyler Murray was voted a captain, the quarterback depth chart finally became clear and Green Bay moved from a date on the schedule to an actual opponent.
Harrison Smith has managed the ideal veteran preseason.
He skipped training camp, avoided three exhibition games and returned just in time for Packers week. Honestly, I respect the efficiency.
After an entire summer of will-he-won’t-he stories, Smith agreed to come back for a 15th season on Saturday. By Wednesday he was practicing, talking about helping the next wave of Vikings and leaving Kevin O’Connell with a decision over whether he can play in the opener.
So much of the last few months has been prediction: who wins QB1, who makes the roster, whether the new run game works and whether Brian Flores can rebuild a defense that lost several familiar faces. We’ve now reached the point where none of us can hide behind camp reports for much longer.
Green Bay visits on Sunday. Now for the bit that counts.
Harrison Smith wasn’t ready to finish
Smith’s return is less surprising than the timing. O’Connell, Josh Metellus and others had kept the door open throughout the offseason, but the Vikings still built their roster as if the answer might never come.
It finally arrived eight days before Week 1.
Smith is returning for his 15th season, all of them in Minnesota. He’s played 207 regular-season games, made six Pro Bowls and leads active players with 39 interceptions. At 37, the question isn’t whether his career has been good enough. It is how much football is left in him and how quickly he can find it after missing the entire summer.
O’Connell said Smith came back in excellent shape and doesn’t need the usual physical build-up, but he stopped short of confirming that he’ll face Green Bay. Smith took part in his first practice on Wednesday. If he plays, I would expect a selected role rather than every defensive snap immediately, although trying to predict a Flores safety rotation is a good way to waste an afternoon.
Smith explained that his relationship with Flores was crucial to the decision. He knows this system still allows him to disguise coverages, move before and after the snap and operate as what O’Connell called a quarterback for the defense. He also spoke about giving as much as he can to the next generation, which sounds less like somebody clinging to an old job and more like a player who understands exactly where he is in his career.
That’s probably the best version of this return. Minnesota doesn’t need 2017 Harrison Smith, because 2017 Harrison Smith isn’t walking through the door. It needs the current one to organise a young group, help Flores hide his intentions and still make two or three plays that a less experienced safety doesn’t see coming.
Smith’s return affects more than one position
Smith’s place on the 53 was created when tight end Ben Yurosek went onto injured reserve. The Vikings also released Kahlef Hailassie from the practice squad, while Jakobe Thomas, Jacob Thomas and Theo Jackson have all dealt with injuries during the last few weeks.
The practical reason for bringing Smith back is fairly obvious. Minnesota wants to use three-safety packages, Jamal Adams is out for the year and the younger options haven’t all been available at the same time. Smith gives Flores an experienced answer without having to teach a newcomer the whole defense in September.
He also lets Metellus remain Metellus. Asking him to become a conventional deep safety would remove some of the reason he is so useful. With Smith communicating behind him, Metellus can keep moving between the slot, the box, the line of scrimmage and wherever else Flores fancies placing him that week.
There is a less comfortable side. Theo Jackson, Jay Ward and the two Thomases need real snaps if the Vikings are ever going to complete this transition. Smith’s return inevitably removes some of them, and the contract isn’t a sentimental one-day deal. Reports say it can rise to $16.25 million through incentives, which is serious money for a player who spent the offseason considering retirement.
I still think the move makes sense. This defense has become much younger in a hurry, especially up front, and the safety injuries made the risk harder to ignore. The coaches now have to use Smith without allowing his presence to pause every bit of development behind him.
The depth chart finally said McCarthy is QB3
Last week’s Scroll finished with O’Connell refusing to name the backup behind Kyler Murray. Wednesday’s depth chart did it for him.
Carson Wentz is listed ahead of J.J. McCarthy, confirming the order we’d begun to expect after the preseason campaign. Wentz was steadier in the games, McCarthy missed the finale with his ankle injury and Minnesota has chosen the veteran as its immediate emergency option.
It’s unofficial, because every depth chart comes with that word attached, but the order is hardly an accident four days before the opener. If Murray has to leave against Green Bay, Wentz should be the man taking the next snap.
That doesn’t make McCarthy disposable. The Vikings kept him through cutdown, Nolan Teasley publicly asked for patience and the club can continue working on his development without needing him to rescue a game before he’s ready. It does make the short-term position clear, which is useful after several weeks of trying to turn every quote into a fresh quarterback drama.
McCarthy is QB3. He now has to improve without the weekly snaps that usually help a young quarterback improve. There’s no tidy solution to that part.
Murray being voted captain is worth more than another prediction
Murray hasn’t yet taken a regular-season snap for Minnesota and his teammates have already voted him one of eight captains. He joins fellow first-time Vikings captains Blake Cashman and Josh Metellus, as well as returning skippers Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, Brian O’Neill, Andrew Van Ginkel and Andrew DePaola.
For months, we’ve heard outside questions about Murray’s leadership, preparation and personality. Some came from his Arizona career and some appeared because criticism of a new Vikings quarterback is apparently a renewable resource. His teammates have spent the summer sharing a building, huddle and practice field with him. Their vote doesn’t guarantee a good season, but it’s much better evidence of how he’s fitted into the group than another debate-show character assessment.
The football question is still there. O’Connell must adapt his offense to what Murray does well, rather than simply handing him last year’s playbook with a new number on the front.
His height creates genuine sightline problems in a pocket built around linemen well over six feet. The answer isn’t asking Murray to become taller by Sunday. It’s using anticipation, quick decisions, under-center play action and small movements inside the pocket to create throwing lanes.
Matthew Coller’s breakdown of the issue included a useful number: on 121 under-center attempts in 2024, Murray produced a 99.7 passer rating and averaged 8.1 yards per attempt. That fits the heavier formations and play-action game Minnesota showed against the Giants.
The concern sits over the middle. Only 7.3 per cent of Murray’s 2024 passes travelled more than 10 yards downfield between the numbers. Jefferson, Jauan Jennings and T. J. Hockenson all earn important catches in that area, so O’Connell can’t simply remove it from the offense. Murray has to throw on time and trust where his receivers will arrive rather than wait until he can see the whole picture.
We’ve discussed the fit all summer. Green Bay gives us the first proper answer.
The new run game needs to show up straight away
The Vikings’ starting offense played nine preseason snaps together. That kept everybody healthy, which is the main purpose of August, but it leaves us guessing about how the finished version will look.
The first depth chart lists Aaron Jones or Jordan Mason at running back. I like the honesty of the word “or” because this was never supposed to be one man winning the job. Mason gives Minnesota a more physical early-down runner, Jones can still create in the passing game and Max Bredeson allows the same personnel group to shift between heavy runs and play action.
Green Bay is a useful first test. New defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon coached Murray in Arizona from 2023 to 2025, so both sides know something about the other. Gannon will understand the quarterback’s habits, while Murray should recognise the ideas behind a defense that has otherwise given Minnesota very little current film to study.
The Packers will be without Micah Parsons, who starts the season on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. Their initial injury report also placed several offensive and defensive linemen on limited work. Minnesota, by contrast, listed only three rookies and entered the week with its starting offensive line healthy.
There are no excuses there. Blake Brandel and the new-look line don’t have to flatten Green Bay for four quarters, but they do need to stop the offense becoming a static dropback exercise when the first run gains two yards. O’Connell brought Frank Smith into the staff, changed the blocking approach and built a proper Jones–Mason pairing because last year’s offense asked too much of the quarterback.
Sunday is where we find out whether those changes survived the journey from the whiteboard.
Flores and Jordan Love know each other by now
Smith’s late return gives the defense another disguise piece, but Jordan Love isn’t walking into this blind. He became Green Bay’s starter in the same year Flores arrived in Minnesota and has prepared for this system several times.
Love described the pressure as something Green Bay can get “whenever”, because the Vikings don’t need an obvious passing down to crowd the line. The U.S. Bank Stadium noise will make the protection calls harder, but Minnesota can’t rely on confusion alone.
The more interesting matchup is inside. Blake Cashman and Eric Wilson were both effective blitzers last season, sometimes walking into the same gap and deciding after the snap who would come. Jalen Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins are now the listed starters in front of them, with Caleb Banks and Domonique Orange behind.
That is a very young defensive line facing an experienced quarterback. Smith can help organise it and Flores can move the pressure around, but Green Bay will try to make those young tackles defend the run before it worries about all the clever stuff.
The Vikings added another familiar option on Wednesday by bringing Jihad Ward back to the practice squad. Ward played all 17 games for Minnesota in 2024, then recorded five sacks and 22 quarterback hits for Tennessee last season. Alongside Kyle Van Noy and Smith, he gives Flores three late veteran additions who already understand how to operate in complicated defenses.
They’re sensible reinforcements. I also don’t want the young front disappearing behind them before we see what it can do.
What comes next
The Packers game kicks off at 9:25 p.m. on Sunday in the UK and Ireland. It’s late enough to ruin the sleep schedule but early enough that nobody has a valid excuse for missing it.
By then, we should know whether Smith is ready for a role, whether the offensive line can establish the new run game and whether Murray looks comfortable running O’Connell’s version of the offense. We’ll also see if Dallas Turner’s excellent summer carries into a game where Ronnie Stanley is no longer providing the test and Jordan Love is allowed to hit back.
I don’t need the Vikings to look perfect in Week 1. New offenses are rarely tidy immediately, and Green Bay has spent the same summer building its own answers. I do need the plan to be visible: run the ball with intent, keep Murray on schedule and let Flores’ defense attack without asking the young linemen to survive on their own.
If Minnesota can do that and beat the Packers, Monday morning will feel very different. If it can’t, at least we’ll finally be arguing about football that counts.