Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
The 2024 Vikings fell to early postseason disappointment, but they’re better than that. Blake Cashman, Ryan Kelly, and Tai Felton are three Secret Superstars who can help them prove it in 2025.
After a regular season in which they didn’t have their first-round rookie quarterback at all, and head coach Kevin O’Connell made Sam Darnold a thing for the first time in Darnold’s NFL career, the Minnesota Vikings were
thisclose to turning their Super Bowl dreams into reality for the first time since the end of the 1976 season. The team that ranked
seventh in DVOA in that regular season — 15th on offense and second on defense — fell apart in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions, as Darnold turned into a pumpkin
against a defensive game plan that helped Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn bag his current gig as the New York Jets’ head coach.
That loss cost the Vikings the NFC North, flipped their postseason seed from first to fifth, and sent them on the road to meet
a Los Angeles Rams defense that gave Darnold a Gary Anderson-level kick in the nether regions, only far more accurate. After their 27-9 loss to those Rams in which Darnold put up a
Passing DYAR of -175 (which is
no bueno, my goodness), all the Vikings had to show for their 14-3 season, and O’Connell’s well-earned AP Coach of the Year award, was a whole lot of epic disappointment.
So, now on to the J.J. McCarthy era, in which the Vikings finally hope to see what they got with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft. McCarthy showed a bit of what he could do in the preseason, especially in the vertical passing game...
Kevin O'Connell is one of the NFL's best passing game designers. He helped J.J. McCarthy on two of his explosive completions with mirrored vertical routes against single-high coverage. Let your QB pick a side.
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— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar)
August 14, 2024
...which aligned with what he did in his collegiate career.
Plus. McCarthy is practicing against a Brian Flores defense every day, and few things will get you ready for the NFL better than
that particular nightmare. More on Flores’ defense very quickly here.
Can these Vikings find their way to the top of the NFL’s most competitive division? The Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers are already gunning for success again, and the Chicago Bears won’t be the doormat they were in 2024. It’s a tough test for the team led by O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, but this squad is as well-suited as any in the NFL for that ultimate success.
If it’s going to happen, the Vikings will need more than just their new quarterback, and their most prominent names, to get it done.
In the continuation of our “Hidden Gems” series, we look at three Secret Superstars for Minnesota’s favorite sons — one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick.
Underrated Veteran: LB Blake Cashman
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
If you play linebacker in a Brian Flores defense, your responsibilities are extreme. As much as Flores designs crazy schemes in which the Vikings have led the league in rushes with over six defenders and rushes with three or fewer defenders, you’re all over the place, and where you are pre-snap could be miles away from where you are post-snap. You may go on an A-gap or overload blitz, or you may drop into coverage 20 yards downfield to confuse the quarterback. Maybe you’re rushing off the edge. Maybe you’re covering the flat from an inside position.
It’s a lot to deal with, and Blake Cashman aced just about all of it in his first season with the team. After signing a three-year, $22.5 million contract with $15 million guaranteed in the 2024 offseason, Cashman became Flores’ green dot guy right away, and the stats were remarkable. The 6’1, 237-pound Minnesota alum had six sacks, 31 total pressures, 86 solo tackles, 45 stops, eight tackles for loss, and he allowed 44 catches on 55 targets for 442 yards, 267 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, no interceptions, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 100.2.
He was a difference-maker with his presence, and in his absence, which the Vikings found out when Cashman missed three games in late October and early November with a turf toe issue. On-off splits are not the be-all and end-all when it comes to determining player value in an interdependent sport like football, but the numbers do tell you some things. Last season, Cashman was on the field for 835 snaps, and off the field for 220. When Cashman was out there, Minnesota’s EPA allowed dropped from 0.0 to -0.08. Opponent passing EPA went from +0.13 to -0.07, and opponent rushing EPA went from -0.02 to -0.11. The Vikings’ pressure rate rose from 32.8% to 37.8% with Cashman on the field, while opponent touchdown rate dropped from 5.8% to 3.4%, and opponent interception rate went up from 1.7% to 4.4%.
Blake Cashman of the
@vikings has become one of those do-it-all linebackers who does everything at a very high level. Well, maybe work on catching the ball. It's not easy to become the green-dot guy in Year 1 in a defense this complex, but Cashman nailed it.
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— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar)
July 6, 2025
Tape will confirm how valuable Cashman is to the Vikings defense, but the metrics really do add to the story. The story of how Cashman found his way to the Vikings may be even more interesting. Flores became aware of Cashman’s potential when he talked with Minnesota Gophers linebackers coach Mike Sherels after the two men’s daughters became friends at school in Eden Prairie.
Brian Flores said today he first learned about Blake Cashman from former Gophers linebackers coach Mike Sherels, whose daughter had become friends with Flores’ daughter from school in Eden Prairie.
“This was October, November of last year; we ended up hanging out together with…
— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling)
September 17, 2024
“That happens,” Flores said. “You have a conversation with somebody, you don’t know somebody all that well, but it’s someone who has no agenda — just a former coach that knows him personally, speaks highly of him. You look him up, and there he is.”
And the Vikings are very grateful that he was.
Underrated Free-Agent Signing: Center Ryan Kelly
Christine Tannous/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Unless you were a tackle on the Vikings’ offensive line this past offseason, and your name was either Christian Darrisaw or Brian O’Neill, you were Not Safe For Work following the 2024 season. Right guard Dalton Risner was allowed to walk, fellow right guard Ed Ingram was traded to the Houston Texans for a small container of barbecue after 2024’s benching, center Garrett Bradbury signed a two-year deal with the New England Patriots, and while left guard Blake Brendel is still on the roster, he’s buried on the depth chart well behind first-round pick Donovan Jackson from Ohio State. Brendel allowed nine sacks and 46 total pressures in 2024, so it’s not as if any complaints are going to be heard.
The 2024 Vikings had a Garrett Bradbury problem, as Bradbury allowed four sacks and 38 total pressures as the team’s center while dealing with a season-long back issue. To replace Bradbury, the 2025 Vikings decided to sign another center with injury stuff in his past — worrisome stuff to a degree, but there was no other way any team was going to bag Ryan Kelly on a two-year, $18 million contract with $9.25 million guaranteed.
Kelly hasn’t played a full season since 2022, and he’s missed 10 games over the last two seasons, but this is a four-time Pro Bowler who can still get it all done when he’s not on the mend. Last season, Kelly allowed one sack and 11 total pressures in 324 pass-blocking reps, and he’s been remarkably clean as a protector over time, given the insane amount of churn the Indianapolis Colts had at quarterback during his eight-year term there.
When healthy, center Ryan Kelly can still block dudes right off the screen, wrestle them to the ground, seal the edge against anyone, and get it done in pass pro. The
@Vikings bet on the upside of "if healthy," and if that's what they get, it'll be one hell of a bargain.
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— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar)
July 7, 2025
Is there concern that a 32-year-old interior offensive lineman missed two games with a neck issue and five more with a knee injury in 2024? Absolutely, but when you bet on the upside of healthy, there’s always a risk. However, a healthy Kelly would be a massive boon to this line — especially as he’s sticking with his former Colts buddy Will Fries at right guard, as Fries signed a five-year, $87.72 million contract with $44 million guaranteed. And it helps that the old guy is highly motivated, and that he’ll be a major part of McCarthy’s development.
In mid-June, Kelly was saying that the 2025 Vikings might be the most talented team he’s ever been a part of.
Along with O’Connell and his staff, Kelly is also responsible for making sure that McCarthy understands blitzes, protections, coverages both pre- and post-snap... all of it. Not that this is new for him. Throughout his time with the Colts, Kelly had a different primary quarterback each season, and the whipsaw changes since 2018 — from Andrew Luck to Jacoby Brissett to Philip Rivers to Carson Wentz to Matt Ryan to Gardner Minshew to Anthony Richardson? This is a guy who understands how to help a quarterback with the nuances of the game.
“If you never have to do all of this, you’re looking through it like a tiny lens,”
Kelly said of McCarthy’s need to discern what’s in front of him. “In order to see the full picture, you have to have coaches who demand that of you. His development to understand is more important than me showing how capable I am. We want to push this guy, and he’s responded incredibly well. He’s a very smart guy.”
No question about that. Now, we’ll see how well he can hold up.
Underrated Draft Pick: WR Tai Felton
Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images
J.J. McCarthy showed a lot of deep-ball expertise in his relatively limited snaps at Michigan, and in those aforementioned preseason opportunities. The deep ball is a major part of Kevin O’Connell’s preferred passing concepts — last season, Sam Darnold attempted 75 passes of 20 or more air yards, which was the fourth-most in the NFL behind only Josh Allen, Bo Nix, and Justin Herbert. Darnold completed a league-high 36 of those passes for a league-high 1,214 yards, 10 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a passer rating of 106.0.
Obviously, Minnesota’s receiver talent was a big reason for that success, as was O’Connell’s knack for creating designed openings on vertical concepts. Justin Jefferson was Darnold’s primary vertical receiver, with 15 catches of 20 or more air yards on 26 targets for 536 yards and four touchdowns. Jordan Addison was right behind him with 12 deep catches on 28 targets for 448 yards, and four touchdowns of his own.
Jalen Nailor makes for a pretty decent third vertical guy, but the Vikings showed they wanted more in that department with the selection of Maryland’s Tai Felton with the 102nd pick in the third round. Last season for the Terrapins, the 6’2, 186-pound Felton was targeted 28 times on deep passes, catching eight for 240 yards and three touchdowns. No, the catch rate wasn’t great, but there were enough helium balls, late throws, and cemetery balls on those targets to intimate that Felton wasn’t the primary issue there.
Instead, Felton showed an understanding of how to get open on go, post, and corner routes in which he was rarely met halfway. Felton’s eight drops last season raise a red flag, and as you would expect from someone his size, Felton isn’t the most comfortable in contested situations. But were he able to do everything with that on-field speed — he ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine, and he’s faster on the field than that — he would have been a fringe first-rounder.
The Vikings are quite happy with the idea of maxing out what Felton already does well, and filling in the rest over time.
Two things stand out right away when you watch Maryland WR Tai Felton: The stride speed, and the route cuts. He has a knack for getting open. Might want to add some weight and bench presses to his frame for NFL press, and drops are a thing, but this is a fascinating guy.
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— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar)
March 18, 2025
“First pick was Tai Felton, a receiver out of Maryland who we’re really excited to add,” Adofo-Mensah said after Day 2 of the draft. “You talk about a player with the type of speed he has. And for a speed guy, he’s physical. He’ll insert in the run game and he’ll block down field. He’s really good with the ball in his hands. A type of player that will play all four phases, special teams, potentially be a returner.
“We were drawn to his play style, his competitiveness, the ability to contribute to this culture. All the great recommendations we got from his coaches at Maryland and just all the work our scouts did on him, everything pointed to the type of player the Vikings want, [and] just a role we were looking to fill.”
If Felton can control the drops, down a few protein bars, and become a bit more comfortable in crowded spaces, the Vikings’ primary receiver corps — which already has the NFL’s best at the position in Jefferson, and an ascending star in Addison — might be one of those things to put this team over the top.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).
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