What has you most excited for this season?

[Maelstrom88]

For me it is the continuity on offense. Most of the starters are back and I expect a much more efficient team. They should make a jump in year 2 of the same scheme.

I'm also very excited to watch the aggressive defense Flores will put on the field.

According to overthecap the Vikings currently sit at 18 million under. Does that go to Hunter?

[VikingLord]

Not necessarily in the following order, but reasons to be excited about the upcoming season for me include:

- No Rodgers in Green Bay. For the first time in what seems like forever the Packers no longer go into a season having one of the best QBs under center. Haven't seen that since before Favre arrived, so it's been a long, long time.

- KOC in his second year as a head coach. He's had time to learn, adapt, and should enter his second season with more confidence.

- Like you, I'm excited to see how the defense evolves under Brian Flores. He has a lot of young players to work with, and it will be interesting to see how they grow and respond to his coaching and scheme.

- I think the offense could be even better this year. Assuming Addison can stay out of trouble, he should be an upgrade over Thielen. TJ has a full offseason. The offensive line returns intact. Cousins has the same OC and scheme to work with for a second consecutive season.

I don't think the Vikings were a 13 win team last year, but neither do I think they'll be the .500 team a lot of analysts seem to be predicting for them this year. I think they'll be able to continue moving the ball and scoring on offense and they'll have effective and consistent special teams. The question mark is the defense. If that unit can surprise to to the upside, or heck, even return to the mean, they should make the playoffs again and maybe go further.

[cmoss84]

Flores.

[IIsweet]

Looking forward to the defensive speed on display.
Really looking forward to what y'all said as well.
There will be mistakes, but I am excited for this team. Offense should be among the best in NFC. Defense is going to be fun to watch as I feel that they will be attacking the game. Might have bad moments, but will be more athletic than they have been in a long time

[J. Kapp 11]

The offense
For the first time since 2016, Kirk Cousins will have the same offensive coordinator for a second straight year. Think about that. Patrick Mahomes has played in the same offense since he came into the league. Drew Brees had the same guy forever. Tom Brady. Aaron Rodgers (until LeFleur was hired). The Quarterback series on Netflix showed that Cousins still wasn't totally comfortable in KOC's system well into the season. This year, everybody goes into the season understanding their roles. We have TJ Hockenson from the start. The offensive line returns everybody (for better or worse, but good for continuity). KOC has a full season under his belt as a playcaller.

I believe this will end up being a top 5 offense. And that excites me.

The defense
One caveat ... I'm excited about the defense IF they can re-sign Danielle Hunter. I believe the guy will absolutely thrive under Brian Flores. Yes, there's a chance they make mistakes. But they're faster and they're going to be aggressive, and that excites me. Plus, it's hard to go down from 31st in the league.

Fewer one-score games
Everybody says, "Having 8 come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter isn't sustainable." And you know what. That's completely true.

That's why I'm excited that (I believe) fewer 4th-quarter comebacks will be NECESSARY.

Play a little bit better defense, do better on offense in the 2nd (18th in the NFL in 2nd-quarter scoring in '22) and 3rd (24th) quarters, and all those comebacks won't be necessary.

That's it. I believe the 2023 Vikings will prove to be a playoff team and the likely division winner. I know everybody loves the Lions. Not me. They're the Lions until they prove otherwise. Dan Campbell may be a great rah-rah guy, but I was at the game in Minneapolis last year where he completely biffed the end-of-game coaching. I was literally in the stands praying he'd do all the dumb things he ended up doing. Campbell coaches on emotion, which basically makes him a Neanderthal and a buffoon.

Training camp starts Tuesday. I'm getting jacked for the season!

[Cliff]

I'm also excited to see what the offense can do. All of the reasons why have already been stated so I won't make anybody read more.

On the defense I'm excited but also worried. I want to see them be more aggressive but I'm concerned they don't have the players to pull it off. Being aggressive gets real ugly real fast if the players still aren't generating pressure. Either way, seeing change is exciting. If they can be even a middle of the road defense and the offense continues to improve they can be a pretty good team this year.

[makila]

Overall...I think I am excited to simply see what we have in the last few draft classes worth of players. I've been mentally ready for a roster reset for 4ish seasons or so. So I'm excited to see if some of the turnover results in any building blocks...beyond what we know about JJ, Darrisaw, etc. I guess I'm more excited about seeing if we have any pieces on defense in reality, haha. Is Cine gonna develop? What exactly do we have in all the young secondary players? Do either of the Murphy or Davenport signings turn into something long term? I want to see Asamoah get starter reps and see if he can hold up. Saw a ton of him in college, I don't question his instincts, speed, twitch, etc. We need someone in the LB group to step up. And what is Flores' impact with the young guys? I have a lot more confidence in this defensive staff than last seasons, however we also have a lot of question marks at all three levels.

Also, I'm looking forward to the continuity on offense. That is very underrated. I finally sat down last night and started watching some of the Quarterback series on netflix and I found it refreshing when Kirk said (paraphrasing) he realized he wasn't comfortable in the system, in the early part of the season especially. Even though I hold a very low opinion of the interior of our offensive line, we haven't returned the same starters year over year...in how long? Offensive lines have to gel to be a good overall unit. You can have the best LT in the game, it's moot though if the G and T aren't on the same page. You have to know exactly what the other lineman see, read, and react to. That comes with reps and time.

[JJBreaksRecords]

The offense. With the addition of Addison, Cousins should be able to move the ball at will, esp. if the run game really clicks.

On defense, if Flores can make us a top 15 D, we should make it to the playoffs again.

[CharVike]

The exciting thing for me is that the NFC is wide open. Sure you have the top 2 who have the most well rounded teams. Neither of them have glaring holes that can be exploited by superior talent and/or coaching. Plus they draft very well. But they can be beat. For us I'll miss Cook because I like having a home run hitter sitting in the backfield just like we had in R Smith. That opens things up. Either stay back a few steps or chance getting smoked. Plus moving players to different positions I don't understand at all. Two examples are Cleveland playing G and Phillips playing DE. I just don't see how that can work. Phillips has limited movement ability which means he can't help with anything outside. A slow player. Cleveland has great feet and that's why he was always a tackle. But he don't have the base to hold up inside. I watched highlights of Davenport from 2022 to see why he couldn't get any sacks and the first one was him playing against us. He's a DL player and was lined up directly in front of Cleveland. He drove him backwards which got him on his heels and then shoved him on his back past the QB setup. Cleveland rolled over to get back up but struggled to do so. He was a beaten man. Good thing for him and Kirk it was a 3rd down sack by Jordan. I don't blame Cleveland. I give him credit for his toughness and trying like hell to play a position that doesn't fit his natural athletic ability or base.
I have no idea what our record will be. We are to talented on offense to only win a few games but we are also untalented and playing people anywhere on defense to make much improvement over last year. We probably won't get the big turnovers either. We could win the division or be middle of the pack and miss the playoffs. If we do make the playoffs I don't think we have the overall talent level or play a scheme that fits our talent the best to make a push through the playoffs. The 49ers have been stubbing their toes the last x number of years for different reasons and for Philly it's always tough to repeat. They may face a team with a QB this year which will change things for them. They were handed an easy one last year.