Minnesota
Most Valuable Minnesota Vikings Players So Far (Week 5)
The Minnesota Vikings have raced out to a 4-0 start under Kevin O’Connell in 2024. Any talk of early season MVPs must mention both the head coach and the yin to his yang, defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who has every offense in the NFL sweating the moment they have to lineup opposite of the Vikings.
KOC is the odds-on favorite to win coach of the year, everywhere you look, and for good reason. One could argue Flores should be right up there with him. But this is about the guys in between the white lines. There have been several key contributors on the field as well, some more obvious than others.
Of course, certain positions will always generate prominent consideration for individual awards. Given what the Vikings have done this season, and where they came from just a year ago, there should be a level of nuance to this discussion as well. There are a few different players that stand out.
Sam Darnold is obvious choice for Minnesota Vikings MVP through 4 weeks
When the Minnesota Vikings allowed Kirk Cousins to chase the money in Atlanta, they pivoted to a bridge quarterback. Sam Darnold was a guy that O’Connell thought he could make something out of, and it has turned out to be incredibly fruitful.
Three touchdown passes for Sam Darnold 🔥
📺: #HOUvsMIN on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/BMIjnHKWOp— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024
Not only has Sam Darnold mostly avoided terminal mistakes, he’s been exceptional. We wanted a guy who wasn’t going to throw away too many games. Instead, we got a guy who’s been throwing the Minnesota Vikings to weekly victories. This is a supporting cast he has never previously worked with before, yet everything has clicked.
- Sam Darnold 2024 Stats: 73-of-106 | 68.9 % | 932 Yds | 11 TD | 10.4 TD% | 3 Int
Darnold’s 11 passing touchdowns lead the league, and he has thrown just three interceptions. His 68.9% completion rate is nearly 10% better than his career average, and he has developed immediate chemistry with his teammates. Darnold is the favorite for Minnesota’s MVP right now, and he’s among the leading candidates across the entire league.
Aaron Jones is so much better than Alexander Mattison
It’s weird to consider a running back as a catalyst for a team in this day and age. That said, Aaron Jones has revitalized a position that was awful for the team just a year ago. After Alexander Mattison went belly-up, Minnesota had few answers. Jones has come over from Green Bay and has been better than expected for a 29-year-old back.
Jones finds himself eighth among leading rushers this season, with 321 yards on the ground. He’s one spot (eight yards) behind Josh Jacobs, who took over for him in Green Bay. Beyond what he provides in the run game, Aaron gives so much everywhere else. He has 143 receiving yards this year, less than 50 yards shy of what Mattison put up all of last season.
He’s also a leader and great human being, just ask his old QB, Aaron Rodgers, or his new head coach (below). The Vikings locker room has loved having Jones, and he has loved being here. It’s been a perfect fit, and his place in the offense has helped Darnold open up options at multiple levels.
Aaron Jones is Awesome and Everyone Knows It
Coach O’Connell talks about the value that Aaron Jones brings to the team pic.twitter.com/o1pfawA2OG
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 2, 2024
Don’t forget about Stephon Gilmore
Coming into the season, there were serious questions about the Minnesota Vikings’ secondary. Depth was going to be an issue, and the veteran presence of Byron Murphy Jr. and Shaq Griffin wasn’t necessarily seen as enough. Stephon Gilmore’s acquisition added to the top and made everyone else better.
Opposing quarterbacks have consistently shied away from him thus far this season. Gilmore has just a single pass deflection, and it’s a byproduct of signal callers not even wanting to mess with him. That’s why the 34-year-old veteran has become the forgotten hero of a shockingly undefeated Minnesota Vikings.
Even in the latter stages of his career, Gilmore has proven to be every bit the shutdown cornerback he promised to be. With or without training camp. The defense is rolling. Much of that is due to Brian Flores and the Vikings’ incredible pass rush. But the secondary has been the most pleasant surprise of this hot start, and that is in large part thanks to Stephon Gilmore.
The biggest difference between the Vikings defense this season versus last season is the CB play.
This season – Stephon Gilmore, Byron Murphy Jr, Shaquil Griffin
Last season – Byron Murphy Jr, Akayleb Evans, Mekhi Blackmon
The veteran presence in the DB room has made a huge…
— Joel Moran (@joelvmoran) September 30, 2024
The Minnesota Vikings MVP Nobody is Talking About
Much of that success can be attributed to the addition of Stephon Gilmore. This is a guy who landed with the Vikings, just before the start of the regular season, because he wanted to play for a winning team where he could make a difference. So far, so good.
Without the breakout performances of the three players above, all of which were free agent additions this offseason, the Minnesota Vikings would not be 4-0. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah deserves credit for an incredible run in free agency, over the spring/summer. He worked with his two superstar coaches for what currently looks like one of the best offseasons in team history.
More About:Minnesota Vikings
US Bank vice chair and chief administration officer Terry Dolan is believed to have been a passenger on the small plane that crashed into a house in a northern suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, the bank announced on Sunday, according to NBC News.
A bank spokesperson clarified that the small plane was registered to Dolan, NBC continued.
Brooklyn Park Fire Chief Shawn Conway stated at a Saturday news conference that while it is unclear how many people were onboard the plane, there were no survivors.
The plane was a single-engine SOCATA TBM7, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. This plane model is able to carry six people.
The plane crashed into a home, causing a fire, Conway confirmed. The home was completely destroyed, CBS News added, with a neighboring home experiencing “minor damage to the siding and yard,” CBS added, quoting the fire department.
“A SOCATA TBM7 crashed in a residential area in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, around 12:20 p.m. local time on Saturday, March 29. The plane departed from Des Moines International Airport in Iowa and was headed to Anoka County-Blaine Airport in Minneapolis. We do not yet know how many people were on board,” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated on Saturday.
“The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide any updates,” the FAA confirmed.
“The investigation is just getting started. We don’t have a lot of answers right now,” NTSB aviation accident investigator Tim Sorensen commented, according to CNN.
Investigators will examine “all other aspects that may have affected the operation, such as the weather, such as the background experience of the pilot, the status of the aircraft, maintenance of the aircraft,” Sorensen added.
Two people live inside the home, but only one was inside at the time, and they were able to escape to safety, Brooklyn Park authorities announced.
Political and local responses
Minnesota Governor and recent Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz posted on social media that he was closely monitoring the situation and was “grateful to the first responders answering the call.”
My team is in touch with local officials on the scene in Brooklyn Park and we are monitoring the situation closely.Grateful to the first responders answering the call. https://t.co/D4mGfPIaD6
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) March 29, 2025
Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston thanked Walz for his support, CNN reported.
A neighbor, quoted by USA Today, told local CBS news affiliate WCCO-TV that her “whole house shook like I’d never seen” before they “ran and looked out the window and saw the billowing smoke.”
Another neighbor told ABC-affiliate KSTP that she “can’t imagine this happening to anybody.”
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Washington:
At least one person was killed after a small plane flying from Iowa to Minnesota in the United States crashed into a house in a Minneapolis suburb Saturday. The house caught fire after the aircraft crashed into it and was destroyed, but its residents were not hurt, Brooklyn Park spokesperson Risikat Adesaogun said.
Investigators said it was not yet known how many people were aboard the single-engine SOCATA TBM7 aircraft, but reports said there were no survivors among the passengers.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the aircraft departed from the Des Moines International Airport with a destination of the Anoka County-Blaine Airport, located in another Minneapolis suburb. It crashed in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. The city of 82,000 people lies about 11 miles to the north of the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
Videos of the crash on social media show the aircraft free-falling from the sky before crashing into the residential area.
Minnesota Plane Crash: A tragic plane crash shook Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, when a single-engine SOCATA TBM7 slammed into a home at 10792 Kyle Avenue just after noon on Saturday. The aircraft, en route from Des Moines International Airport to Anoka County-Blaine Airport, erupted… pic.twitter.com/w4GitAqIVt
— John Cremeans (@JohnCremeansX) March 30, 2025
Other footage shows that the house the plane crashed into was engulfed by flames as members of the local fire department attempted to put it out.
NEW: Plane crashes into a home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota causing the home to burst into flames.
According to local officials, no one was injured inside the home. They do not know the cause of the crash at this time.
Governor Tim Walz says his “team is in touch with… pic.twitter.com/qYaJhP1Asa
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 29, 2025
According to Brooklyn Park Fire Chief Shawn Conway, the blaze had developed into a “fully involved structure fire” by the time the fire department arrived at the scene.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz said his team was “in touch with local officials on the scene in Brooklyn Park and we are monitoring the situation closely”.
“Grateful to the first responders answering the call,” he added.
The crash follows a number of such tragedies and near misses since US President Donald Trump and his cabinet started making cuts to federal agencies. Hundreds of employees responsible for aiding air safety were fired under the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures, according to the Associated Press.
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