The Minnesota Vikings are set to face off with the Chicago Bears, and Vikings fans have plenty of questions about what's to come and what happened in Week 1. Let's get right into it.

Flores' scheme against Ben Johnson

@AsaArnold4: The Flores Vikings have struggled against the Ben Johnson offense, would you expect Flores to do anything differently this time around?

It’s true that Ben Johnson’s offenses had good games against Flores’ defense in 2023 and 2024, but last year I wouldn’t say that was the case. Caleb Williams averaged only 6.0 yards per pass attempt against Flores in 2025 and D’Andre Swift had 3.1 yards per carry in Week 1 and then he and Kyle Mononangai combined for 33 carries for just 113 yards in Week 11. 

Johnson is the cream of the crop in terms of play-callers and Caleb Williams’ command of his offense just keeps getting better and better. I’m not sure they are quite as superhuman as they looked in Week 1 against the Panthers though. Last year the Vikings’ defense pressured Williams on 42% of drop-backs per PFF and he only completed three passes in 15 pressured drop-backs. 

So I’m not sure that Flores will do anything different from previous years in terms of broad philosophy. They are going to keep loading up the line of scrimmage to stop the run and send extra rushers and try to force throwaways and inaccurate passes from Williams. As always with the Bears, it’ll come down to how effective they can be on the ground and how many outstanding plays Williams can make. 

Filling the void left by Jordan Mason's injury

@sportsguyry: Mason seems to be a big loss, our only bigger rb. I know we’ll see a lot of Aaron Jones but do you anticipate to see Claiborne handle the early downs breathers and Dallas handle 3rd down breathers for AJ? Or does the staff have confidence in Claiborne on 3rd down? Or at all?

Mason is a huge loss. It’s easy to forget that he averaged 4.8 yards per carry last year and overcame some suspect blocking due to O-line injuries. On that outside zone run for 28 yards last week, you saw how good he can be at reading those types of plays and accelerating. 

I’d be surprised if Demond Claiborne got much work. He’s clearly a talented player in terms of speed, acceleration and agility, but those are raw tools that need a lot of refinement. They might have him active in the game and it’s possible they could try to get the ball in his hands if they were looking to hit on a big play but they are going to lean on the veterans Aaron Jones and DeeJay Dallas. We’ll see if they move up Jerome Ford from the practice squad too. 

This coaching staff across the board has been known to play veteran players over rookies. Even last week they had Kyle Van Noy in there rather than Jake Golday. I know everyone wants to see the young guys but that’s not the approach they’re likely to take in a super important game. 

Jalen Redmond contract extension speculation

@MIvikesfan: How soon will the vikings lock up Jalen Redmond? looks like he's set to be an RFA next year and a first round tender is ~$8.3M. do they try get ahead of he curve and extend him now or let it play out and try extend when he's a UFA? what's an expected contract for him look like?

The thing about having a new GM is that he’s assessing everyone and all contract situations during this season and then they can decide in the offseason what they want to do. For a player like Jalen Redmond, it seems pretty obvious that he’s a guy they should try to keep long term, so I would guess that after this season they work out a long-term extension rather than doing the RFA thing again. 

I would have been comfortable signing him this offseason based on his play, but getting a bigger sample to judge exactly where he sits compared to his peers will give them a better idea what type of offer to give him next season. 

Trying to eyeball it right now, without seeing how 2026 plays out, I’d say that he’s probably in the $12-$15 million range. That’s where guys like Travis Jones (Baltimore), Grover Stewart (Indy) and DJ Jones (Denver) are all sitting. Those dudes are exceptional against the run with some pass rush upside like Redmond. 

Too early to worry about the offensive line

@Dopp16: If Fries and Brandel continue to struggle, or get hurt, would the option be a Huber or that new guy, or would moving Van Demark or Tiernan inside be an option?

Let’s not overreact to one game. Neither of them were impressive against the Packers but it’s Week 1. They both played last year and had solid-to-good stretches, so I expect that they will show improvement and we can chalk some of it up to the Packers doing a good job mixing up their defensive fronts and causing some confusion. 

There is no option to bench either guy. Ryan Van Demark has never played a snap at guard before and Tiernan is a rookie who has also never taken a snap at guard (not even in practice from what I saw this summer). 

The backup options for the Vikings at both center and guard, with Michael Jurgens hurt, are both guys that they picked up off waivers after camp. We always think there has to be somebody better when an o-lineman struggles, but it’s hard to believe those guys would be improvements. 

Addison's goose-egg

@maxbrouse: What are your overall thoughts about Addison not getting any catches last week? Do you think there will be an effort to target him more this week? If not, could he become a problem in the locker room and a potential trade asset later this season?

It was really just bad luck and circumstances. Wentz missed Addison wide open twice and then there were at least two other plays that I saw on tape where it looked like he was an option and Wentz didn’t throw it his way. That was a product of Wentz not getting to practice all summer long with the first team. I do expect that there will be an effort to get Addison the ball right off the bat against Chicago. Plus the Bears have historically thrown the kitchen sink at Justin Jefferson, so there should be opportunities for other playmakers.

One weird week of not getting targets is hardly time to freak out about whether he’s going to be a problem in the locker room. We can say, however, that if the passing game ends up being extremely low volume again like last year, there’s definitely going to be some discomfort in that receiver room. 

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