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5 Minnesota Vikings players who are X-factors for the 2026 season
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- 5 Minnesota Vikings players who are X-factors for the 2026 season
When it comes to the star players for the Vikings or any other team, you generally know what you're going to get, pending good health. Justin Jefferson is going to be one of the best wide receivers in the game. Christian Darrisaw and Brian O'Neill are going to be very reliable at offensive tackle. Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman are going to make things happen on defense.
What's more interesting to think about, as the 2026 NFL season gets closer and closer, are the guys whose performance comes with a greater level of uncertainty. In sports, these have long been called X-factors. They're players who could help a team reach great heights if they play up to their ceiling — or cause problems for the team if they struggle.
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The Vikings have a bunch of these. Their greatest X-factor, without question, is new starting quarterback Kyler Murray , who comes with a wide range of outcomes that will have a major hand in determining how Minnesota 's season goes. But I like the parameters that ESPN's Ben Solak used to determine one X-factor for all 32 teams in a recent article: No quarterbacks or rookies. Both categories are a bit too obvious. You don't need me to tell you that Murray and first-round pick Caleb Banks are X-factors. Let's dive a bit deeper than that.
Here are five non-QB, non-rookie players who could help make or break the Vikings' season in 2026.
OLB Dallas Turner
Turner was Solak's pick for the Vikings, and for good reason. You can't talk about Minnesota's upcoming season without talking about Turner, who has a great opportunity to have a year-three breakout that puts him in the star category and potentially cements a very lucrative long-term future for him with the franchise.
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Turner, the 17th pick in the 2024 draft, has all the physical tools. He showed meaningful progress in the second half of last season, generating more quick pressures and recording 6.5 sacks in the final eight games. He did that largely while the Vikings were without Jonathan Greenard , who was traded to the Eagles this offseason. The opportunity is going to be there for Turner. If he delivers on the promise he showed last year and in training camp this summer, it'll be a game-changer for the Vikings' defense.
On the flip side, if Turner struggles to take that next step, the Vikings will miss Greenard quite a bit. They need to be able to generate edge pressure even when Brian Flores isn't cooking up some sort of elaborate blitz.
C Blake Brandel
To make it broader, the Vikings' entire interior offensive line could be included here. Left guard Donovan Jackson , a first-rounder in 2025, is something of an X-factor heading into his second season. Same with right guard Will Fries , who stayed healthy but was fairly mediocre in the first year of a huge free agent contract. The Vikings need both of those players to take a step forward this fall.
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But Brandel is really the one to watch, largely because his floor is lower than either of the guards'. A former sixth-round pick who has carved out a career with his versatility, Brandel is the leading candidate to be the weak link on the Vikings' offense. He was adequate as a fill-in for the now-retired Ryan Kelly last season, but entering a season as the unquestioned starter comes with higher expectations. The accuracy of Brandel's shotgun snaps to Murray was a bit of a concern during training camp. That can't continue to be a problem when the snaps start mattering.
Blake BrandelImage courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings
RB Jordan Mason
Running back isn't viewed as a premium position in the NFL the way it once was. But it's a position that matters, especially when you're a team trying to break in a revamped run scheme. Mason, who joined the Vikings last offseason, has been a metrics and efficiency darling throughout his career, which began with the 49ers . He's had two straight seasons with between 800-900 yards from scrimmage on around 170 touches. At 27, could this be the year he breaks out with 1,000-plus yards and 10 touchdowns?
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Mason appeared to be slightly more trim and slightly more explosive during Vikings camp. He's got the combination of size, burst, vision, and power to be a featured player in Minnesota's new outside zone scheme, even as he enters the season in a 50/50 tandem with veteran Aaron Jones . If Mason can regularly get what's blocked and create even more on top of that, he could lead an efficient Vikings run game that helps open things up through the air for Murray and Jefferson and company.
CB Isaiah Rodgers
Rodgers, who was the Vikings' first free agent signing last season, had one of the greatest individual defensive performances in NFL history — and that is not an exaggeration — in Week 3 last September. In a blowout home win over the Joe Burrow-less Bengals , Rodgers had an 87-yard pick-six, a forced fumble that he recovered himself and returned for a 66-yard touchdown, an additional forced fumble, and a pass breakup in the end zone. He earned a perfect 99.9 PFF grade for his outing.
Outside of that game, he was…fine? Rodgers struggled a bit in the first half of the season, Bengals game aside, and then was better down the stretch. But that one game contained all of his interceptions, forced fumbles, and fumble recoveries for the season, and half of his passes defended. Rodgers is a good coverage player who has ball skills and generally tackles well. If he can make more splash plays in year two, he can be a difference-maker in a Vikings secondary that is a bit of a question mark heading into the season.
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DT Jalen Redmond
Although he isn't well known outside of Minnesota, Redmond has already proven to be a very good football player and a great find for the Vikings' previous regime, which signed him after a stint in the UFL. He was the best defensive tackle in a room that included former Pro Bowlers and big-name free agents Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave in 2025. Redmond had six sacks, 12 total TFL, five passes defended, and 35 pressures.
The question with Redmond is if that's the ceiling or if there's another gear he can get to. He's 27 years old but just entering his third NFL season. While much of the attention in the Vikings' DT room is on rookies Banks and Domonique Orange (who are the replacements for Allen and Hargrave), can new defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen help Redmond emerge as a legitimate star in 2026? Given how quickly he's ascended over the past two years, that feels like a reasonable possibility that would go a long way in elevating the already-lofty ceiling of the Vikings' defense.
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This story was originally published by Bring Me The Sports on Sep 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the MN Vikings section. Add Bring Me The Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
