National Football League

Accountability and depth major factors in Vikings success

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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It’s the Minnesota Vikings bye week, but the team is still using a combination of accountability to create success during the 2016 NFL season.

The Minnesota Vikings bye week is a pretty dreadful time. Watching all the teams that aren’t the Vikings play can be tough on fans who are passionate about their favorite professional football franchise.

However, there are plenty of good things about a bye week as well. This can serve as a time to focus the players on the main goal and allow essential parts of the team hampered by injury to get healthy.

Since the Minnesota Vikings are sitting at 5-0 during their week 6 bye, the major focus is to keep the team hungry and heal up. This is the hungriest squad fans have seen in a long time, and it’s an effort that goes well beyond the star players or starting lineup according to the official Vikings website.

“We lose [Teddy] Bridgewater, the front office went out and got a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback,” cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said. “We lose [Adrian] Peterson, and [Jerick] McKinnon and [Matt] Asiata come in and have not lost a beat. Then Diggs goes down and [Adam] Thielen has a big time game. It is just the next man up mentality. In this locker room, we know the show must go on no matter what, and we go out there and try to compete.”

Fans already know about the hardships this team has faced. Many franchises wouldn’t have made the bold move to trade a first round draft pick and a conditional pick for Sam Bradford, but the general manager of the team has faith in this team to continue winning.

This showing from the Minnesota executives only adds accountability to players who already need to answer to one of the most demanding coaches in the NFL: Mike Zimmer.

“We just hold everybody accountable. Everybody is doing what they need to do on this defense and on this team, period,” cornerback Xavier Rhodes said. “If it isn’t one person, it’s always another. There’s always one heartbeat. Somebody is always going to pick up somewhere, so it’s a great thing that you can completely trust and believe in anyone on this team.”

Zimmer may be a defensive coach, but you can see his attitude spill into the offense and special teams as well. The hard work and determination has turned around the franchise and made them a squad to be feared in all phases of the game.

“This team when you look at it, it really is a team,” defensive end Brian Robison said. “We’re scoring on special teams, we’re making big plays on special teams. The offense is putting points up on the board and managing the clock. The defense is creating turnovers. It really is the ultimate team.”

The Minnesota Vikings will travel to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles during week 7. This should serve as another great test for the boys in purple, as the Eagles have a tough defense and an explosive offense that is a threat to putting the first notch in the loss column for the Vikings.