The 2023 National Football League season is over for the Minnesota Vikings and now it’s time to reflect on what was and what could have been.
The Vikings had quite the roller coaster ride this season. After starting 1-4, they lost wide receiver Justin Jefferson and went on a five-game winning streak and won six out of their next eight games. They ultimately lost their final four to finish the season 7-10.
As we reflect back on the season that was for the Vikings, we as a staff took a look at it in multiple ways by handing out awards in different categories.
Here are our choices for Vikings offensive player of the year.
Other awards:
Surprise Performace
Rookie of the Year
Defensive Player of the Year
Managing editor Tyler Forness: WR Justin Jefferson
The best offensive player this season also had the best stats on the team and he somehow missed 7.5 games due to injury. Jefferson is just a different type of player. He finished with 68 receptions for 1,074 yards and five touchdowns, an astounding 107.4 yards per gam and dominated opposing teams. He had five games over 140 yards and three of those were above 150 yards. If Jefferson were healthy enough to play in all 17 games, it could have been a special season for him and the Vikings. Moving forward though, there is going plenty of opportunity for more down the line.
Columnist Judd Zulgad: QB Kirk Cousins
There’s a case to be made that the quarterback actually earned this honor by not playing as much as he did by playing. How so? Cousins was injured in the Vikings’ eighth game of the season on Oct. 29 in Green Bay when he suffered a torn Achilles’.
Minnesota had gotten off to a 1-4 start with Cousins but the victory in Green Bay was their third in a row and pulled the Vikings to .500. Cousins was having an outstanding statistical season, having thrown for 2,331 yards with 18 touchdowns, five interceptions and a 103.8 passer rating. Josh Dobbs led the Vikings to victories in their first two games without Cousins, but the Vikings went 1-6 the rest of the way as Dobbs, Nick Mullens and rookie Jaren Hall all struggled.
Would the Vikings have continued to roll if Cousins hadn’t been injured for the first time in his NFL career? We’ll never know the answer to that question, but we did see what happened when a trio of backups tried to replace him.
Columnist Saivion Mixson: WR Justin Jefferson
Jefferson played in ten games in 2023 due to a hamstring injury and still eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving. The only other players to accomplish the feat were San Diego Chargers’ Wes Chandler in a strike-shortened 1982 season and Jim Benton in 1945 for the Cleveland Rams (yes, you read that correctly).
When Jefferson returned, the offense was in disarray. Cousins was out, Josh Dobbs had been struggling and the most recent win was a 3-0 slugfest with the Las Vegas Raiders. While Jefferson’s efforts weren’t enough to lift this offense enough to make the playoffs, his effort and playmaking abilities gave the passing offense a consistent option in case of emergency, culminating in a 12 reception, 192-yard and one touchdown day against the Lions. Jefferson is the engine that makes this offense go, and 2023 was just another example of that, even with a smaller sample size.
Columnist Chris Spooner: TE T.J. Hockenson
It was a tumultuous year for the offense to say the least, but that’s expected when your starting quarterback goes out for the season. Conventional wisdom would say that, given everything that happened with the season, Justin Jefferson should take this spot – and he would be a great selection here. But with him missing a large chunk of time, too, I’m going to opt to go a different route.
I don’t think T.J. Hockenson gets enough credit for just how good he is. He’s overshadowed at the position by the likes of Travis Kelce in Kansas City and George Kittle in San Francisco. Even in his own division, he was somewhat overshadowed this season by the outstanding rookie season Detroit’s Sam LaPorta put in. But none of that should take away from the outstanding season Hockenson had. He’s the glue that keeps the Vikings offense together, and that was particularly important in a season that saw four different starting quarterbacks.
