​In a single offseason, the Minnesota Vikings went from one of the oldest rosters in the league to one of the youngest by parting ways with Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave and by watching C.J. Ham and Adam Thielen retire. Harrison Smith’s future, too, remains open-ended. So, who are the best young players? We’ve ranked the five best Vikings under 25 in ascending order below, with No. 1 being the top young Viking. Rookies were excluded for obvious reasons—nobody can know yet if they’ll become real contributors.
Georgia Bulldogs defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins lined up against TCU in the CFP national championship game at SoFi Stadium, preparing for another snap along the defensive front. On Jan. 9, 2023, Ingram-Dawkins faced the brightest spotlight as Georgia battled the Horned Frogs with a national title at stake. He has a bit of a spotlight on him in this context, and his status as a former fifth-round pick who saw action as a rookie—250 defensive snaps, which is notable—adds to the intrigue. There’s talk he could transition to outside linebacker this summer. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell spoke about his versatility last month: “One of the things we really liked about him was his versatility. He did a lot of different things at Georgia, and he’s a really heavy presence on the edge. When we’re trying to run the ball out at that Christian Darrisaw gap out there, and then he’s out there setting the edge, that’s different.” He added, “And then his versatility to get kick inside, I don’t know if we’ll see him get much tighter than maybe a three, but from the 3T all the way out to the edge, that’s a really versatile player. And then you pair that with what Caleb Banks can be from a versatile standpoint, really being kind of from that 4i/5T on down; it’s exciting. And he’s had a really good sprint, and that kind of year to jump; we’re hoping that it’s happening right now.” If the outside linebacker gig comes to fruition, Ingram-Dawkins could be Minnesota’s third pass rusher behind Andrew Van Ginkel and Dallas Turner.
You can snicker, and that’s fine—we fully realize that much of the world only knows McCarthy from memes. But the fact remains that he ranked sixth in EPA+CPOE to close out the 2025 campaign (Weeks 14 to 18), finishing his first season as a starter on a positive note. Of course, he’s competing with Kyler Murray at training camp and in the preseason for the QB1 job—a tall challenge. McCarthy still has plenty of upside, and if you’ve already written him off, you evidently haven’t watched Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield play ball in the last three years, two quarterbacks left for dead before reclaiming their careers. Jackson had a solid rookie season with the Vikings, earning a Pro … for better SEO.