The Minnesota Vikings will see their schedule released on Wednesday, May 15th when the National Football League releases their schedule. When that occurs, there will be a lot of discussion surrounding the team, storylines and what they will do during the course of the regular season.
The storylines that will come from the schedule release are going to be fascinating to watch. It can set up players returning to the stadium they called home, former assistants facing the head coach they worked for and how the games line up are going to be really interesting to see.
The Vikings have a lot of intriguing storylines for the 2024 season, including the return of quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Vikings 2024 schedule storylines
Kirk Cousins returns to U.S. Bank Stadium as a visitor
The Vikings have faced Kirk Cousins as a starting quarterback once before with their lone meeting coming in 2016 when the Commanders beat the Vikings by a score of 26-20. The interesting thing here is that Cousins has never played in U.S. Bank Stadium as a visitor.
Cousins will play the Vikings when the Atlanta Falcons come to town and it could end up being a primetime game with the two. We know the reputation that Cousins has in primetime games and it could play in the Vikings' favor.
Kevin O'Connell faces former mentor
The Vikings are set to face the NFC West for the first time since 2021 where the Vikings lost the day after Christmas to the Los Angeles Rams. After that fateful season when the Rams won the Super Bowl, the Vikings hired the Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell to be the head coach. This will be the first time that O'Connell faces off against his former boss Sean McVay. O'Connell has already faced off against fellow contemporaries in Kyle Shanahan (1-0) and Matt LaFleur (2-2). How will he do against McVay? That will be fun to watch.
Could the Vikings play in two London games?
This is going to be something to watch. The Vikings are already set to play one of their home games in London this season, but they also are set to play at the Jacksonville Jaguars. They also have a home game in London. Could they end up playing both of those games back-to-back and stay an entire week in London for travel purposes? East coast teams will stay on the west coast for an entire week when they play back-to-back games out there. Could they do the same with international games?
Houston Texans come to U.S. Bank with Danielle Hunter and Stefon Diggs.
Cousins returning to Minnesota isn't the only former Vikings player who will be returning. Danielle Hunter spent nine seasons with the Vikings after being selected in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft and Stefon Diggs spent five having been selected in the fifth round that same year. Despite having played against the Vikings in 2022 when he was with the Buffalo Bills, the man behind the Minneapolis Miracle hasn't played at U.S. Bank Stadium since he left the team after the 2019 season
Fans will also be excited to see a second-year emerging star at quarterback in C.J. Stroud. His rookie season was one of the best in recent memory and he is primed to be even better in 2024. That could be one of the better games on the Vikings' schedule.
The other element of intrigue here is that they both took similar paths to get their talented edge rusher. After selecting Stroud, the Texans traded up for Will Anderson and gave up a lot to do so. He and Stroud each won Rookie of the Year so it worked out well for them. The Vikings did the same thing on a slightly lesser scale when they selected J.J. McCarthy then traded up for Dallas Turner. It would be asking a lot for both Vikings' rookies to do what Stroud and Anderson did, but the parallels are interesting.
