The Vikings are moving into a pivotal season. At the risk of stating the obvious, the team’s players need to play better than last season. Some of that process means welcoming new guys while those who have been in town for a little while elevate their game.

In 2025, the Vikings finished off at a disappointing 9-8. Getting to that tepid, uninspiring final record meant stacking five wins to finish off the year, meaning the record showed 4-8 as the team was getting past the halfway mark. DC Brian Flores was largely responsible for the Vikings getting above .500 since his defense was so impressive. Minnesota has nevertheless put some players on notice, bringing in such robust competition that some returning talent needs to step up or get left behind.

The Vikings Put a Trio of Defenders on Notice

Player No. 1 — Linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.

In Ivan Pace, the Vikings boast a fly-forward, all-out-attack defender who makes his living due to being unusually aggressive. Sounds like a perfect fit for the Brian Flores defense.

At this stage, however, Pace is the LB4 in Minnesota. Most of his problems arise when he needs to drop into pass coverage but he struggled with tackles last season, too. He was an RFA moving into the offseason, being brought back for a $3,520,000 cap charge that could be totally wiped away with a cut or trade. Opting to bring Eric Wilson back while then drafting Jake Golday looks likely to make Pace’s job more modest moving into 2026.

Now, that’s not to say that he won’t earn a large job. However, Pace is no longer going to be a starter by default. Pace has seen his portion of the pie grow smaller since breaking out as a rookie in 2023. Only 25, Pace is a good player who is capable of reversing the trend.

Player No. 2 — Theo Jackson

Theo Jackson was on the ascent from 2022-2024 when he was a part-time defender and full-time special teams weapon. His debut season as a starter didn’t go particularly well, though.

Jackson returns as the S2 for the Vikings. Josh Metellus is going to start. There’s then a group that’s seeing Jackson compete alongside Jay Ward and Jakobe Thomas to form the safety twosome when a pair is required. Ward is capable of doing some really good things as a long, aggressive, and physical safety. Meanwhile, Thomas turned heads last season for a Miami team that went all the way to the college championship.

Another sneaky detail to note is the signing of James Pierre. The veteran is going to make it easier to roll with a trio of corners, a departure from last year when only Byron Murphy and Isaiah Rodgers were leaned on for heavy snap totals. Expect a shift that goes 3CB/2S instead of 3S/2CB when Flores wants to go nickle.

What happens if Harrison Smith returns? The Vikings could further crowd things in the secondary if The Hitman goes for another season.

Player No. 3 — Levi Drake Rodriguez

Best guess on this end of the internet is that Levi Drake Rodriguez is a starter in 2026. That’s no sure thing, though.

Most notably, there’s the presence of the hulking Caleb Banks. Fill-in GM Rob Brzezinski pulled off a shocking selection in the 2026 NFL Draft by opting for the injured but remarkably talented Banks at No. 18. Moreover, the addition of DT Domonique Orange — nicknamed “Big Citrus” due to his size and name — appears to further muddy the waters for who gets to start at defensive tackle.

Jalen Redmond is essentially locked into a starting position. Who gets to do the dirty work alongside the DT1 remains to be seen. Rodriguez offers excellent hustle and ruggedness, but he’s an undersized guy who was chosen by the Vikings in the 7th in 2024.

Can the 1st and/or the 3rd get past him on the depth chart? Rodriguez needs to continue ascending.

Senior Editor for Vikings Territory & PurplePTSD . Twitter & Bluesky: @VikingsGazette. Email: k.joudry[at]vikingsterritory[dot]com. Canadian. Jude 1:24-25.

Advertisement

Indiana landed its first-ever 5-star recruit in 2027 WR Monsun Sales.

If Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers make this a trend, they will entrench themselves as a perennial national title contender.

On today’s episode of Locked On College Football, Spencer McLaughlin and ‘Locked On Vols’ host Eric Cain discuss Tennessee’s 2026 season outlook.

Will the Vols insert themselves back into the College Football Playoff picture?

Washington State enters 2026 on its third football coach in the last three seasons.

Will Kirby Moore and the Cougars be a surprise contender in the G6 ranks?

05:21 Curt Cignetti’s coaching dominance
10:57 Jim Knowles adapts defense strategy
14:23 Discussing upcoming Texas vs. Tennessee game
17:02 Discussing Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee matchup
19:47 Evaluating Tennessee’s upcoming games
23:06 Discussing Pullman’s tough schedule
28:34 Analyzing Washington State’s upcoming season
29:29 Exciting matchups for Washington State

/ @lockedoncollegefootball  

While the attention on Adam Ramsay-Peaty has not wavered, the athlete himself is much changed.

It marks two years since the 31-year-old narrowly missed out on a third consecutive 100m breaststroke Olympic gold at Paris 2024, and while he will be back in the pool at a major championships this summer, his life looks completely different.

Now married and expecting a child due in early December with model Holly Ramsay-Peaty, daughter of Gordon Ramsey, the swimmer has also relocated to London for training and to be nearer the in-laws.

With those changes have come their own share of tabloid drama, but this matured version of Ramsay-Peaty would prefer to take any of the expectation that comes with being a big name and do the talking in the pool at Glasgow 2026.

“Pressure can be given to anyone, but it’s probably best in my hands because the more pressure I’m under, the better I perform,” he said.

“At the same time, you need a strategy for managing the noise and we probably haven’t done that as well as we could, but I’ll make sure the swimming does the talking.

“We can’t control every variable in life, but I can stand behind the blocks and not really care about what people’s opinions are.

“Being at peace with a 100m or 50m breaststroke race is a beautiful place to be. Nothing else matters in that moment. That’s the beauty of sport. If you can find that state of mind, it’s an incredible place to be.

“That’s the Adam people should see – the racer. Everything else is my private life.”

The spotlight will shine brightly for different reasons when he travels up to Glasgow for the first championships since Paris 2024.

With gymnast Max Whitlock ruled out of Team England’s efforts in the Scottish second city, Ramsay-Peaty will likely find himself as the leading face of his nation.

And while it is not a new position for a man who has led British swimming’s efforts for the best part of a decade, his new outlook is also playing its part in shaping his role at a fourth Commonwealth Games.

“As one of the older athletes on the team, you’ve got a chance to share experiences, but you’ve also got a duty of care towards the younger swimmers,” he said.

“Not everyone is going to race how they want to. Some will swim out of their skin and others will have a few shockers. That’s just sport.

“Being a father has enabled me not just to sympathise because I’ve been through it, but to empathise if someone’s experience is different.

“The love and kindness I can show now is very different to the person I was from 2014 onwards.”

Setting aside ego cannot be easy for one of the best athletes of a generation.

The three-time Olympic gold medallist was struggling with coronavirus and, self-admittedly, some complacency when he narrowly missed out in the French capital.

But at his first championships since, this new version of Ramsay-Peaty is ready to open the chapter on his end goal of LA 2028 Olympic Games.

“I want these Commonwealth Games to be a springboard and to come away confident in my ability to race the best in the world,” said the 31-year-old.

“Paris 2024 was bittersweet. I’d spent 18 months getting back after the breakdown and a difficult period in 2023. I was in a great place physically, but then I caught Covid just before the championships.

“Now it’s about putting that right. Did ego play a part? Did complacency play a part in 2024? Potentially. But now it’s about bringing everything back down, focusing on the details and enhancing the performance.

“As an athlete, I see the sport completely differently now. I don’t see success as medals any more. That’s not defeatist, it’s probably the opposite.

“Success for me is coming away from Glasgow knowing I’ve done absolutely everything I possibly could to finish as high as I can. If I look after the process, the outcome will take care of itself.”

By anyone else’s standards, Paris 2024 would not have been a failure. Ramsay-Peaty won Olympic silver, just 0.02 seconds behind Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi.

But with six Olympic medals, eight world titles, 16 European titles and four Commonwealth Games titles, normal has never been Ramsay-Peaty’s playing field.

And through a decade of success that has seen him break 14 world records, the Commonwealth Games continue to play a formative role in what comes next.

“If my career was a book, the Commonwealth Games would be very definitive chapters,” he explained.

“Now we’re towards the back of the book and I know that, so I want to make sure the book is written the way I want it.

“I’d like to get to Glasgow as a full-circle moment from my first one in 2014, when I beat Cameron van der Burgh, and see what we can come away with.”

Thanks to National Lottery players, more than £33m is raised every week for good causes. It’s because of you that sport, arts, heritage and community projects, as well as our athletes competing at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, are supported across the UK.

Sportsbeat

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has lauded Rohit Sharma for his brilliant century against England in the third and final ODI at Lord’s, stating that the opener has ‘shut everyone up’ on speculations about his future in the 50-over format. Rohit made a sublime 138, the first ODI century hit by an Indian batter at Lord’s, and quashed speculations about the end of his journey in the 50-over setup. He shared stands of 147 and 113 with skipper Shubman Gill (77) and Virat Kohli (74), though it went in vain as India lost by 27 runs and suffered a 2-1 series defeat.

“He didn’t need to do so, but he shut up everybody, because when you get those kinds of rumours floating around, it’s sometimes irritating. When a player has done that much, you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.

“If he has the desire to play and work hard at his game and he’s still enjoying it, I think he should be given the opportunity for as long as he wants. The day will come when he’ll feel that he’ll go, but when you have that kind of quality, you’re thinking of dropping him and then he produces something like this. First time ever, it was a special innings,” said Shastri on Sky Sports at the conclusion of the series.

He also noted that while the top order fired, India’s bowling and fielding left a lot to be desired.

“Absolutely – these guys (Rohit and Virat) are converters. Once they get 40-50, they smell the coffee. They know how to make that big score now for India to stay in the hunt.

“They needed that 130-140 from someone. It came from Rohit, good support from Shubman and Virat kept them in the game. But 380 was always a little too much. A lot of food for thought for India, especially when it comes to fielding and the bowling department.”

Speaking about Kohli, who hit his first fifty in an international game at Lord’s, Shastri praised his sheer determination and the intangible value he brings to the squad.

“He was looking to muscle the ball a little too much.

“It wasn’t easy once the ball got a little older, as we found out with the other batsmen, but then again that hunger, that desire, that passion for the sport, the energy he brings onto the ground and in the dressing room, there’s no substitute for that.”

Looking ahead, Shastri believes the team management must address the death-bowling concerns, pointing out that the absence of a seasoned campaigner like Jasprit Bumrah cost India dearly in the final overs against a rampant Jos Buttler.

“They will look back and know the areas where they’ve got to improve on. They will realize the importance of Jasprit Bumrah and they will want to give exposure to these youngsters.

“They’ve given Gurnoor Brar, Prince Yadav and others chances. You’ve got to give them more exposure and then learn from experience. That’s what India lacked in those final overs when Jos Buttler took them apart. It was lack of experience. Someone like Bumrah there with three or four overs might have made all the difference.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Featured Video Of The Day

UK & Norway PM Sport Football Jerseys Ahead Of England, Norway Quarterfinal Clash

Sussex have announced that former Kent boss Matt Walker will take over as their new head coach for the 2027 season.

The 52-year-old will take charge on 1 November, succeeding Paul Farbrace, who is switching roles to become Sussex’s new Director of Cricket.

Walker spent eight seasons as head coach at Kent, guiding them to promotion to Division One in 2018, T20 Blast success in 2021 and the One-Day Cup in 2022.

He has also coached in the England men’s set-up and is currently batting coach at Warwickshire and assistant coach with MI London, formerly known as Oval Invincibles, in The Hundred.

More to follow.

Michael Carrick has been to a World Cup without playing a single minute and the Manchester United head coach has already shown he can get the best out of Kobbie Mainoo

If anybody knows how Kobbie Mainoo feels right now, it is probably Michael Carrick. The Manchester United head coach has been there and got the t-shirt when it comes to going to a World Cup only to then be treated like a spare part.

Carrick’s moment of ignominy came in 2010, when he made Fabio Capello’s 23-man squad for the World Cup in South Africa. Carrick probably got a sense of where things were going when Capello tried to get Paul Scholes out of retirement and then considered a call-up for Owen Hargreaves, who had played one minute of football in the previous season.

Instead, he turned to Carrick, but England’s World Cup campaign was full of misery and for those not even selected, that experience was magnified. They stayed in the middle of nowhere, played awful football and were dumped out in the last-16 by Germany when they were thrashed 4-1.

Eight years later, Carrick reflected on the experience and how badly it had affected him. He didn’t play for England for another two years.

“I’d been in the squad a long time and, I’ll be honest, I was finding it hard going away with England,” Carrick said in 2018.

“I didn’t mind going away with United pre-season for three weeks or whatever and coming back, but going with England, it was almost depressing in a way.

“It made me really down, so I came to the point after South Africa where I thought, ‘I can’t do that again’.

“People would be saying, ‘Pull yourself together and be grateful for it’, and I understood the position I was in, the privileged position I was in, but I just found it so hard and I couldn’t deal with it any more.

“I was probably on the verge of… yes, I was depressed at times, yes. I told the FA, ‘Look, please don’t pick me’.”

Mainoo hasn’t yet opened up on his experiences in North America but if and when he does so, it will be fascinating to hear what he made of it all. Carrick’s 2010 tournament lasted only four games, but Mainoo went eight games without selection, albeit a minor back injury kept him out on Saturday.

England observers noticed a change in Mainoo’s mood during the tournament: he left stadiums quickly and often looked forlorn, but that is also partly his personality. He is a quiet, unassuming figure who often keeps to himself. We are guessing at what he made of it all at the moment.

But if anybody knows what he’s feeling like, it’s Carrick. The 44-year-old’s handling of Mainoo was one of the triumphs of his spell in charge in the second half of last season and his understanding of the academy graduate will be vital again now.

Carrick had an immediate impact on Mainoo, who returned to the United team after being ignored by Ruben Amorim, who clearly has something in common with Thomas Tuchel, and it’s worth reflecting on what Carrick said about the 21-year-old as far back as January.

Advertisement

“I’ve really enjoyed working with Kobbie,” he said. “I’ve known him since he was young. I think I started working with him a little bit when he was 13, 14 years old when I was going through my badges myself.

“He’s quite straight-faced and he doesn’t give you an awful lot, but you could see the way he played and he expressed himself. He was enjoying himself and to see him like that was great.”

Mainoo was straight-faced on England duty, but we should be careful reading too much into that. The challenge now is to get him to enjoy the game again.

He is expected to be back with United when they head to a training camp at Carton House, in County Kildare, after the friendly against Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg. Like Carrick, he might find being around his club team a more enjoyable experience than spending six weeks away with your country without getting a kick.

Advertisement

In time, Mainoo might reveal how he felt the summer went and what his experience was like. For now, he at least has the perfect manager to get him back to his best at Old Trafford.

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package

This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more

Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.

Manchester City returned to training on Monday and the club put a video out on their social media channels with many players visible

Manchester City included some of their most valuable young players as the first team returned to training with new coach Enzo Maresca. The academy sides are undergoing separate preparations for the new campaign but a number of their most exciting talent were at the City Football Academy on Monday to join up with senior stars.

They included new signing Jeremy Monga – a 17-year-old winger who has arrived from Leicester for £10m – and two highly-rated forwards who have been targeted by other clubs this summer in 18-year-old Ryan McAidoo and 16-year-old Xavier Parker. With spots up for grabs on the pre-season tour given so many senior players will be absent as they rest after the World Cup, the youngsters have been welcomed into the first team fold and their presence was highlighted by official club channels on social media.

Also spotted in the training footage was 18-year-old defender Stephen Mfuni, who replaced Max Alleyne on loan at Watford in the second half of last season but picked up a significant injury that required surgery. Alleyne was also present, Abudkodir Khusanov was back after his involvement with Uzbekistan at the World Cup and Vitor Reis added to a promising group of centre-backs.

Phil Foden, Savinho, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Nico Gonzalez were among the first team players back in Manchester as they look to build some momentum for the new campaign. Savinho has transfer interest from Tottenham for the second successive summer and Nico Gonzalez also has an uncertain future, yet both were present for the start of the Maresca era.

Jack Grealish trained separately as he continues his rehabilitation from the injury that cut short his loan at Everton last season. With just one year left on his contract, this is the last summer where City can get a transfer fee for the 30-year-old. There was also no sign of Kalvin Phillips, who was in discussions to return to Sheffield United on loan earlier in the summer.

Players spotted in training: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marcus Bettinelli, Oliver Whatmuff, Jack Wint, Rico Lewis, Brooklyn Nfonkeu, Vitor Reis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Max Alleyne, Stephen Mfuni, Christian McFarlane, Nico Gonzalez, Floyd Samba, Claudio Echeverri, Phil Foden, Tyrone Samba, Xavier Parker, Divine Mukasa, Ryan McAidoo, Jeremy Monga, Savinho, Divin Mubama, Mahamadou Sangare