Harrison Phillips on Vikings' 2-0 start, emergence of Sam Darnold

How have the Vikings, who were widely expected to be in a rebuilding year, gotten off to this 2-0 start and become one of the most interesting stories in the NFL? Defensive tackle Harrison Phillips says it's all about the quality of the players and people in their locker room.

"I think that we have a lot of very disciplined, unselfish players," Phillips said in an interview on NFL Network. "When you're playing for the guy next to you, you just have a little extra chip on your shoulder and a little more gas in the tank. We've gotten a lot of players that have been overlooked in their life, gone through a lot of adversity in their life. You just have dogs that are constantly wanting to prove to themselves, prove to others, prove to this team. When you get enough of those guys together with the right leadership ... it's just been a great culmination of success."

"We're hoping that we're not peaking going into Week 3 of this season," he added. "We hope we're playing football for a long time."

The Vikings have believed all along that they have the right mix of players and coaches to do something special this season, even if external expectations were low. They had a busy offseason, moving on from some big-name stars and bringing in players who they viewed as perfect complements to the core group that was already in place. So far, the newcomers have fit in wonderfully and the Vikings are off to a roaring start.

The big story has been the play of quarterback Sam Darnold, a former draft bust signed to be the bridge to a rookie. Phillips, who was at Stanford when Darnold was at USC, said he hasn't been surprised by the QB's impressive start to this season.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, I really did (see it coming)," Phillips said. "Sam's been fantastic so far and I think he's only gonna get better."

The other thing that has catapulted the Vikings to this start is a Brian Flores-coached defense that has only allowed 23 points in two games while leading the league in sacks. It's a deep, experienced, versatile roster on that side of the ball, led by one of the best defensive minds the game has to offer. The Vikings are constantly presenting different looks at offense and making alerts and checks at the line of scrimmage to adjust to what they see. Phillips is right in the middle of that.

"We want to hold the pen last," he said. "We believe this game is more like chess and less like checkers. We can take things off of offensive coordinator's menus based on what we show and what we do. So if we're able to condense the offensive playcaller's list down to a handful of things, that allows us to work on specifically how can they attack us? And we know this is a copycat league, so when one thing comes up, we'll then focus that week to get back to it."

So far, just about everything has been working for the Vikings in 2024. They'll be tested again on Sunday in a marquee matchup of 2-0 teams when the Texans come to U.S. Bank Stadium.

From The Insiders on @NFLNetwork: The full interview with #Vikings DT Harrison Phillips, who discussed his team’s dominant defense, the rise of Sam Darnold, and his foundation. pic.twitter.com/SCpsosxGHM
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 19, 2024