Vikings big question: Will cornerback again be an offseason priority?

Before Sunday, Jared Goff had turned the ball over seven times in three career losses to teams with Brian Flores on the coaching staff. He had been intercepted eight times this season when pressured, and the Vikings blitzed him on 63.4% of his drop backs on Sunday, according to Pro Football Focus.

But Goff left U.S. Bank Stadium as the first victorious Detroit Lions quarterback since Matthew Stafford in 2017, having thrown his average pass just 4.2 yards downfield, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. It's a recipe teams have tried against the Vikings for much of the season, and the Lions used it with efficiency, as Goff completed 30 of his 40 passes for 257 yards and a touchdown without a turnover in a 30-24 victory.

His approach against the Vikings took a different flavor than the one the Bengals had used eight days earlier, when Jake Browning directed a fourth-quarter comeback with a series of jump balls under pressure. But an observer could draw the same conclusion at the end of both games: The Vikings are struggling to conceal their issues at cornerback.

They played the Lions on Sunday without Byron Murphy Jr., who missed the game because of a knee injury, and finished it without rookie Mekhi Blackmon, who left after a shoulder injury and tried unsuccessfully to return. After Jahmyr Gibbs strolled untouched into the end zone in the fourth quarter, starting cornerback Akayleb Evans left the game, and coach Kevin O'Connell said afterward he believed Evans had been pulled from the lineup. The Vikings finished the game with second-year man Andrew Booth and undrafted rookie Jaylin Williams at cornerback, to go with a defense that's made a three-safety package its base for weeks.

Josh Metellus has played all but two snaps since the Vikings' win over the 49ers on Oct. 23, playing both linebacker and slot cornerback in that time. His versatility has afforded him a unique role in the Vikings' defense, and helped the Vikings deal with the absence of players like linebacker Jordan Hicks (who returned on Sunday). But it's also perhaps been a response to a lack of depth at positions like cornerback, where the Vikings have used a corner in the slot less than almost every team in the league this season.

The Vikings will try to get Blackmon ready for Sunday's game against the Packers, and hope for a return from Murphy after he missed all three days of practice last week. Whenever their season ends, they'll likely have to make cornerback one of their key areas to address before 2024. Evans worked to learn safer tackling techniques last offseason, but missed a pair of tackles on Sunday and gave up several completions a week after Tee Higgins beat him for a game-tying touchdown in Cincinnati. Blackmon has shown bright spots in coverage in the second half of the season, and could be in line for a larger role in 2024, but will need to improve against bigger receivers.

"It's been critical," O'Connell said on Friday, of the Vikings' play against big receivers at the ends of games. "I mean, you look at some of those plays and you got to credit some of the — whether it's [Courtland] Sutton or whether it's Higgins — that's what they do They're 50/50 elite ball trackers and finishers on the football, and even though you can be right there to make a play, I always go back to what was your role and responsibility — where's my leverage supposed to be? Where am I supposed to be in regard to where my help may be to try to maximize not having it be a one-on-one? Can we get a second Viking or multiple guys to the party over there?

"We've had some plays made on us, and credit the quarterbacks for putting it in a spot for those guys going and getting it and those guys making the play. But we work the drills, we bring guys in here that we feel have good ball skills and guys that can make plays on the football when they get their [opportunities]."

Murphy, who missed eight games for Arizona in 2022, hadn't missed a game for the Vikings before Sunday, but is only signed through 2024, when he'll carry a $10.25 million cap number.

Though they've taken a corner in the second round each of the past two years, the Vikings could look at their options again in a class that could have a handful of first-round talents like Alabama's Kool-Aid McKinstry and Clemson's Nate Wiggins. The free-agent class could include some (expensive) talents like the Bears' Jaylon Johnson, and the Vikings figure to continue to develop players like Blackmon.

But the cornerback position is rarely far from the top of a team's shopping list in the modern NFL, and several moments this month suggest it could be a priority for the Vikings again.