It's certainly no secret that the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings have engaged in an intense rivalry since the two clubs clashed for the first time in 1961.
Truth be told, of the three teams with which the Packers currently share the NFC North, the other two obviously being the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, it's the Vikings who have given them the most trouble over the years. While Green Bay owns an all-time winning record against all three, the 67-61-3 mark against Minnesota is the worst of the trio.
This longtime rivalry will kick off a new chapter in 2026, albeit a potentially brief one depending on how things go, as the Vikings recently signed Kyler Murray to a one-year deal, with the former No. 1 overall pick seemingly in line to take over as QB1 for young J.J. McCarthy.
Any new wrinkle to the Packers-Vikings rivalry is always fun, but this one comes with a second storyline outside of just Murray himself, as the man who served as his head coach for the last three years and basically benched him this past season will now stand on the sideline opposite him on two occasions in 2026, that man, of course, being new Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon.
Jonathan Gannon will now face Kyler Murray, who he benched in 2025, twice in 2026
After roughly 15 years as an NFL assistant, Gannon was finally given a head coaching job by the Arizona Cardinals ahead of the 2023 season. One can only assume he was excited to coach Murray, who'd won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019 and earned trips to the Pro Bowl in 2020 and 2021.
But Gannon didn't get to play with his new toy right away, as Murray began the '23 campaign on injured reserve, as he was still recovering from the torn ACL he suffered late in the '22 season. When he did return midway through the season, he had some solid outings, but the Cards still went just 3-5 in his eight starts and ultimately missed the playoffs.
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Murray was fully healthy in 2024, appearing in all 17 regular-season games, and had a solid season, completing 68.8 percent of his passes, the second-best clip of his career, for 3,851 yards with 21 touchdowns against 11 interceptions, adding 572 yards and five scores on the ground. Nevertheless, the Cards again posted a losing mark at 8-9 and again missed the postseason.
Murray certainly didn't play as terribly as some made it out to be to open the 2025 campaign, ultimately completing 68.3 percent of his passes for 962 yards with six touchdowns against three interceptions and rushing for 173 yards and a touchdown in five appearances.
Now, in that fifth appearance, a Week 5 matchup with the Tennessee Titans in which the Cardinals somehow managed to turn a 21-3 lead into a 22-21 defeat, Murray suffered a foot injury that forced him out of the game. But he was only out for a short time and did return, ultimately completing a season-best 74.2 percent of his throws for 220 yards. He failed to toss a touchdown that day, but he also didn't throw an interception and did run for his lone score of the season in the loss.
His foot ended up swelling in the aftermath, but reports came in that he wouldn't require surgery and would likely only end up missing a few weeks. While the Cards continued to rack up losses, they got some big numbers from backup Jacoby Brissett, and Gannon decided to make him the starter for the rest of the season.
Murray was eventually placed on injured reserve and never took another snap. Most believe he could have come back to finish out the year, but neither side saw any point in it, given that Arizona was nowhere near playoff contention.
Gannon publicly denied that Murray was benched, but it's practically been confirmed at this point, and it obviously doesn't matter much anymore, as Gannon was obviously fired not long after the season ended, while Murray, who apparently wasn't thrilled with Mike LaFleur coming in as the new head coach, was officially released last week.
There still appears to be plenty of respect between Gannon and Murray, but that doesn't mean these upcoming Packers-Vikings matchups won't have a little more intrigue to them. Perhaps Gannon isn't thrilled that his first regular QB1 as a head coach couldn't stay healthy (or at least healthy enough), and perhaps Murray wants to stick it to the head coach who benched him.
We don't yet know when the two Green Bay-Minnesota matchups will go down in 2026, as the official schedule has yet to be released. But one can bet there will be some circling going on when those drop in May.