The 1991 season was the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

' 31st in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. They finished with an 8–8 record, improving on their 6–10 record from the previous season, but missed the playoffs for the second straight year. Head coach

Jerry Burns Jerome Monahan Burns (January 24, 1927 – May 12, 2021) was an American college and professional football coach. He played in college for the Michigan Wolverines before becoming a coach. He was the head coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 1961 ...

retired at the end of the season.

Herschel Walker Herschel Junior Walker (born March 3, 1962) is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. He was also the Republican nominee in the 2022 United States Senate election ...

, going into his third year with Minnesota, went through another season of frustration and he was released following the season. In his two-and-a-half seasons with the Vikings, he failed to record a 1,000-yard season. The infamous trade that brought Walker to Minnesota never lived up to expectations and allowed the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

to use two of the draft picks they received in the trade on

Emmitt Smith Emmitt James Smith III (born May 15, 1969) is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, 13 as a member of the Dallas Cowboys and 2 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals ...

and

Darren Woodson Darren Ray Woodson (born April 25, 1969) is an American former professional football player who spent his entire career as a safety for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) from 1992 to 2003. He played college football for t ...

, who became part of a dominant team that won three Super Bowls in the 1990s.

Offseason

1991 draft

Draft trades

Staff

Roster

Preseason

Regular season

Schedule

Game summaries

Week 1: at Chicago Bears

Week 6: at Detroit Lions

Standings

Statistics

Team leaders

League rankings

References

External links

1991 Minnesota Vikings Statistics & Players
on Pro-Football-Reference {{1991 NFL season by team

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...