Penalties are part of a fast, physical game filled with chaos and collisions. But presnap penalties are just mental errors. Boneheaded blunders. Easily correctable, yet not always fixed.
According to NFLpenalties.com, the Vikings have 22 presnap penalties when including defense and special teams. That’s tied for fourth-most. The Vikings also are the only team in the league to be flagged at least once for each of these presnap infractions: false start (10), illegal formation (four), delay of game (three), illegal shift (two), illegal motion (one) and offensive offsides, which was a guy, Jordan Addison, just flat out lining up offsides.
“It does feel like there are a lot of flags,” Wes Phillips said Oct. 15, a day after the Bills and Jets were flagged 11 times apiece for a combined 204 yards on “Monday Night Football.”
“Whether officials are just throwing them more, or there are that many more infractions or a combination, I don’t know.”
Through seven weeks, teams are averaging 7.6 penalties of all sorts per game. That’s on pace to be the highest since 2019 (8.01).
As for presnap penalties, teams are averaging 2.57 per game. That’s up .41 from last year and .60 from 2022 and would be the highest since NFLpenalties.com began charting penalties in 2009.