EAGAN, Minn. -- The eyes can wander during a meaningless December game in the NFL. So as the Minnesota Vikings and Washington Commanders battled it out last week at U.S. Bank Stadium, their records a combined 7-17, a far more interesting subplot broke out.
It all boiled down to this: Why, between almost every defensive snap, was a Vikings player running onto the field as if to substitute -- only to turn around halfway to the huddle and return to the sideline? And why in the world was it always a third- or fourth-string player who would never be expected to play?
A season can be engulfed by quarterback questions, as the Vikings' has, and still generate mystery elsewhere. This was one of those moments. What was going on?
To the casual viewer, the Vikings might have appeared to be in a game-long state of disarray -- despite their 31-0 victory. Nope. It was all intentional, a public manifestation of the way NFL coaches attempt to manipulate league rules to gain even the slightest competitive advantage.
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell explained the back story to this chicanery in a series of interviews this week, with local reporters Monday and then in his weekly KFAN-100.3 appearance Tuesday. In essence, O'Connell said, "We were trying to basically take something that's an advantage for them and turn it into an advantage for us."
Here's what happened, in all of its glory. (Or silliness.)
Under offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, the Commanders have typically used what's known as a "muddle huddle." Instead of formally gathering in a circle to call their next play, their offensive players assemble near the line of scrimmage and face the defense. In these cases, defenses must be prepared for a quick snap, a contingency that might discourage personnel substitutions either for matchup reasons or just to get fresh legs on the field.
The NFL rulebook is full of attempts to close loopholes that teams once used to gain a competitive advantage, and this situation is one of them. Offenses can snap the ball quickly only if they have not made any personnel substitutions themselves. But if they have, the defense "is permitted to respond," according to Rule 5, Section 2, Article 10. In those cases, the umpire stands over the ball -- often with his arms extended parallel to the ground to signal the official delay -- until the referee has determined the defense has had a fair amount of time to match personnel.
But the rule, O'Connell said, doesn't always hold up in the heat of games.
"A lot of times what happens is you're seeing offenses sub and then maybe even sub again," O'Connell said. "Occasionally, they'll go fast or simulate going fast and then sub. Over the course of 60 minutes, I think [officials] can get bored with it, and maybe [their] arms get tired and [they] drop those things down before we've had the legal time to match substitutions.
"It's one thing when teams are going from 11 personnel [groupings] to 12 personnel. But there was 13 personnel, there was extra linemen, and then, they go right back to 11, and the defense deserves and has to have a time to match that."
So O'Connell and defensive coordinator Brian Flores arrived this season at a solution. To ensure they were always given ample time to substitute, they would nudge officials by routinely sending a player onto the field to start the process. Seeing that player would make officials less likely, to use O'Connell's tongue-in-cheek phrasing, to have tired arms.
In most cases it was No. 4 cornerback Dwight McGlothern. Third-string linebacker Chaz Chambliss was also a frequent participant. Neither player got a single defensive snap in the game. This season, they have played 50 defensive snaps combined. Against the Commanders, their role was to jog to the painted number on the field, get the umpire to stand over the ball and then go back to the sideline while Flores decided who (if anyone) he actually wanted to sub into the game.
The approach had the added benefit of making the Commanders less certain of what defensive grouping the Vikings would be in, a data point that can be part of a playcalling decision. Coach-to-quarterback radio communication cuts off with 15 seconds left on the play clock, which left a finite time for Kingsbury to sift through the Vikings' defensive rotation waves as he finalized his calls.
"It kind of had a little bit of a hockey line change feel for much of the game," O'Connell said, "but every time that happens, it's also causing the countereffect for Kliff and those guys of, 'What is in the game?' We don't even know what's in the game?"
In the NFL, games occur on only 17 days of the year. That leaves the other 348 to dream up ways to get opposing coaches to question what defensive personnel might or might not be on the field for the next play.
O'Connell has been locked in on substitution rules for years. He said this week that he has complained since 2023 to the NFL competition committee about officials allowing defenses to have more than 11 players in their huddles during timeouts, while offenses are penalized if there are more than 11. O'Connell believes defenses use that discrepancy to their advantage by preventing offensive coaches from getting a sneak look at their personnel coming out of the timeout.
"There's some unique gamesmanship to the strategy of how people do things," he said.
Flores is as competitive as O'Connell but downplayed his interest level in the subject this week, lowering his voice to a mumble when answering a question about it. He noted that the Vikings had used that approach before, namely in a Week 4 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, with far less fanfare.
"If they sub," Flores said, "then we can sub. That's really kind of the rule, so we throw those guys in there."
At the end of his weekly meeting with Washington-area reporters, Kingsbury was asked if the Vikings' approach impacted his playcall decisions.
"It did not," he said. "No, it did not."
He did not elaborate.
