Vikings #25 In ESPN Preseason Power Rankings

Why are the ESPN preseason power rankings any more credible than anyone else’s preseason power rankings? Actually they’re not. At this point everyone is guessing. Some guys are making more educated guesses than others but in the end it’s all just conjecture based on roster changes and early injuries and stuff. Nobody’s played anybody yet obviously, so nobody really knows who’s any good.

I say all this in preface to the revelation that ESPN has placed our Minnesota Vikings 25th in their preseason power rankings, two spots lower than they finished at the end of 2010. Clearly the ESPN football wonks do not believe the Vikings have improved this offseason and think they may even have slid a little. But like I said, they don’t really know any more than anyone else. It could be the Vikings are in for a tough season after losing several defensive starters, suffering upheaval on their offensive line, watching their #1 receiver leave town and installing a new offense with a new quarterback coming off a terrible year.

Dang, when you put it that way, 25 is probably just about right for the Vikings. That’s where you put a team that had a bad year and is now trying to shake things up with new players and a new offensive system. Hopefully the Vikings will rise as the season progresses and not slip.

By the way, guess who’s #1? I think you probably know. They play to the east of Minneapolis and have very dumb fans. It’s also worth noting that ESPN is not yet ready to start chugging the same Detroit Lions kool aid a lot of other people have been partaking of lately. They’ve got Detroit at 18. They note that Detroit has “sleeper” written all over them. Yeah but this training camp they also have “injury-riddled” written all over them. It’s just simply way too early to tell on any of this.

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