The Minnesota Vikings continue to be a darling pick in the media. Coming off their first NFC North Championship under coach Zimmer, but is it a bit early?
Locally and nationally, the Minnesota Vikings are receiving high praise and many media outlets project a huge season for the Purple. I say we ease back on the Super Bowl talk, at least for this year. An example of this was heard just this morning on KFAN when Paul Allen was talking with ESPN’s Adam Caplan. PA asked Adam who the top teams in each Conference were and for the NFC, Adam responded with Seahawks, Packers, Cardinals, and Vikings.
That seems to be a pretty common theme with the Vikings averaging being ranked around 6th to 8th in the NFL overall. After going 11-5 in what seemed to be attributed to the stars aligning in some cases, projected records of 14-2 and 13-3 seem rather lofty. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it would take some big wins against other top talent teams to reach those records. From a more realistic point of view, I see the Vikings going 11-5 this season and here’s my reasoning why.
US Bank Stadium is an amazing looking building. Not only are the fans jacked up and excited for football in the new Star of the North, so are the players. The first regular season game on Sunday Night Football against the Packers scares me. There will be so much emotion in the building and the Packers led by Mr. Calm and Cool himself; Aaron Rodgers, could use this against the Vikings and fans while making a statement of their own. It’s yet to be determined how home field advantage will change in US Bank Stadium. Over the past 20 years, 17 teams have moved into new stadiums and on average, those teams gained 0.35 wins that first season.
Other tough home games to consider are against the Cardinals and Colts followed by tough road games against the Panthers and Packers (on Christmas Eve).
From an actual team perspective, there are still many questions going into the 2016 campaign.
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- Can Teddy take the next step? For this team to be spoken about in the elite class, that step needs to be Paul Bunyan sized.
- What is the impact of Phil Loadholt’s retirement? There were already questions about the Offensive Line and this certainly takes a hit on depth at a minimum.
- Who will win the safety job alongside Harry the Hitman? This team cannot get better on Defense with another year of this position rotating every other game.
- Who will emerge as a game changer at Wide Receiver? Treadwell could be the next Irvin, but he could also be the next Williamson. Spielman has high hopes for Patterson due to his offseason work. Haven’t we heard this story before? Diggs tore up the league for a few weeks, but has he been figured out?
- Is Norv Turner the right man for the job? This offense still seems rather vanilla, time for Norv to step things up.
- How will Peterson handle losing touches to McKinnon? The Vikings need to incorporate McKinnon more for this team to take that dynamic step.
Next: Vikings game-by-game 2016 season preview
The Vikings are indeed NFC North Champions and Coach Zimmer appears to have them headed in the right direction. I’m just going into this season in the flashy new stadium a bit more cautiously than most. The late Dennis Green is the last coach to lead this team consistently to the playoffs and make them contenders. Let’s see if Zimmer can follow that same path and this time finish it off with a Lombardi Trophy in the very near future.