Vikings Power Rankings Review: Minnesota holding steady in Week 10

Experts are starting to agree on where the Minnesota Vikings belong on their power rankings lists following their impressive Week 9 win over the Lions.

The Minnesota Vikings have been a tough team to figure out. They have pushed the best teams in the NFL to their absolute limits and gotten big wins over teams like the Super Bowl champion Eagles while suffering a humiliating defeat to the Buffalo Bills.

Week 9 was a dominating defensive performance by Minnesota, keeping the Lions out of the end zone and holding them to a total of nine points. Meanwhile, the Vikings offense struggled to execute, scoring only one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown.

Despite the unbalanced performance, the Vikings remain undefeated in division games, bringing a 1-0-1 record into their bye week. But experts still aren’t sold on Minnesota as being true contenders to make a deep playoff run.

Check out the placement of the Minnesota Vikings in some of the most notable power rankings around the internet!

Ranked 7th

• FanSided – Matt Verderame: “Minnesota sacked Matthew Stafford 10 times on Sunday. That’ll do.” (Up one spot)

Ranked 8th

• Bleacher Report – Consensus: “The Minnesota Vikings are one of the harder teams in the NFL to get a read on this year.” (Up one spot)
• CBS Sports – Pete Prisco: “The defense is starting to play like expected. The 10 sacks against the Lions were impressive.” (Up one spot)
• Chicago Tribune – Brad Biggs: “They enter their off week hoping to find a way to get their 29th-ranked ground game going.” (No change)
• ESPN: “All in all, racking up five wins before their Week 10 bye is something the Vikings are understandably proud of given the brutal stretch of games they faced over the first nine weeks.” (No change)
• NFL.com – Elliot Harrison: “The Vikes’ defense put on a stellar show — and Cook stole it, just by virtue of being out there on the field.” (No change)
• Pro Football Talk – Mike Florio: “The Purple People Eaters Part III could be the thing that propels Minnesota to an Atlanta Super Bowl.” (Up one spot)
• Sporting News – Vinnie Iyer: “The Vikings get a bye after their get-well game at home against the Lions that included the return of Dalvin Cook. The complementary football has yet to hit its peak.” (Up one spot)
• Sports Illustrated – MMQB Staff: “There’s that Minnesota defense we were expecting all year. The Vikings go into the bye week as our panel’s favorite in the NFC North.” (Up one spot)
• The Score – Consensus: “Let’s take a moment to applaud Adam Thielen‘s record-tying string of 100-yard games. One of the more unlikely NFL streaks didn’t receive much publicity when it was snapped on Sunday.” (No change)
• USA Today – Nate Davis: “Balanced offense, return of a smothering defense — this probably pretty close to type of team Mike Zimmer envisioned all along.” (Up one spot)
• Yahoo Sports – Frank Schwab: “It’s not like the Lions are that bad on offense. The Vikings just made them look bad, with 10 sacks.” (No change)

Ranked 10th

• Business Insider – Tyler Lauletta and Scott Davis: “In two of the last three games, the Vikings have shown signs of being the pass rush that dominated last season.” (Up three spots)

Ranked 11th

• Washington Post – Mark Maske: “Suddenly, there’s a lot to like about the way the Vikings are playing.” (Up two spots)

So, it looks like the eighth place is the consensus among experts for where the Vikings belong, which is more than fair. Of course, there will always be a few outliers among any group, but even Business Insider and Washington Post agree that the potential is there for the Vikings to be among the top 25% of teams in the league.

Minnesota shouldn’t move too much next week, as the team has their bye. However, a very impressive or disappointing performance from one of the teams ranked just above or below the Vikings could move them a spot or two, but fans should anticipate them staying approximately where they are.

What do you think of the power rankings for the Minnesota Vikings heading into Week 10 of the 2018 NFL season? Does the team deserve to be around the eighth spot or should they be higher/lower? Let us know in the comments!