Oddsmakers have Vikings finishing third in the NFC North in 2019
By Adam Patrick
Heading into the 2019 NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings are projected to finish third in the NFC North behind the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears.
During the past four seasons, the Minnesota Vikings have been one of three teams to finish atop the NFC North. The Vikings, Green Bay Packers, and Chicago Bears have all had at least one first-place finish in the division since 2015.
However, Minnesota is the only team in the NFC North to win the division more than once in the last four years. The Vikings finished first in the NFC North in both 2015 and 2017.
Despite missing the playoffs last season, Minnesota still ended up with the second-best record in the NFC North behind the Bears. The Vikings have never finished last in the division since Mike Zimmer was hired to be the team’s head coach in 2014.
Despite Minnesota ending up no lower than second in the NFC North during three of the last four seasons, oddsmakers still aren’t feeling too strong about their chances to finish atop the division in 2019.
Odds Shark currently has the Vikings with the third-best odds to win the NFC North next season. Chicago has the best odds, the Packers have the second best, and to no one’s surprise, the Detroit Lions have the worst odds to win the division in 2019.
Looking at the specifics of the odds though, Odds Shark does believe the battle for first place in the NFC North will be a close one next season. The difference in the odds for the Bears (+170) and Minnesota (+220) is the closest margin between first and third place of any division in the NFL for 2019.
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So even though they believe the Vikings will likely finish third in the NFC North next season, the small margin between the odds for first and third place seems to indicate that Odds Shark thinks that Minnesota could certainly still win the division in 2019.