Vikings can focus on the playoffs now
As disappointing as Monday night’s loss was, the Vikings can now shift their focus to preparing for the playoffs. Thanks to falling to the Packers, Minnesota is now locked in as the NFC’s No. 6 seed no matter what the outcome of their Week 17 matchup with the Chicago Bears is.
With their season finale no longer really mattering, the Vikings can even rest some of their top players if they desire. Dalvin Cook certainly won’t be suiting up, but Minnesota could look to give guys like Adam Thielen, Eric Kendricks, and even Kirk Cousins a little extra time to heal up before they begin their playoff journey.
So Monday’s loss could actually end up turning into a benefit for the Vikings. If they had been able to defeat Green Bay this week, Minnesota would have entered Week 17 with something to play for since they would still have a shot at the NFC North title.
Even though it’s disappointing that they won’t finish the season as division champs, at least the Vikings probably don’t have to worry about losing one of their top players to an injury right before the playoffs begin.
As much as Mike Zimmer may want to play most of his starters in Week 17 with the way they performed against the Packers, he should strongly consider sitting a bunch of them. Being the lowest seed in the conference, Minnesota is going to need their roster to be as healthy as possible if they are going to pull off three-straight road upsets to get to the Super Bowl.