Vikings offensive weapons ranked as the best in the NFC North

Even without Stefon Diggs, the Minnesota Vikings have a lot of offensive talent.

Ever since Mike Zimmer became the head coach of the team in 2014, the Minnesota Vikings have put a ton of time and energy into improving their defense.

These efforts have proved to be successful as the Vikings defense has been able to remain pretty consistent during most of Zimmer’s tenure and they always seem to rank among the NFL’s best each and every year.

Recently, however, more attention has been given to improving Minnesota’s offense and the team is getting close to featuring a nice balanced attack on both sides of the ball.

ESPN gives the Minnesota Vikings offensive weapons the highest ranking in the division

This offseason, the Vikings made a bold decision to trade Stefon Diggs to the Buffalo Bills. Despite his tremendous talents, Diggs was over being in Minnesota and the team got an offer they couldn’t refuse.

Some might think that the Vikings will be hurting on offense in 2020 with Diggs no longer on the field. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Minnesota’s offense is still full of guys who are some of the most talented playmakers in the league like Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, Irv Smith Jr., Justin Jefferson, and Kyle Rudolph. Oh, and that Kirk Cousins guy is pretty decent at tossing the football around the field too.

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell recently ranked every NFL team’s offensive weapons and the Vikings group landed at the No. 17 spot. Minnesota was ranked fifth in both 2018 and 2019, so this was quite the drop-off. However, the Vikings group of offensive talent still ranked higher than any other team in the NFC North.

The Green Bay Packers were the next highest-ranked team from the division behind Minnesota at No. 19, followed by the Detroit Lions at No. 25, and the Chicago Bears at No. 28.

The lack of wide receiver depth seems to be the biggest reason for why Barnwell moved the Vikings down his list compared to last year’s rankings. He believes Minnesota’s offense, “would be in serious distress,” if Thielen ended up missing a handful of games due to injury in 2020 like he did last season.

For those who are curious, the Kansas City Chiefs topped Barnwell’s list and the Cleveland Browns (2), Dallas Cowboys (3), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4), and Carolina Panthers (5) rounded out the top five.