Minnesota Vikings climb in NFL power rankings after Week 4 win

Vikings power rankings heading into Week 5

In last week’s power rankings, experts were as low as ever on the Vikings, placing them in the bottom half of the power rankings with some of them being extremely low to the bottom of the barrel.

While Week 3 offered more hope for Minnesota and the team’s fans, another loss added to their record makes things look bleak. But how did the experts react to this polarizing performance from the purple and gold in their most recent power rankings? Let’s take a look.

Bleacher Report

18th (↑ 4)

• “Justin Jefferson looks like an absolute star.” – B/R NFL Staff

USA Today Sports

20th (↑ 2)

•  “Next, Mike Zimmer’s inexperienced corners get thrown into the fire against Russell Wilson.” – USA Today’s Nate Davis

ESPN

21st (No change)

• “The Vikings grabbed their first win of the season by beating an inept Houston squad.” – ESPN’s NFL Nation

Sports Illustrated

18th (↑ 6)

• “The passing game came to life on Sunday, and Justin Jefferson looks like he’s ahead of schedule as Diggs’s replacement.” – Albert Breer

Sporting News

22nd (↑ 6)

• “The Vikings have accepted their defense can’t stop much so they have broken out of their offensive shell.” – Sporting News’ Vinnie Iyer

NFL.com

17th (↑ 3)

• “The Vikings took their season off life support with a narrow win over the Texans.”  – NFL.com’s Dan Hanzus

Yahoo Sports

19th (↑ 6)

• “Dalvin Cook has come alive the past couple weeks and Justin Jefferson has been a revelation.” – Yahoo Sports’ Frank Schwab

Pro Football Network

18nd (↑ 4)

• “Dalvin Cook continues to have an excellent season, gashing a bad Texans run defense for 130 yards.” – Pro Football Network’s Matt Williamson

ProFootballTalk

25th (↑ 5)

• “#LetDalvinCook” – ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio

CBS Sports

23rd (↑ 6)

• “They got their first victory of the season to save it” – CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco

The Dynasty Draft Room

18th (↑ 1)

• “There is plenty of talent and potential on this team.” – TDDR’s Zack Patraw

This week, the average placement of Minnesota among these power rankings is 19.9, up 4.4 from last week. That means experts are seeing some potential in the Vikings after seeing their offense at work and their defense starting to come together.

The most common spot to find the purple and gold is at 18, two spots up from the mode of 20 from last week. It turns out beating a winless team can still help people to believe a team is on the upswing.

It seems as though experts are still a bit all over the place. Minnesota is slotted anywhere between 17 and 25 in their rankings. Thankfully, a range of eight is a little tighter than last week’s 10, so maybe the experts are getting closer to a consensus.