Vikings predicted to face the Packers in the first round of the 2020 playoffs
By Adam Patrick
Some midseason predictions have the Minnesota Vikings making the playoffs.
With eight games under their belt, the Minnesota Vikings have officially gone through half of their 2020 schedule. It hasn’t turned out exactly how they would have hoped, but the Vikings have been picking up steam recently and it has some believing in a potential turnaround during the second half of the season.
Following the first half of the NFL schedule, a number of notable publications typically come out with their predictions for how the rest of the season will turn out.
Recently, Sports Illustrated’s MMQB staff shared their predictions for how they think the remainder of the 2020 NFL campaign will go. Interestingly enough, a couple of them believe Minnesota has what it takes to make a run and earn a spot in the playoffs.
Sports Illustrated picks the Minnesota Vikings to make the 2020 playoffs
Eight members of the Sports Illustrated MMQB staff gave their predictions for which seven teams in each conference will make the postseason this year, which two teams will make it to the Super Bowl, and which players will end up winning the league’s major awards.
Of the eight MMQB staff members, Michael Rosenberg and Gary Gramling were the only ones to pick the Vikings as one of the seven teams in the NFC to make the playoffs this season. Both picked Minnesota to land the seventh and final seed in the NFC postseason bracket.
In Rosenberg’s predictions, he has the Vikings taking on the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the playoffs and Gramling has Minnesota facing the Green Bay Packers in the opening round.
Unsurprisingly, neither have the Vikings making it all the way to this year’s Super Bowl. But Minnesota just getting to the playoffs this season would be a great accomplishment considering how poor of a start they got off to this year.
In addition to two of their staff members selecting Minnesota to make the postseason this year, three people from the Sports Illustrated’s MMQB (Gramling, Andrew Brandt, and Conor Orr) predicted Vikings running back Dalvin Cook to win this season’s Offensive Player of the Year award.
Cook has certainly been performing great so far this year and if he actually does end up being named this season’s Offensive Player of the Year, he would be the first Minnesota player to win the award since Adrian Peterson in 2012.