Vikings Power Rankings: Minnesota’s national standing continues to fall

Vikings power rankings heading into Week 17

Last week’s power rankings saw the Vikings drop after their second straight loss and their third consecutive defeat should see them descend even further. The question is how far will the team plummet?

This could go either way. The New Orleans Saints are an excellent team with a lot of weapons that are one of the favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl this year. Meanwhile, Minnesota has to be hoping to hit big in the 2021 NFL Draft and right the ship after this year’s disappointing campaign.

Here is where the NFL experts have the Vikings ranked heading into Week 17.

Bleacher Report

23rd (↓2)

• “With Danielle Hunter on the shelf, Minnesota’s pass rush has evaporated.” – B/R NFL Staff

USA Today Sports

17th (↑2)

• “Kinda classic Kirk Cousins, who’s thrown a career-best 32 TDs … which will basically amount to nothing.” – USA Today’s Nate Davis

ESPN

17th (↑1)

• “Minnesota has two star wideouts who should each be nearing double-digit targets every game.” – ESPN’s Courtney Cronin

Sports Illustrated

19th (↓2)

• “After losing all their cornerbacks it was going to be a trying year for this defense.” – SI’s Gary Gramling

Sporting News

18th (↓1)

• “Kirk Cousins and the offense did as much as they could under the circumstances.” – Sporting News’ Vinnie Iyer

NFL.com

23rd (↓3)

• “You can probably guess where the Vikes will be putting their focus this offseason.” – NFL.com’s Dan Hanzus

Yahoo Sports

17th (↓1)

• “The Vikings’ defense should be embarrassed by what happened at New Orleans.” – Yahoo Sports’ Frank Schwab

ProFootballTalk

18th (↓2)

• “‘Just good enough’ will have to be good enough in 2021, 2022, and possibly beyond.” – ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio

CBS Sports

20th (↓1)

• “That showing at New Orleans was embarrassing.” – CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco

Minnesota took a big hit last week, falling an average of 1.4 spots in power rankings, landing them at 18.2 as an average placement. This week, they fell to 19.1 on average, a drop of 0.9 on average between the nine sites (Pro Football Network did not report a power rankings article).

The most interesting thing was how some sites actually moved the Vikings up in their power rankings based on the team’s offense being able to hang with New Orleans in the early stages of the game.

The most common place where experts ranked the Vikings this week is 17th, down two spots from last week. It is also the highest spot that Minnesota appears on these power rankings, meaning that experts are still optimistic about the future of this team.

Finally, the range of spots where fans could find the Vikings increased to seven. This loss divided the experts a bit more whether they were basing it on the defensive collapse of Minnesota or the offense looking pretty crisp on Christmas Day. The range is from 17 to 23.