Why history says the Vikings will be a Super Bowl contender in 2021

Minnesota’s offseason adjustments

As far as each team’s makeup, they looked very different. The 2016 Vikings were a defensive-minded team with a struggling offense, while the 2020 team was able to score points, but they had the worst defense of Mike Zimmer’s coaching career.

In 2016, Minnesota scored 327 points, good for a ranking of 23rd in the league while allowing only 307 points all season, ranking them sixth out of 32 NFL teams.

In 2020, the Vikings scored 430 points, which ranked them at 11th, and their defense gave up 475 points, which placed them at 29 out of 32 teams.

2017 saw Minnesota improve on both sides of the ball, building off their strengths and working on their weaknesses to have a top-10 offense and defense, including the No. 1 scoring defense in the NFL.

With the plethora of free agents, such as Patrick Peterson and Xavier Woods, added on the defensive side of the ball in addition to the returning stars on the offense, the Vikings will be looking to repeat history and bounce back in 2021.

Will 2021 finally be the year for Minnesota? Or am I going to be in the long line of Vikings fans muttering the blindly optimistic and increasingly less enthusiastic phrase, “there is always next year?”

I guess we will keep this receipt and find out.

(All statistics from Pro-Football-Reference.com)