When ranking each NFL team based on their 2022 offseason acquisitions, ESPN placed the Minnesota Vikings outside of the top 20 spots.
With this year’s NFL Draft now completed, the 2022 offseason is closer to being over for the Minnesota Vikings and the rest of the teams around the league.
Soon, the Vikings will hold a mandatory minicamp, and then they’ll get a few weeks of rest before beginning training camp at the end of July.
When looking back at some of the moves Minnesota made this offseason, it’s fair to say that they didn’t do a whole lot. The Vikings did hire a new head coach and general manager, however, they decided to bring back the majority of their core players from the 2021 roster for next season, including Kirk Cousins, Adam Thielen, and Harrison Smith.
ESPN has the Minnesota Vikings 23rd in latest 2022 power rankings
Now that the 2022 draft is over, ESPN has decided to rank all 32 teams in the NFL, with each squad’s moves during the offseason having a big influence.
For Minnesota, ESPN has the purple and gold in the No. 23 spot. That seems severely low for a Vikings team that has won fewer than eight games in a season just once in the last four years.
Minnesota actually dropped two spots from No. 21 in ESPN’s previous power rankings that were released after the most active part of the 2022 free agency period.
Unfortunately, ESPN didn’t offer an explanation about why they currently consider the Vikings to be among the bottom third of the teams in the NFL.
It would have been nice to know why teams like the Washington Commanders (22nd) and New Orleans Saints (20th) were ranked higher than Minnesota.
ESPN clearly hasn’t been a fan of the lack of significant roster moves made by the Vikings during the last few months. But it’s difficult to believe that Minnesota is currently only better than nine teams in the NFL.