Vikings secondary rated in the bottom half of the NFL

The Minnesota Vikings worked hard to improve their secondary this offseason but that wasn’t enough for one evaluator to rate them in the top half of the NFL.

Last season, the Minnesota Vikings defense struggled mightily. They gave up a lot of points and allowed some big plays, especially in the closing seconds of many games and heading into halftime.

It’s easy to be a bit down on the defense heading into the 2022 NFL season, but there are some great reasons to be optimistic One place to watch is the defensive secondary, where a mix of experience and youth could pay big dividends.

Recently, Pro Football Focus released a tier listing of NFL secondaries and the Minnesota Vikings shouldn’t be too pleased where they were placed in the article.

Where were the Minnesota Vikings ranked?

Minnesota placed in the bottom half of their rankings, putting them in the third tier which they called “Ascending Units”. Specifically, they earned the No. 18 spot, stating that they have a “dichotomous mix of veteran talent with rookie top-50 picks” in their secondary.

Their biggest question PFF poses about the defensive backs is the age of veteran players Patrick Peterson and Harrison Smith. The two are only 33 and 32 years old and although they may be starting to decline they are still players who can perform at a high level when healthy.

The Vikings are preparing for the future by using their first-round pick in 2022 on safety Lewis Cine and their second-rounder ton Andrew Booth Jr. Having these veterans to mentor the rookies and young players will pay dividends in the new Vikings defense and should be seen as a strength and not a weakness.

Minnesota will need to earn the respect of the media and analysts by playing well in 2022 if they want to get more respect and be higher in the tier list in 2023.