What happened the last time the Vikings started a season at 5-1?

With their win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings have begun their season with a 5-1 record for the first time since 2016.

By defeating the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings improved their record for the 2022 season to 5-1. In their first year with Kevin O’Connell as their head coach, the Vikings are sitting with a 5-1 record for the first time since 2016.

Hopefully, Minnesota’s season turns out much differently than how things went in 2016, as that team actually failed to even qualify for the playoffs.

Unlike the 2016 team, however, the performance of the current Vikings squad appears to be heading in the right direction, and missing the postseason seems nearly impossible.

What happened the last time the Minnesota Vikings started a season with a 5-1 record?

While Minnesota was able to achieve their 5-1 record with a win over the Dolphins on Sunday, the 2016 Vikings actually stumbled into their 5-1 record.

Minnesota began the 2016 campaign by winning each of their first five games. It was a bit of a surprise, especially since the Vikings were forced to make a trade for Sam Bradford right before the start of the season after their starting quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater, suffered a severe knee injury.

Bradford appeared to be a great fit for Minnesota’s offense during their first five games of 2016. The Vikings were also able to get off to a great start despite running back Adrian Peterson suffering a significant injury of his own in a Week 2 win over the Green Bay Packers.

Minnesota’s success in 2016 turned out to be short-lived, however. Injuries began to pile up and this ultimately resulted in the Vikings losing eight of their final 11 games of the season.

Minnesota finished the 2016 campaign with a disappointing 8-8 record. A mark that didn’t really seem possible after the Vikings got off to such a great start.

Despite their poor finish, there were a few good things that came out of the 2016 season for Minnesota. The Vikings saw the emergence of Adam Thielen as a starting wide receiver, Stefon Diggs continued his development into one of the NFL’s top receivers, Danielle Hunter racked up 12.5 sacks without starting a single game, and Minnesota sent five players to the Pro Bowl.