A few months ago, almost no one could have envisioned the Minnesota Vikings emerging as even a slight contender to compete in this season's Super Bowl. But after some new injury news involving multiple Detroit Lions players, the Super Bowl conversation surrounding the Vikings is about to get a lot more serious.
On Monday, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport revealed that Lions starting defensive lineman Alim McNeill reportedly suffered a torn ACL on Sunday, and his 2024 season is over.
In addition, Detroit cornerbacks Carlton Davis (broken jaw) and Khalil Dorsey (broken leg) are both done for the rest of the 2024 regular season, and the Lions could potentially be without running back David Montgomery for the remainder of the 2024 campaign as well after he tore his MCL during the team's loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
No excuse for the Minnesota Vikings not to win the NFC North after latest Detroit Lions injuries
Following this recent news about McNeill, Montgomery, Davis, and Dorsey, Detroit has now lost a significant number of impact players to serious injuries this season, including edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson, linebacker Alex Anzalone, safety Ifeatu Melifonwu, and linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez.
With all of these injuries, it's now much more difficult to believe that the Lions are going to end the 2024 regular season as the No. 1 seed in the NFC and NFC North champions.
With an 11-2 record heading into their matchup on Monday night against the Chicago Bears, Minnesota now has a clear path to the top of the NFC North, if not the entire NFC. Instead of the Vikings having to win all four of their remaining games, they can probably afford to suffer another loss before the end of the season and still win the division.
But with the Philadelphia Eagles improving to 12-2 on Sunday, Minnesota's best bet to end up as the No. 1 seed in the NFC is likely to still win all four of the games left on their 2024 schedule.
With all of that being said, at the very least, the odds of the Vikings getting to play at least one playoff contest inside their home stadium seem much higher than they were even 24 hours ago.