The Vikings head into the 2022 season brimming with confidence. They’ve got a new coaching staff, a new culture, and a talented roster on both sides of the ball. There are still plenty of questions that need to be answered when the games begin, but the Vikings are carrying themselves like a team that expects to compete for the NFC North title and get to the playoffs.
Outside of their building, expectations aren’t quite as high. The national opinion of the Vikings seems to be that they will remain mediocre in 2022 despite the new regime leading the way.
Take Sports Illustrated national NFL writers Conor Orr and Gary Gramling, for example. Orr recently predicted every game of the season, and he has the Vikings going 8-9 once again. Gramling, in his NFC North previewpredicted a 7-10 record for Minnesota in Kevin O’Connell’s first season.
“The Vikings, as I’ve mentioned a few times this offseason, are a team I would have liked to sneak into the playoffs,” Orr wrote. “While I didn’t plan it this way, getting them into a tiebreaker scenario to miss out on the last spot in the NFC felt perfect. They are an ideal bounceback candidate, with the heaviness of the Mike Zimmer era lifting a bit and a new offensive play-caller coming in to work with the efficient Kirk Cousins. I have the Vikings pulling two relative stunners, beating Green Bay in the opener and Dallas later in the season, but the rest of the season is Minnesota winning the coin-flip games they probably should. I think this is possible by virtue of changing their defensive scheme and upgrading their offensive staff.”
Orr has the Packers cruising to their fourth straight division title at 13-4.
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Gramming isn’t quite as high on the Packers, picking them to go 11-6. But he has the Lions finishing in second place at 9-8, with the Vikings getting worse and falling down to third.
Best Case: The Sean McVay coaching tree does it again as O’Connell coaxes a stunning season out of QB Kirk Cousins, while Jefferson wins Offensive Player of the Year honors. Thanks to a smoke-and-mirrors defense, the Vikings got to 10 wins and the playoffs.
Worst Case: Cousins is no Matthew Stafford, and it shows as O’Connell’s offense remains middling. Meanwhile, a secondary that’s one part too old and one part too young struggles, particularly without Zimmer there to coach it up. Minnesota finishes 2022 thinking “rebuild.”
It’s interesting to compare the optimism brewing within the Vikings fan base with the more grounded perspective of outside analysts. That disparity isn’t unique to the Vikings, of course. Basically every fan base talks themselves into their team being good heading into a given season.
But although optimism is understandable and arguably justified, it’s worth noting that the Vikings still have plenty of questions to answer this season. From Kirk Cousins’ ceiling to the interior offensive line and the secondary, there are potential weaknesses that could hold back an otherwise talented roster.
It’ll all start to take shape next Sunday against the Packers.
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