One particular thirty day period in the past, Fox Sports‘ Colin Cowherd predicted the Minnesota Vikings would “double their get total” from 2021, insinuating a 16-1 time on deck as the crew concluded 8-9 previous yr. Cowherd may perhaps not have been privy to the Vikings document in the warmth of the moment. Regardless, Minnesota ending the 2022 season with an impressive document was a bold prediction. Most NFL energy rankings forecast the team all over the 20th-most effective in the league.
Well, Cowherd dialed again the otherworldly 16-1 prognostication this 7 days, instead asserting Minnesota will get “13 or 14 online games.”
Nonetheless, Cowherd thinks the 2022 Vikings will be the most improved franchise leaguewide, most likely on tap for an NFC North crown with the 13 or 14-get outlook. That full would probably surpass the Eco-friendly Bay Packers, a workforce which is won the division each and every year given that 2019.
Oddsmakers vehemently disagree with Cowherd, even though. For each VegasInsider.com, the Vikings are slated to gain 8.5 video games in 2022, a mark that would disqualify the group from the postseason — for the 3rd 12 months consecutively.
And Minnesota has a new anything management-intelligent as of February. The Vikings severed ties with typical manager Rick Spielman and head mentor Mike Zimmer, choosing Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as the head boss and Kevin O’Connell as skipper. The new staff is hellbent on collaboration and open-mindedness, while the very last twosome reportedly devolved into stubbornness and rigidity.
Nonetheless, in a rather bizarre twist, the Vikings roster mostly stayed the very same. Quarterback Kirk Cousins was re-signed for an more calendar year, the to start with hint at personnel continuity. Then, the team’s major EDGE rusher, Danielle Hunter, was the target of theoretical trade talks. But nope — Adofo-Mensah retained Hunter and added former Packers defender Za’Darius Smith by using no cost agency. The concept? The 2022 Vikings, with new brass but “the same” players, are all in — all over again — for arguably the seventh straight time.
Way too, if Cowherd is ideal — or anything close to it — the Vikings programs will function, to the tune of 13 or 14 wins.
Minnesota has the “13th-easiest” plan for each opponents’ 2021 wins and losses and plays nine property games, 7 genuine highway online games, and one particular neutral-internet site contest in London compared to the New Orleans Saints. Heading into 2021, the Vikings experienced the “fifth-toughest” program per opponents’ 2020 wins and losses.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his each day YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back again to 1996. Mentioned guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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