The landscape is changing in an NFC North division that is owned, year in and year out, by the Green Bay Packers. But brace yourselves, Minnesota Vikings fans, for the light to finally shine at the end of the long, darkened tunnel.
An aging Aaron Rodgers, who could be nearing retirement, will be playing without his best receiving weapon, Davante Adams in 2022. And while the Vikings are doing more of a refurbishing than an actual rebuild, they’ll still be coming into the season with that new car smell with first-year general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and first-year head coach Kevin O’Connell.
There’s legitimate hope that a changing of the guard could soon be on the horizon. ESPN analyst Adam Schefter was asked to give his thoughts on the state of the Vikings after key offseason signings of Za’Darius Smith, Harrison Phillips and Chandon Sullivan.
“Well, it looks like [the Vikings] have certainly beefed up the defensive pass rush—the front spot of the defense,” Schefter told Vikings.com’s Gabe Henderson. “So that’s a good spot for this defense to be. And look, there’s a real opening in this division.
“Aaron Rodgers has got what—a couple of years left in Green Bay? Detroit, we don’t know who’s going to be their long-term quarterback right now, and Chicago is waiting for Justin Fields to develop. The division is not exactly the AFC West right now. It doesn’t seem to be going into the season, and Minnesota has made some strong moves.”
Adams was actually traded to the Las Vegas Raiders for a first and second-round draft pick to join a crowded AFC West division.
The Vikings split even with the Packers in the two head-to-head meetings last season, and they didn’t even have their starting quarterback, Kirk Cousins, on the field in the Week 17 loss. He was out with a positive COVID test, and the team started backup Sean Mannion in a game that ended in complete disaster.
The real issue for Minnesota has been their inconsistency against everyone else. Sure, they typically play the Packers tough, but there have been far too many dud performances for them to even maintain the level of consistency to compete for the NFC North throne.
Perhaps there’s been enough change in the division and the NFC entirely to garner some hope for the future. The Packers aren’t looking like the juggernaut they once were—at least not on paper.
No one knows what that means yet for a Vikings team that has missed the playoffs for the last two seasons.
