NFL power rankings aren’t the end all be all, but when most of the analysis across the league isn’t respecting your team, it’s extremely frustrating. That is where the Minnesota Vikings currently sit.
Yes, they are 0-2 and have turned it over seven times so far, but the Vikings have been playing good football. Heck, they even have a positive DVOA this season.
Buy Vikings TicketsThe Minnesota Vikings have a positive DVOA despite an 0-2 record.
They truly are living in opposite land compared to 2022.https://t.co/bFJ7VJpR7F
— Aaron Schatz 🏈 (@ASchatzNFL) September 19, 2023
This is something that will end up paying dividends for the Vikings in time, but right now, analysts aren’t giving the Vikings any credit for their performance.
Going into week three, the Vikings have ranked as high as 19th with a low all the way down to 29th.
Nate Davis-USA Today
Last week: 23
This week: 24
QB Kirk Cousins’ prime-time record may now be 11-19, but don’t blame Thursday’s loss on him. The Vikes were 11-0 in one-score games during the regular season last year … but are already 0-2 in 2023. Cousins to the Jets – he’s a free agent in 2024 – really makes sense if Minnesota remains on this track, which already includes a -6 turnover differential.
Vikings Wire's Tyler Forness
Last week: NA
This week: 19
Cowboys Wire's K.D. Drummond
Last week: 22
This week: 27
The Athletic's Josh Kendall
Last week: 22
This week: 24
The offense is not the problem. Minnesota is averaging 6.3 yards per play, which ranks second in the league. The universe is the problem. It allows one-score game luck to go on only so long. The Vikings were 11-0 in one-score games last season. This year: 0-2. Vikings fans were very angry with the Power Rankings last week for a joke about moving wide receiver Justin Jefferson. How about a serious suggestion to make a call to New York and see how much the Jets will pay for quarterback Kirk Cousins?
Yahoo! Sports' Frank Schwab
Last week: 20
This week: 23
Last season the Vikings were an astonishing 11-0 in one-score games, which was an NFL record. This season they’re 0-2. Regression is a real thing.
Sporting News' Vinnie Iyer
Last week: 26
This week: 27
The Vikings are showing they can’t always make up for their defensive weakness and one-dimensional offense in the fourth quarter. The season is already on the ropes and won’t be nearly as fruitful as 2022.
Pro Football Network's Dalton Miller
Last week: 20
This week: 26
The Minnesota Vikings were always going to regress this season. But the regression bug hit them like a prime Mike Tyson overhand right. They’ve given the ball away like they were Oprah’s set.
One glance would tell you that Kirk Cousins is doing his best to help Minnesota win games. However, a deeper dig would show that he’s fumbled three times and thrown a critical red-zone interception so far this season.
The Vikings’ turnover problems won’t persist all season. And they have the juice offensively with Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson, and Jordan Addison to put up points in bunches. But they must start playing some clean football.
Sports Illustrated's Conor Orr
Last week: NA
This week: 29
I suppose we could ask ourselves if Justin Jefferson fumbling the ball out of the back of the end zone changes the makeup of this game, giving Philly a four-point halftime deficit instead of a six-point halftime lead. But, without Jefferson, the Vikings may be the second or third-worst team in football. Kirk Cousins’s extremely misleading stat line covers up the chilling reality of this team: they cannot run or stop the run. They are last in the NFL in rushing yards, and third-to-last in preventing rushing yards from happening.
Fox Sports' David Helman
Last week: 17
This week: 19
If the Vikings were even mediocre at taking care of the ball, they might be 2-0. Instead, they’ve turned it over seven times in two weeks and the record reflects it. There’s a lot to like about the offense, and the NFC North is wide open. No need to panic. Just hold onto the football.
Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio
Last week: 21
This week: 25
Last year, the coin always landed heads. This year, tails hasn’t failed.
CBS Sports' Pete Prisco
Last week: 24
This week: 26
At 0-2, they will be playing a survival game of sorts this week against the Chargers, who are also 0-2. The defense has run-game issues.
NFL.com's Eric Edholm
Last week: 17
This week: 22
In two games, the Vikings have handed off 26 times, netting a total of 69 yards, with a long run of 9 yards. According to Next Gen Stats, only 30.8 percent of those runs were deemed successful. They’ve only attempted four runs in 30 fourth-quarter plays. One, a 3-yard loss on first-and-goal from the 1. Another, a Kirk Cousins scramble. The other two were 6- and 7-yard gains from Alexander Mattison. Maybe Mattison’s early fumble against the Eagles killed off any designs on running the ball. Or perhaps the Eagles’ front did that by itself. But two weeks into the season, this Vikings team is flawed offensively: too dependent on throwing to Justin Jefferson, and not good enough on the ground.
ESPN's NFL Nation
Last week: 20
This week: 25
Cousins will turn 36 next summer, but barring significant signs of a physical decline, he stands to be a top free agent target next spring if the Vikings don’t re-sign him first. And to this point, there are no indications that he is approaching a drop-off. Through two games, Cousins is second in the NFL in passing yards (708), is tied for first with six touchdown passes and ranks No. 6 in QBR (71.6). He has committed four turnovers, including three lost fumbles, but from an overall business perspective, he has started the season well. — Kevin Seifert
Bleacher Report's NFL Staff
Last week: 17
This week: 21
Last year, the Minnesota Vikings were one of the luckiest teams in the NFL. They won 13 games and the NFC North despite boasting a negative point differential and the second-worst defense in the league. The Vikings played in 11 one-score games and won them all.
That good fortune appears to have abandoned the Vikings in 2023. Two weeks in, they’ve played in a pair of one-score games and lost both. They already have half as many losses as they suffered in all of 2022.
Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has a history of folding in prime-time games, but he can’t be blamed for their Thursday Night Football loss to the reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles. The veteran signal-caller did lose a fumble, but he also threw for 364 yards and four touchdowns.
The Vikings lost because they turned it over four times and because their defense is still atrocious, allowing 259 yards on the ground.
Two weeks ago, Vikings fans were thinking Super Bowl. Now, some are wondering if Cousins could be traded to the New York Jets. Others are not only proposing that, but suggesting that the best thing for Minnesota could be a disastrous season that nets the Vikings an elite quarterback prospect in 2024.
It’s possible to make the playoffs after an 0-2 start. But once a team falls to 0-3, the odds of doing so drop to 3.4 percent.
And with the Chargers’ high-octane offense next on the schedule, an 0-3 start is looking like a real possibility.
Touchdown Wire's Jarrett Bailey
Last week: 21
This week: 23
If the Vikings could just get out of their own way and stop turning the ball over, they’d probably be 2-0. At this point, though, it seems best for everyone to trade Kirk Cousins to the Jets, stink for the rest of the season, and throw your hat in the ring for Caleb Williams.
