The Minnesota Vikings are coming off a 14-3 season. While it didn’t end the way that many fans wanted, a year like that has several benefits.
The Vikings have seven “island games” in 2025, and each of them has an opportunity to attract a national – and even global – audience. With their eyes set on a division title and an elusive trip to the Super Bowl, Minnesota is center stage for the first time since 2017 and has a massive opportunity in front of them.
As former Viking and WWE superstar Roman Reigns would say, Minnesota has returned to the Island of Relevancy.
Minnesota’s next challenge is to find a way to stay there.
If we were using a Survivor-type metaphor, the Vikings have joined the NFL’s elite in terms of engagement. You have the Kansas City Chiefs and the Dallas Cowboys, and the rest of the NFC East division is somewhere around there. Perhaps an up-and-coming team like the Chicago Bears is circling the waters around them, and each team is dying to get on the beach.
It’s territory the Vikings haven’t been in for a while. Minnesota popped up on the national radar in 2015 when Mike Zimmer led them to an 11-5 record and a soul-crushing miss by Blair Walsh in the playoffs. The following year, the Vikings were the football version of a Final Destination movie, where everything that could go wrong went wrong in an 8-8 season.
The pattern has continued over the past decade. Case Keenum used his lucky horseshoe to lead the Vikings to a 13-3 record and an appearance in the NFC Championship game in 2017. The next season, they crashed back to earth as Kirk Cousins put codewords at the top of his wish list.
The 2019 Vikings overcame some in-season drama to earn a playoff win, but the 2020 Vikings were a complete disaster that finished with a 7-9 record and a Cousins Griddy in Detroit.
Zimmer’s time came to an end when the Vikings went 9-8 in 2021, but the pattern continued when Kevin O’Connell took over as head coach. Minnesota went 13-4 and won the division in O’Connell’s first year. Then, they cratered with injuries to Cousins and Justin Jefferson to finish 7-10 in 2023.
That led to 2024, when the Vikings exceeded everyone’s expectations. Sam Darnold became a star, and O’Connell was the quarterback whisperer. Minnesota had a lights-out defense and an electric superstar in Jefferson. It led to one of the most anticipated games of the season when they battled the Detroit Lions in Week 18.
Although a playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams threw cold water on Super Bowl expectations, the Vikings became one of the most interesting teams of the offseason. They fixed the offensive line by signing Ryan Kelly and Will Fries. They added some interior presence on the defensive line with Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. Aaron Rodgers flirted with the Vikings like a lonely soul at bar close, and the nation asked, Are you really going to start J.J. McCarthy?
Want the CliffsNotes? The casual football fan wants to see what happens with this team. It’s almost ironic that their last meeting with the Lions was one of the most-watched games in the history of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, because they were in the same spot a few years ago.
The Lions became the NFL’s most interesting team in 2022 when they hosted Hard Knocks. After hearing Dan Campbell’s “biting kneecaps” comment during his introductory press conference, they saw the controlled fury that he brought to one of the NFL’s biggest laughingstocks. Detroit eventually responded and won eight of its last 10 games. The NFL rewarded them with six primetime games in 2023, including a season-opening matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The bright lights didn’t faze the Lions. They went into Kansas City and defeated the Super Bowl champions. Later, they held a 24-7 lead in the NFC Championship game. Detroit didn’t win the game, but they showed they deserved to be there and followed up with a 15-2 record last season.
Vikings fans will be eager to point out that the Lions got shelled in the Divisional Round loss to the Washington Commanders. But even as teams gave Dan Campbell their best shot, he giggled and threw scalding hot coffee in their face. (Not literally, that would be assault.)
After years of being an eight-to-nine-win team, the Vikings have finally put themselves in the conversation to be contenders. They’ve even become a team that people don’t groan when they see they’re going to play on national television. It’s a great spot to be in. Still, Minnesota must find a way to stay there and continue standing on the NFL’s Island of Relevancy.
