What are the Vikings Super Odds for Next Season?
Dustin Baker
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Before free agency, the NFL draft, or even the hire of a replacement offensive coordinator, the Minnesota Vikings are the NFL’s 19th-most likely franchise to win Super Bowl LVI per oddsmakers.
The contest will take place on February 6th, 2022, in Inglewood, California, the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. The NFL enjoys rewarding franchises and cities that erect illustrious new stadiums, and SoFi Stadium is that. In 2016, the Vikings opened U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis for football operations, and the Super Bowl traveled to Minnesota one year later when the Philadelphia Eagles knocked off the New England Patriots in an absolute track meet. The second-year-in-existence Super Bowl schedule that Minneapolis experienced is now afforded to Los Angeles.
Per FanDuel.com, if one laid $100 on the line in support of the Vikings to win Super Bowl LVI, the bettor would be recompensed $4,440 – or 44/1 odds. Some sportsbooks have Minnesota at 50/1, so somewhere in between is a fair estimate for pre-offseason festivities.
The Vikings should embark on the 2021 voyage with most of their familiar faces on the roster. Last offseason, Minnesota underwent unprecedented personnel turnover for the Zimmer era. Popular names like Xavier Rhodes, Linval Joseph, Xavier Rhodes, and Stefon Diggs left the organization. Due to these departures and a slew of injuries to remaining players, the Vikings finished 7-9 during the pandemic-riddled season of 2020.
Cap space is at a premium – per usual – in 2021 for Minnesota as the team incessantly rubs against the monetary boundary of the budget every year. This year will be all the more trying as the NFL is faced with the reality of shaving the salary cap or leaving it as-is because the pandemic has ravaged revenue.
In any event, the Vikings current Super Bowl odds mimic how the franchise finishes the 2020 season.
9th-Highest Odds in NFC
Before the Vikings make any signings, draft picks, or trades, Minnesota is slightly south of the middle of the pack for Super Bowl prognostication. At 19th-most-likely to win Super Bowl LVI, oddsmakers do not offer much faith in the Vikings to breakthrough for the team’s first-ever Super Bowl title.
The following NFC teams are, at the moment, more likely to win Super Bowl LVI than Minnesota: Buccaneers, Packers, Rams, 49ers, Saints, Seahawks, Cowboys, and Cardinals.
Two teams ahead of the Vikings standout for different reasons – the Buccaneers and Saints. Eventually, Tom Brady is either going to retire or his abilities will diminish. As Vegas’ second most-likely team to win the next Super Bowl (11/1 odds), the gambling universe isn’t buying either notion. At least not yet.
Then, the Saints are outrageously high for a team whose legendary quarterback, Drew Brees, is retiring — and a franchise is that is nearly $115 million over the salary cap before free agency commences. The 2021 Saints will look markedly dissimilar to the previous four teams that made reasonable-but-disappointing playoff pushes. And, yes, the Vikings can be thanked for two of those playoff exoduses.
Chiefs Frontrunners. BUF, GB, TB Next.
Unsurprisingly, the Chiefs are the pacesetter for future Super Bowl odds (5/1). Kansas City has a quarterback in Patrick Mahomes that is the closest thing to LeBron James that any sport has encountered since 2003. Mahomes frankly has no visible flaws and has reached the AFC Championship, at minimum, in each season that he has served as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback.
Vegas also supports the staying power of the Buffalo Bills (11/1 odds). A combination of Doug McDermott, Josh Allen, and Stefon Diggs has careened the franchise to the top of the AFC East thanks to the temporary fall of the Patriots. Allen’s speedy maturation into a Top 5 quarterback is the glue.
And, of course, the Packers (also 11/1 odds). Green Bay has lost four consecutive NFC Championship games, but few national voices care. The Packers will probably be led by Aaron Rodgers yet again in 2021 despite his melancholy musings following the 2020 NFC Championship. Under head coach Matt LaFleur, Green Bay has a sturdy infrastructure. Partner that with Rodgers’ MVP-caliber season, and oddsmakers dote on the team named after meat-packing.
Interestingly, should Aaron Rodgers reach another NFC Championship during his career and lose, he will be the first quarterback in NFL history to lose five conference championships.
The Basement
On schedule, the Lions are the least likely team to hoist a Lombardy trophy next season. The gambling crowd is apparently unimpressed by Jared Goff’s entry onto the team’s roster. Maybe they simply dislike the Lions on the whole. Detroit enters 2021 with a new head coach, general manager, and quarterback – with draft picks galore for the future from the spoils of the Matthew Stafford trade.
The other teams rounding out cellar-dweller status for Super Bowl LVI include the Washington Football Team, Denver Broncos, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Cincinnati Bengals – all with 80/1 odds.