NBC Sports’ Peter King Considers Vikings a Bottom-Feeding 2021 Team
Dustin Baker
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Never mind the free-agent additions by the Minnesota Vikings of Patrick Peterson, Dalvin Tomlinson, Xavier Woods, Nick Vigil, Mackensie Alexander, and Stephen Weatherly.
Never mind the critically-acclaimed 2021 NFL Draft for general manager Rick Spielman that landed the Vikings players like Christian Darrisaw, Wyatt Davis, and Kellen Mond.
Never mind that Danielle Hunter, Anthony Barr, Michael Pierce, and Eric Kendricks will return in 2021 from longstanding injuries.
And never mind that the Vikings 2021 offense finished third in the NFL in yards gained with an 11th-best points-scored side dish.
NBC Sports‘ Peter King — normally a reputable source for information and prognostication — ranks the Vikings 24th in NFL for his late-May power rankings. King put a pen to paper, announced that the Kanas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Buffalo Bills were the league’s top three squads. The Houston Texans, New York Jets, and Detroit Lions are among the worst. Then, there’s the Vikings — the NFL’s ninth-worst organization heading into 2021.
Kings rationalizes the unusually low ranking this way:
“The annual Kirk Cousins referendum is getting so tired. Cousins has played small in some big games, to be sure. And for the Vikings to draft Kellen Mond because they’re tired of being tethered to a gigantic quarterback cap number every year is okay. But my focus here is not on the quarterback. It’s on the part that I am sure made Mike Zimmer lose hundreds of hours of sleep last fall. The Vikings had won five of six entering the last quarter of their season and were 6-6, with their playoff fate in their hands. They proceeded to allow 37 points a game in those last four, spiraling out of the playoffs, fittingly, with a 52-33 holiday loss in New Orleans. Merry Christmas, coach Zimmer. I don’t think they did enough to turn the defense around in the offseason—though they got one of my favorite players on the free market, Giants defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson. Great signing; Tomlinson is an effort player who can move big bodies and skate around them in the middle. The Vikings are gambling on Patrick Peterson, 31 in July, being a solid corner after slipping to 61st among cornerbacks (minimum 350 coverage snaps) by PFF last year. Big gamble. To have a good chance in the NFC North, with or without Aaron Rodgers playing, that defense has to be 100 points stingier.“
In this category of King’s rankings, Minnesota shares cabinet space with teams like Las Vegas Raiders, Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos. Whooda thunk it?
Head coach Mike Zimmer faces a wildly consequential year, underscored by the need to win after leading his Vikings to an underwhelming 2020 campaign. Minnesota finished 7-9 and missed the postseason altogether. If oddsmakers are correct, Zimmer will encounter problems. The Vikings are only forecasted to win about eight or nine games, a meager prediction for a team built to “win now.”
To date, Zimmer’s Vikings alternate good seasons with mediocre ones. In even-numbered campaigns (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020), Minnesota missed the playoffs. During odd-numbered seasons (2015, 2017, 2019), the Vikings defied odds to a degree in each season, placing themselves in meaningful January football games.
Bringing King’s 24th-best standing to life in 2021 for the Vikings would assuredly spell the end of Mike Zimmer with the franchise.
And probably Kirk Cousins, too.