Vikings Coined as ‘Average’ Offense Heading into 2021 by CBS Sports
Dustin Baker
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Throughout the enterprise in 2020, the Minnesota Vikings did not provide gobs of optimism, capping the pandemic season with a 7-9 record. Per Vegas forecasts, Minnesota was supposed to win about 9 or 10 games — the same projection as the Green Bay Packers — but Mike Zimmer’s team hopped out to a rotten start, bumbling to a 1-5 record.
While the Vikings finished the season on a 6-4 spell, the 7-9 standing was not enough to reach the newly-expanded 2020 postseason. In fact, all Zimmer’s bunch had to do was win one more game — probably against the Chicago Bears or Dallas Cowboys — to reach the dance. No such luck. The Bears seized the seven-seed, subsequently encountering slaughter on Nickelodeon at the hands of the New Orleans Saints.
If there was a facet of the team to praise, it was the offense. Kirk Cousins authored 35 touchdowns passes on the backbone of 4,265 passing yards. Justin Jefferson abused opposing secondaries, tabulating an NFL rookie record 1,400 receiving yards. Dalvin Cook barbecued his best season to date. Adam Thielen grabbed 14 touchdown catches — the first time in his seven-year career reaching double-digits in the metric. And that was all on the backdrop of a stinky offensive line. The Vikings pass-protection ranked 29th in the NFL per Pro Football Focus — otherwise known as fourth-worst leaguewide.
But none of those facts are good enough for CBS Sports. Jaren Dubin of CBS Sports ranks the Vikings as the league’s 15th-best offense as the 2021 season approaches. He outlined a best-to-worst classification, and the Vikings were smack dab in the middle. Bedfellows with Minnesota are the Indianapolis Colts, led by a floundering Carson Wentz who will attempt career reclamation with his old coach, Frank Reich. The Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans are just head of the Vikings.
Dubin uses a 1 through 5 system with 5 as ‘Elite’ and 1 as ‘Terrible.’ Unsurprisingly, Minnesota is dragged down by its offensive line, the only branch of the offense to not hit ‘Average’ at a score of 3. The only time that Dubin mentioned the Vikings my name is in speaking of the offensive trenches, “The Vikings adding Christian Darrisaw to the offensive line was a strong move, but not enough to give them an above-average unit just yet.”
Last season, the Vikings tallied 430 total points on offense, locking the 2020 offense in as the third-most prolific in team history. Of course, NFL offenses are slapping more points onto scoreboards in recent years, so this statistic should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the 2020 offense was the best that Minnesota has showcased inside the seven-year Mike Zimmer era.
All told, Minnesota finished 2020 at 3rd in Yards Gained per Game, 4th in Yards Per Play, 10th in Yards in Play, and 11th in Points per Game. Kyle Rudolph and Riley Reiff were lost to free agency, but those men were the only noteworthy departures on offense. Conversely, general manager Rick Spielman added two starting offensive linemen in Christian Darrisaw and Wyatt Davis in the 2021 NFL Draft. He also tapped Kellen Mond as a potential Kirk Cousins heir apparent down the road.
Evidently, though, CBS Sports considered that fool’s gold — or Dubin believes that several teams merely became better than the Vikings offensively in the last four months.
Dubin’s top 2021 offenses from good-to-best? The Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Kansas City Chiefs.