Peter King’s Power Rankings Suggest the Vikings Will Struggle
Josh Frey
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Peter King is one of the most respected personalities in the sports writing world, and on an annual basis, he puts out his NFL power rankings where he projects how all 32 teams will stack up against each other. Be warned Vikings fans, the forecast sees Minnesota as a struggling team in 2022. In fact, they are bedfellows with another NFC North team…not named the Green Bay Packers.
Despite massive overhaul in coaching as well as bringing in much needed talent to the defense, King projects the Minnesota Vikings as the 19th best team. They sit immediately behind the Cleveland Browns at 18 and one spot ahead of the Detroit Lions. With this ranking, King also predicts that the Vikings will once again narrowly miss out on playoff contention. They are the 8th NFC team on the list, falling behind the New Orleans Saints at No. 11 and Dallas Cowboys at No. 15.
After back-to-back losing seasons, the Minnesota Vikings have done very little in recent history to garner much support from national media members. While the conversation around the Vikings seems to be changing in recent weeks, of course doubts are valid. They have struggled with injuries in recent years, and success in 2022 relies on many players that have spent a significant amount of time off the field. Just to name a couple, Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter missed a combined 25 games last year.
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Betting low on the Minnesota Vikings may be the safe play at this point in the year, but the Detroit Lions are the real surprise here. This is a team that was outscored by their opponents at a rate of nearly 8.5 points per week and finished the year 3-13-1. There were some positive signs down the stretch of the 2021 season, including a last-second win over the Vikings. However, there seems like a large gap between where they were in 2021 and becoming marginally competitive in 2022.
As long as Jared Goff is the QB in Detroit, and he doesn’t have Sean McVay creating an offense for him, Detroit’s ceiling is very limited. They had an incredible draft last month, but one draft class is not going to be what immediately changes the tide for the Lions.
Personally, I have more faith in the Vikings than King. Earlier this offseason, I predicted them to go 11-6 with a wild card berth. We’ll see who ends up with the better guess in the end.
