Kings of Catastrophe: The Worst Possible Outcome for the 2023 Vikings
K. Joudry
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How does a reality where the Cowboys, Packers, and Saints snag the Wild Card slots in the NFC Playoffs sound to you? If you call Edina, Mankato, Eden Prairie, or Moorhead home, you’ll probably be less than enthused about that scenario.
The unfortunate reality for Vikings fans is that there’s a possibility that the worst case happens. Sitting at 6-6, the Vikings are far from a sure thing when it comes to waltzing into the playoffs. True, they’re the proud owners of the #6 spot in the conference, but their hold on that position is tenuous (to say the least).
Lately, Minnesota has been taking steps back, dropping their SNF and MNF games in Week 11 and Week 12. Meanwhile, other teams in the conference are taking steps forward. Most troublingly, Green Bay is playing their best football of the season, meaning the Wisconsin foes have a shot at getting into the final tournament.
Very few in Minnesota would be pleased to see Green Bay get into the postseason, but their success alone wouldn’t be the worst-case scenario. If things went horribly wrong, what would that look like?
The 2023 Vikings and the Ever-Present Threat of Catastrophe
The simple disaster scenario involves the Vikings missing the playoffs as the Packers hop into their spot. A couple weeks ago, the idea seemed ludicrous, but things can change in a hurry in the NFL.
Our disaster scenario begins with the very real possibility that Green Bay – maybe the NFL’s luckiest team – leapfrogs Minnesota to get into the final dance.
Even worse would be that the New Orleans Saints find a way of getting in, as well. Derek Carr’s team is facing the cold, hard reality of mismanaging their finances for several years. The Saints, in truth, are not a good football team. That offense scares nobody even if there is some legitimate talent in town (especially for Dennis Allen’s defense).
The doomsday scenario we’re exploring still features a Saints playoff berth, though. At 5-6, the outcome isn’t likely but isn’t impossible. Maybe Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave, Marshon Lattimore, and DeMario Davis – among other talented Saints – find a way of pulling it off.
In that scenario, the NFC playoff bracket could look something like this:
1) Eagles
2) 49ers
3) Lions
4) Saints
5) Cowboys
6) Seahawks
7) Packers
Now, imagine a world where Matt LaFleur finds a way of outfoxing Kyle Shanahan. The Lions overcome the Seahawks and the Saints take down the Cowboys. If all those things occurred, the NFC Divisional Round would feature the Eagles taking on the Packers and then the Lions taking on the Saints.
The conventional wisdom would suggest that an NFC Championship Game featuring a pair of NFC North teams would be brutal, but there’s some history that would come into play.
Decades of being declawed has left the Lions basically harmless in Minnesota. No one gets too worked up about their rise to prominence since they’ve been irrelevant for an unusually long amount of time. And, of course, Dan Campbell is a charming head coach. Sure, the quip about biting off kneecaps was strange and so too was the fantasy about getting a real lion to practice so it could defecate in specific areas of the field, but Campbell has won over both the Michigan masses as well as NFL fans more broadly.
Hard not to cheer for him, even if he is the main man in Detroit.
The real disaster would be a Packers v. Saints NFC Championship Game. That would be a horrible scenario, like biting into a Juicy Lucy that didn’t have cheese in the middle or stepping into a Caribou Coffee that ran out of caffeine. That’s a world Minnesotans don’t want to live in.
And while New Orleans is a hated foe, seeing Green Bay be led to another Super Bowl with another QB – this time, Jordan Love – would be perceived as downright cruel for Vikings fans. A fanbase that’s used to being tortured would be able to add just one more depressing chapter to the long story of despair, drudgery, and disappointment.
And, to be sure, the AFC could play a part in Armageddon. The Denver Broncos could end up being that conference’s representative.
Led by Sean Payton – who, unlike Detroit’s Dan Campbell, isn’t particularly charming – the Broncos kicked off the Minnesota misery by putting together a 4th-quarter comeback for the 1-point victory in Week 11. Oh, and Payton may have been part of a certain Saints team that still inspires no shortage of bitterness in The North Star State.
A Payton & Packers Super Bowl would be horrendous for Minnesotans, especially if the Vikings finished in no man’s land with an average record that didn’t get them into the top 10 in the draft. A lot would need to go wrong for all of these events to occur, but purple pessimism has a long, well-founded history in Minnesota. Who’s to say the worst case doesn’t arrive in early 2024? A site called PurplePTSD wouldn’t be doing its job if heartbreak wasn’t given at least some airtime.
The Vikings take on the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, December 10th. A loss would drop them down to a losing record, 6-7 overall.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.