With the new roster additions in Minnesota, what will it take to actually win the Super Bowl?

I told you all I was now part of the hopeful Minnesota Vikings bandwagon! 

It seems like yesterday, the 100th season of 2019s NFL, took place. The ‘19/‘20 season kicked off with a game that rivaled watching paint dry as the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears mustered a true old school black and blue division score of 10-3.

On the other end of the spectrum, to round the season off in Super Bowl lots of roman numerals, the Kansas City Chiefs bested the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 with MVP and new face of the NFL Patrick Mahomes showing exactly why he has earned both titles.

Why am I basically rewording the Wikipedia entry for the 2019 season? Because it was the last time the Minnesota Vikings made the playoffs. Also, seeing as the Chiefs bested the 49ers, the team that so roundly embarrassed the purple (after clinching a wildcard and landing an amazing win during overtime against New Orleans), the Vikings felt pretty far away from actually contending basically since then. 

But this 2021. Which means that the Vikings are due to make the playoffs again (as they have for every uneven numbered year). Beyond that, though, the Vikings absolutely nailed the off-season by answering every question mark on defense via free agency and finally fixing (by my estimation) the offensive line courtesy of the Draft.

So, I thought it made sense to actually delve into exactly what the Vikings need to do to not only contend, but actually win the Super Bowl this season. 

And no, it isn’t (solely) sacrificing a goat in that busted Vikings ship where Winter Park used to be. 

The Minnesota Vikings History with The Super Bowl

 Breaking news: To date, the Vikings have yet to secure a Super Bowl victory. Beyond that, for every Millennial on down? The Vikings haven’t even appeared in the big game during our lives. What makes the Vikings so intriguing and romanticized is the fact that they should have been. The Vikings are a top-five franchise in terms of regular season winning percentage, while having some of the best players and teams in league history.

The Vikings haven’t been a part of the big game/awful half-time show since Bud Grant was the head coach in the ’70s. At which time, the Vikings “competed” at the Super Bowl in 1970, 1974, 1975, and 1977.

The team’s success was attributed mainly to Bud creating and coaching an incredible roster and a large part of that was the defensive line known to every NFL fan as the purple people eaters.

That front four for the Vikings is widely considered to be the best in league history. When you added the frozen tundra of Met Stadium and the revolutionary quarterback play of Fran Tarkenton, it isn’t hard to see why the Vikings were a mainstay of the Super Bowl back in the beginning of the post-merger era.

Odds The Vikings Win The Next Super Bowl

Some of you are, like me, hopeful fans looking to feel a bit of excitement by reading about a theoretical situation we all want more than the end of COVID. 

Others live over the border in Iowa where they now have 10 sportsbooks , and are thus looking to see if they should take advantage of the Vikings’ odds to win it all this season. 

The stats, figures, and opinions create a broad set of intel for bettors (also known, ironically, as punters). From assessing the track record of which teams have recently/previously made it to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. There also is the amount of times, if any, a team has won the Super Bowl recently (showing that they can come through when it matters most). Plus, there’s the extremely apt determination of whether a team is likely to draft or has drafted any top players. Future projection scores are a valued tool among many supporters.

Currently, with the Viking’s recent 7-9 record and 25-22-1 record over previous seasons, the bookies have marked them as a mid-range NFL team despite their A+ off-season. In turn, there’s mixed review as to whether the Minnesota Vikings will make the playoffs next season even after the Draft. 

That isn’t super surprising considering the mixed reviews the Vikings got for their draft from national media. So, it may actually be a good time for people to load up on Red Bull and gas to make the trip down to Iowa to place a bet on the Vikings doing the impossible. 

What It Will Take For Minnesota Vikings To Actually Win The Super Bowl?

It’s been pretty clear for awhile now that the Vikings needed to do one thing if they wanted to actually be a genuine contender. That is the thing that I mentioned above the team (by my estimation) had already done. 

So, to answer what it will take for the Vikings ro win a championship needs be broken down into two sections. What it will take in the off-and-regular season(s).

Since they already did what they needed to do in the off-season, let’s focus on what it will take in the season itself. That boils down to one word: execute.

In terms of defense, with Barr, Hunter, and pierce returning, the defense should be miles better next season. Adding heavy hitters Michael Pierce and Dalvin Tomlinson in the middle of the formerly porous defensive line will also drastically improve the Vikings’ chances.

The Vikings offense was near elite in 2020 courtesy of Dalvin Cook’s mastery and the 1-2 punch of Adam Thielen and then rookie phenom Justin Jefferson. If you were to actually give QB Kirk Cousins time in the pocket? Or an actual pocket in the first place? 

You get what I’m getting at, and that’s where execution comes in. 

If rookie linemen Christian Darrisaw and Wyatt Davis can be the plug and play studs many, including this author, thinks they will be? 

Again. You get what I’m getting at. 

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman have managed to turn what was negative cap space into an off-season that has Vikings fans and journalists absolutely bursting at the seams with excitement. Should Zimmer also execute and call the type of game he did against the Saints in the aforementioned 2019 playoffs?

Luckily for Vikings fans, he may not need to be perfect as the offense should be good enough to keep up with any opposing offense in the playoffs or Super Bowl. However, that all comes down to the execution of two rookies, a second year tackle turned right guard and a former first-round center many have labeled a bust. 

Either way, I’ll see the rest of you in Iowa!

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