Are the 'underappreciated' Vikings favorites to win the NFC North?
Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice is joined by ESPN NFL analyst Benjamin Solak to discuss how Minnesota could have a lot of success this season with new faces on both sides of the ball. Check out the full conversation on "Football 301" - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
The Vikings are five to one to win the North, Nathaniel.
I- And let me tell you something I have that as one of mine, Benjamin.
I It, it, it's kind of the case where, like, whatever team would be fourth in the odds in the NFC North, I probably would just want to be taking, 'cause I think that's gonna be a- Yes division cannibalize itself.
Yes.
Everybody goes one-on-one against each other.
Somebody gets hurt here.
Okay, that knocks out one team.
We're all 10 and seven, you know, it comes down to, you know- Mm-hmm shared opponents in the other conference- Mm-hmm tiebreak, whatever.
So I probably just from like a EV perspective would want to be on the fourth team in this division.
For it to be the Vikings, who to me have the most trustworthy defense, and then also to be the team that I think is just generally underappreciated in the market because of Kyler Murray's, reputation and of, of his current standing relative to, like, the Sam Donald shining moment of the Super Bowl.
When you go and you look at their career numbers, they are relatively comparable.
And Sam Donald already has in his career numbers the Kevin O'Connell bump, the Shanahan system bump.
Kyler Murray does not yet have that moment and that opportunity.
And you can say very, very reasonably, "Well, he's not the right play style for the Shanahan quarterback, and it's, you know, he's not gonna throw it in the middle of the field 'cause he's too small, and he's going to run around, so it's not going to work."
Okay, then fade them.
But there's a, a lot of other universes where it does work, and that's because Kyler's just a, a more talented physical quarterback than Sam Donald.
Yeah.
He can stress defenses in different ways than Sam Donald could.
This is the most mobile quarterback that we have seen in the Sean McVay, Ky- Kevin O'Connell system really ever, right?
Malik Willis is the- Yeah only other comparison.
We got six starts with him in Green Bay, Matt LaFleur, and they were sick as heck, brother.
Like, there was, it, there's, there's a way to be, like, to get this offense to be in the gun and to get it to be a little bit more quarterback run-oriented.
And even if you wanna compare 2026 Vikings with what they did with Sam to '20- excuse me, 2024 Vikings, what they did with Sam to 2026, what they'll do with Kyler, you can say, I think, pretty emphatically that the offensive line is remarkably better this time around than it was the last time around.
Yes.
I think the running game is gonna be more diverse and, and more effective this time around than last time around.
So it's just gonna be a better offensive nucleus.
Joan Jennings is the third receiver relative to what they were able to pull off with Donald in '24.
And so I think the offense can be, as that offense was in '24, you know, 13th in DVOA, 12th in DVOA, high explosive play rate.
And then there's warranted concerns about what the Vikings are defensively.
But if you're making me bet on a guy to solve problems on the defensive side of the ball, the 101 on my board is Brian Flores.
And so I'd, I would, I would wanna be investing in him, again, from a season-long perspective.
I think all four of the offenses could be, like, have a chance to be a top 10 offense.
I include the Vikings with this too.
Yeah.
Like, so we're gonna have- I agree four potential top 10 offenses against, with four competent quarterbacks, I'm including Kyler again, against- Mm-hmm four, three defenses, and then Brian Flores' funky defense.
It's, yeah, Big 12 plus.
That's, that's how I look at NFC North.
Can't wait to watch it.
