Minnesota Vikings have a chance to be only the 4th team to start 1-5 and make the playoffs
Joe Johnson
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Since the AFL/NFL merger, only three teams have started the season and made the post-season. Two of those teams have done so in the past five years, the other came the first year after the merger. The 1970 Cincinnati Bengals, 2015 Kansas City Chiefs and 2018 Indianapolis Colts all made it happen.
Will the 2020 Vikings join them?
According to The New York Times, the Vikings have nearly a 90% chance to do just that if they finish the final four games of the season with a 3-1 record. If they win out, they’ll obviously make the playoffs as the current 7th-seed.
That’s all before the seemingly inevitable COVID-expansion to eight playoff teams. Which brings up a point, that perhaps without the expanded playoff format that the NFL rolled out this season, perhaps the Vikings wouldn’t make the playoffs.
While it would be great to make the playoffs, something deserves to be said that the Vikings are here at all. After their disastrous 1-5 start and jettisoning of Yannick Ngakoue, many reported an upcoming pre-draft deadline “fire sale” of any Vikings trade-able asset over the age of 27.
Vikings general manager Rick Spielman came out the day of the Ngakoue trade and said that the season wasn’t yet over. It felt like hollow words, as many thought you don’t trade away an asset like Ngakoue for less than you gave up to get him unless you’re going hard into a rebuild.
Turns out our mockery didn’t age well, as Mike Zimmer, Dalvin Cook, Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen all have had something to say about the 2020 season being over.
Turns out that these Vikings, despite all their flaws, have something most more talented Zimmer teams haven’t had. Guts. Should they end up in the post-season they’ll forever be remembered by Vikings and NFL fans for clawing their way out of the hole they dug at 1-5.
Hopefully it’s just the start to the history these Vikings make in 2020. Although, this one is pretty cool.