Poll: Fans of the Vikings Have Clear Expectation for 2021 Team
Don’t bring any of that 7-9 or 7-10 noise into the 2021 season, say fans of the Minnesota Vikings with semi-lofty expectations for head coach Mike Zimmer’s penultimate season.
Last year, Minnesota started the season 1-5 before evening up the record to 6-6 after Thanksgiving. But that resurgence, although impressive, was short-lived. Eric Kendricks and Kyle Rudolph were lost for the rest of the year – along with the previously injured Danielle Hunter, Anthony Barr, Michael Pierce (COVID opt-out), and Mike Hughes – so the team faceplanted down the stretch, surrendering the NFC’s final playoff spot to the rival Chicago Bears. In the end, it was a textbook “even-year season” for Zimmer’s Vikings, finishing 2020 with a 7-9 record.
After a robust offseason, Vikings loyalists predict an uptick for wins – a modest one – and a presumed return to the postseason. 1,616 Vikings fans were unscientifically polled on Twitter this week. Here are the results:
What do you predict for a Vikings 2021 win-loss record?
— Dustin Baker (@DustBaker) September 7, 2021
72.4% of respondents believe Minnesota will win at least 10 games – which should plop the franchise back in the postseason. The last time the Vikings saw playoff football, Minnesota shocked the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome before falling flat to the San Francisco 49ers in the 2019 NFC Divisional Playoff game. The Saints victory was quarterback Kirk Cousins’ one career playoff triumph.
The fans’ prediction of at least three more wins is understandable. General Manager Rick Spielman conducted a total facelift on the Vikings defense, ridding the team of backup players – who saw immense starter action in 2020 – while adding Patrick Peterson, Dalvin Tomlinson, Bashaud Breeland, Sheldon Richardson, Xavier Woods, Everson Griffen, and Mackensie Alexander. No matter how you dice it, that is a lot of new blood.
Minnesota also hired a new special teams coordinator, Ryan Ficken, as the team was beset by historically bad special teams amid the entirety of 2020. The kicking, kick returning, punting, and punt returning was all pretty stinky last year. But now, every single headlining position on the special teams is new – from the coach on down to the kicker, punter, kick returner, and punt returner. When the Vikings take the field on Sunday in Cincinnati versus the Bengals, onlookers will find out if those special teamers are actually any better than last year’s utter dumpster fire.
And this campaign is a momentous one for the Vikings. Zimmer and Cousins have one season to make good on the scintillating forecast originally concocted in 2018. Cousins was signed to “get the team over the hump” after the 2017 season came up a wee bit short. To date, Cousins and Zimmer, in unison, have not done that. The Vikings are 25-22-1 (.531) since Cousins tossed on a white-horned helmet, which is the NFL’s 13th-best record in the timeframe. That is not good enough to justify Cousins’ chunky contract.
The Vikings are 3.5-favorites over the Bengals as the season begins this Sunday. Since taking over the Vikings in 2014, Minnesota is 17-11 (.607) against AFC teams, and that is the seventh-best win percentage leaguewide with the metric in the last seven seasons.
Finally, Minnesota’s schedule is the fifth-toughest in the league per strength of schedule (based on last year’s wins and losses). Few “gimmes” live on the schedule, so the Bengals matchup already feels like a mini must-win.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).