2022 Interpretation of Vikings? Think Patriots and Saints.
Dustin Baker
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While Minnesota Vikings fans — most of them, anyway — are high on the team’s path in 2022, the rest of the world is generally ho-hum.
Indeed, sportsbooks forecast the Vikings as an eight or nine-win team in 2022, not wholly sold on the franchise’s roster upgrades from 2021. Minnesota signed Za’Darius Smith, Harrison Phillips, and Jordan Hicks via free agency and drafted their version of a good draft class — erstwhile welcoming a new coaching staff. To the majority of fans, that’s a prognosis for optimism. For oddsmakers, it’s “more of the same.”
According to Vegas, the Vikings have the same odds to win Super Bowl LVIII as the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints (+5,000). If one wagered $100 on the Vikings, Patriots, or Saints to win it all in 2022, the payout would be $5,000 if one of those squads were triumphant. These are the Vikings Super-Bowl-odds bedfellows (the midsection of teams), per OddsChecker.com:
New England embarks on Year Two of the Mac Jones era, after a rookie season from the Alabama alumnus highlighted by relatively few mistakes for the quarterback — on a backbone of defense spearheaded by the savvy and legendary Bill Belichick. The Patriots reached the playoffs in the second year of life after Brady but were smoked by the Buffalo Bills, a franchise biding time to take over and eventually dominate the AFC East. The time is now for Buffalo.
For the Saints, their 2021 campaign wasn’t as fruitful, existing in a post-Drew-Brees realm, much like the Brady-less Patriots, with a hodgepodge of quarterbacks at the helm. Jameis Winston was effective until injury. Then, a collaboration of Trevor Siemian, Taysom Hill, and Ian Book tried their damndest to lead New Orleans to the postseason, falling short by a single win inside a 9-8 season. After that, longtime coach Sean Payton left the team, enabling Dennis Allen to take over. Allen was the Saints defensive coordinator for seven seasons.
From those various paths, the Vikings, Patriots, and Saints are all in the same boat for 2022 prognostication. Each team is labeled with [around] a nine-win ceiling and is not expected to make a serious Super Bowl push.
Teams forecasted to actionize a real Super Bowl push? The Bills, Bucs, Chiefs, Packers, and Rams.
And the franchises expected to scrape the bottom of the league include the Falcons, Jets, Seahawks, and Texans.
Ironically, Minnesota will play New Orleans in London on October 2nd. After that, the Vikings and Patriots do battle on Thanksgiving night at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. 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).
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