Yes, the First Priority for Vikings Is Winning the Division.
Mitchel Massman
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Recently on Twitter, a debate has raged about a statement made by Vikings ownership. Mark Wilf made a simple statement about how the Vikings’ first priority will be winning the division. However, this transpired to mean that a Super Bowl was not the priority after Skor North tweeted this:
We need to clear a couple of things about how NFL teams operate. Every NFL team’s goal is to win a Super Bowl. To think otherwise is a bit ridiculous.
The only difference among organizations is how they go about building a team to get to a Super Bowl. Some ownership teams are fine with a general manager blowing up the roster. This “blow up” could, and often does, include trading away the best players on the team in exchange for draft picks.
The concept of a “full rebuild” generally follows this principle. First, take the most talented and expensive players on the roster and trade them away for as many draft picks as possible. Then, draft a franchise quarterback in the NFL Draft. Finally, utilize the five-year period of the quarterback’s rookie contract to build a highly competitive team.
In theory, this is great, but it requires your team to have a high hit rate in the draft. This is rare, to say the least. Look around at many of the teams that “blow it up.” They are not competitive for years.
The Vikings’ ownership team, on the other hand, does not want to ever blow up the roster. Their preference is to build a team that competes for division titles every single year. Yes, that’s right, they want to try to win the NFC North every single year.
Why Winning the Division Matters
It seems odd to need to discuss this topic. However, it appears that not everyone is on the same page. Some of these comments on Twitter are ridiculous:
Yes, only eight teams win the division every year. Of course, all of these teams want to go no to win the Super Bowl. But winning the division is the first priority of every single team.
What is the reason for this? Why wouldn’t your first priority be winning the Super Bowl?
Well, it’s pretty straightforward. If you win your division, you are guaranteed to have at least one home playoff game. Winning the division means you don’t have to sit there in December and play the “playoff scenario” game. You are in the playoffs regardless of what any other team does.
As soon as you are in the playoffs, anything can happen. We have seen some crazy scenarios where a team like the Bengals makes a run by beating a team like the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Although, it is important to note that the Bengals won their division, which allowed them to do so.
To put it into perspective how important winning the division is, only 7 Wild Card teams have gone on to win the Super Bowl. 7 out of 56 Super Bowl Champions were wild card teams. Those odds are not very good.
So, let’s not get it mixed up. The Vikings want to win a Super Bowl. They just want to win the division to give themselves an opportunity to make a run at it. The only difference between the Wilfs and the Texans’ ownership is that the Wilfs don’t want the Vikings to be the worst team in the league in hopes of building a competitive team in 3 or 4 years.
That said, let’s get ready for the season and go hope for an NFC North Division Title.
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