Colin Cowherd Clarifies “16-1” Prediction for Vikings
One month ago, Fox Sports‘ Colin Cowherd predicted the Minnesota Vikings would “double their win total” from 2021, insinuating a 16-1 season on deck as the team finished 8-9 last year. Cowherd may not have been privy to the Vikings record in the heat of the moment. Regardless, Minnesota finishing the 2022 season with an impressive record was a bold prediction. Most NFL power rankings forecast the team around the 20th-best in the league.
Well, Cowherd dialed back the otherworldly 16-1 prognostication this week, instead asserting Minnesota will win “13 or 14 games.”
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Still, Cowherd believes the 2022 Vikings will be the most improved franchise leaguewide, likely on tap for an NFC North crown with the 13 or 14-win outlook. That total would probably surpass the Green Bay Packers, a team that’s won the division every season since 2019.
Oddsmakers vehemently disagree with Cowherd, though. Per VegasInsider.com, the Vikings are slated to win 8.5 games in 2022, a mark that would disqualify the team from the postseason — for the third year consecutively.
And Minnesota has a new everything leadership-wise as of February. The Vikings severed ties with general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer, choosing Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as the head boss and Kevin O’Connell as skipper. The new personnel is hellbent on collaboration and open-mindedness, whereas the last twosome reportedly devolved into stubbornness and rigidity.
However, in a somewhat strange twist, the Vikings roster mainly stayed the same. Quarterback Kirk Cousins was re-signed for an extra year, the first hint at personnel continuity. Then, the team’s top EDGE rusher, Danielle Hunter, was the focus of theoretical trade talks. But nope — Adofo-Mensah retained Hunter and added former Packers defender Za’Darius Smith via free agency. The message? The 2022 Vikings, with new brass but “the same” players, are all in — again — for arguably the seventh straight season.
Too, if Cowherd is right — or anything close to it — the Vikings plans will work, to the tune of 13 or 14 wins.
Minnesota has the “13th-easiest” schedule per opponents’ 2021 wins and losses and plays nine home games, seven true road games, and one neutral-site contest in London versus the New Orleans Saints. Heading into 2021, the Vikings had the “fifth-toughest” schedule per opponents’ 2020 wins and losses.
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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