Sources: Vikings Start Season on the Road at NFC Team
Oddsmakers expect the Minnesota Vikings to win seven or eight games in 2024, ironically the same total attached to the purple team at this time last year.
Sources: Vikings Start Season on the Road at NFC Team
And while the full schedule will be released on Wednesday night, two sources familiar with the schedule tell VikingsTerritory that the Vikings will begin the season on the road at the New York Giants.
Those Giants unceremoniously ended Minnesota’s memorable season in the 2022 playoffs, and Week 1 will be the first showdown between the clubs since. New York enters a pivotal season in 2024, perhaps with hot-seat stakes for head coach Brian Daboll.
Sources also tell VikingsTerritory that Minnesota will begin its home festivities in Week 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium versus the San Francisco 49ers, a club it downed last year on Monday Night Football. After that, the purple team will likely stay home in Week 3 for a bout with the upstart Houston Texans, a franchise that stunned the masses in 2023 with an abrupt ascension to contendership, led by first-year quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Meanwhile, the Vikings announced that Week 5 would occur in London versus Aaron Rodgers’ New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Minnesota will put its international undefeated streak on the line versus Rodgers’ club, with a bye likely to follow in Week 6. In 2022, Minnesota bypassed the after-London bye but apparently won’t do so this season.
Sources also claim that Minnesota’s road game against the Los Angeles Rams will shake down in primetime, though the week is unknown as of Wednesday morning.
Since the start of 2017, no team has hosted more home games in Week 1 than Minnesota, so the change of pace to on-the-road checks out. And because Kevin O’Connell’s team is likely to play San Francisco and Houston in Weeks 2 and 3, at the Giants instantly morphs into a must-win situation — if the Vikings wish to be quasi-competitive in 2024.
If the Week 6 bye leak is accurate, that would serve as a possible pivot point to rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy, at least on paper. Minnesota drafted McCarthy with the 10th overall pick in April, and before too long, he’ll take the reins as QB1.
Overall, these are the pieces constructed by VikingsTerritory as of 9:30 am on May 15th:
- Week 1 — at NYG
- Week 2 — vs. SF
- Week 3 — vs. HOU
- Week 4 —
- Week 5 — vs. NYJ (London)
- Week 6 — Bye
- Week 7 —
- Week 8 —
- Week 9 —
- Week 10 — at JAX
- Week 11 — at TEN
- Week 12 —
- Week 13 —
- Week 14 — vs. ATL
- Week 15 —
- Week 16 —
- Week 17 —
- Week 18 —
Cold Water Poured on Vikings QB1 Theory
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 Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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