One Forecast Warns of Shocking Disappointment for Vikings
Because the Minnesota Vikings have a promising young quarterback poised to take over the franchise in 2025, most fans are rather excited about the squad and expect a winning record.
Not everyone is totally high on the 2025 Vikings, and one outlet foresees a shocking disappointment.
But that doesn’t necessarily apply to the masses, a national audience that may not share the same enthusiasm.
In fact, one outfit claimed last week that the Vikings will be one of the NFL’s “shocking disappointments.”
NFL Spin Zone Predicts Shocking Disappointment for Vikings
NFL Spin Zone‘s Lou Scataglia sized up three teams in line for disappointment this season, and the Vikings got the label.
He wrote, “With how much parity there is in today’s NFL, it is tough to sustain yearly success, especially for the more elite teams in this league. There are a few teams, right now, that simply won’t end the year nearly as good of a club as we think.”
“With one of the toughest schedules in the NFL and them essentially starting a rookie QB, why are the Minnesota Vikings held so highly this offseason? Yes, the roster is quite good, but JJ McCarthy hasn’t played a regular season game and is returning from a major knee injury — he is absolutely going to take his lumps as a de-facto rookie in this league.”
The Vikings have one thing working against them: they haven’t reached the postseason in back-to-back years since 2008 and 2009.
Scataglia added, “And he’s also just 22 years old, so his youth should indicate that he might not be as far along as other young QBs in this league. I am not necessarily saying that he’s going to be bad, but the Vikes will struggle to win 10 games in 2025.”
The Schedule Is, Indeed, Tough
Whether Scataglia is correct about Minnesota as a shocking disappointment will be flushed out in the fall and winter. But one item in his assertion is true — the schedule is murderous.
According to most credible strength-of-schedule ranking metrics, the Vikings have the league’s fifth-toughest schedule. There’s a stretch after the Week 6 bye when Minnesota takes on the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Chargers, Detroit Lions, and Baltimore Ravens. Just brutal.
Unless injuries rock Minnesota’s opponents, the schedule is guaranteed to be daunting.
What Does Success Look Like?
There’s also the matter of defining success. The Vikings won 14 games last year when sportsbooks pegged the franchise for 6.5 wins. They overachieved. Sam Darnold was the quarterback, and he produced a reclamation season not unlike Baker Mayfield with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023.
Most Vikings fans don’t think a 14-3 record is on the way this year and would be encouraged by a winning record in the ballpark of 10-7 or 9-8 — so long as McCarthy trends in the right direction.
Overall, fans just want to see McCarthy “look the part” of a young passer. He doesn’t need to set the world on fire and bank 2024 Darnold numbers.
Oddsmakers Agree
It’s worth noting that Vegas agrees with Scataglia’s assessment. Oddsmakers believe the Vikings will win 8.5 games this season, which translates loosely to a .500 record.
And per NFL Spin Zone‘s criteria, an 8-9 record for Minnesota would be a shocking disappointment after months of the McCarthy hype train.
Other Disappointment Merchants
The Vikings weren’t alone for shocking disappointment. Scataglia wrote about the Seattle Seahawks: “They didn’t make a bad move in going from Geno Smith to Sam Darnold, but the rest of the roster got worse, and after an encouraging 10-7 season in 2024, the Seattle Seahawks would be insanely lucky to hit that total in 2025.”
“I would also argue that the rest of the NFC West are all better than Seattle is right now, so they may even have a tough time in the division. It isn’t shaping up to be a good year for Seattle.”
The Chiefs didn’t escape Scataglia’s scorn, either. He noted on Kansas City: “The three-time defending AFC Champs have one of the toughest schedules in the NFL for the 2025 season, and the main reason why we should be lookintg at the Chiefs a bit differently is because this team was able to win all of their one-score games in 2024, which simply does not happen, and it is not likely to happen again.”
“The Chiefs are missing that offensive firepower they had for so many years, and it feels like that will catch up to them in one of these years. While KC is still going to win at least 10 games, we’ll be looking at this team a bit differently when the season ends.”
Vikings organized team activities (OTAs) get underway on Tuesday.
Vikings Qualify for an Intrusive Thought
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