Former Vikings GM Sizes up the 2025 Schedule
My first thought when the Vikings schedule is released always goes back to Hall of Fame Coach Bud Grant, who would say, “It’s not who you play but when you play them.” In other words, is the opponent healthy and playing well at the time and same for the Vikings and is it a potential bad weather game?
Former Vikings GM Sizes up the 2025 Schedule
As I analyze the Vikings’ 2025 schedule that was released this week, here are my other thoughts:
1. There’s an opportunity to get off to a fast start, as was the case last year when the Vikings started 5-0. I see five winnable games out of the gate — at Chicago, home vs. Atlanta and Cincinnati, and neutral site games against the Steelers in Dublin and the Browns in London.
2. The Vikings were very fortunate to have potential road games in Pittsburgh and Cleveland move to international, neutral-site games. The Vikings have had great success in their regular season international games — 4-0. They will have eight home games, seven true road games, and two neutral-site games compared to their division rivals, who will have eight home games and nine road games. That’s a significant advantage for the Purple.
3. It’s a terrific and challenging home schedule that includes the three other NFC North teams (with a nice finish hosting the Lions on Christmas Day and the Packers in the regular season finale). What an exciting list of other home matchups — Atlanta on Sunday night in Week 2, Cincinnati with their prolific offense in Week 3, the Super Bowl champion Eagles in Week 7, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in Week 10, and Jayden Daniels and the Commanders in Week 14.
4. Not too much in the way of cold-weather games: at Green Bay on November 23, at Seattle on November 30, and at the Giants on December 21 could be cold and windy, and it also could be cool on Sunday night, December 14, at Dallas. But playing the last two games indoors at home is a plus.
5. National TV/prime time games: It’s exciting for the Vikings and their fans that the team was well respected by the league office and the TV networks with seven national TV games (only the Chiefs will have more). This list includes four prime-time games: two Sunday nights (Week 2 vs. Atlanta and Week 15 at Dallas), the Monday night opener at Chicago, and the Thursday nighter at the Chargers in Week 8.
Then, add the two international games vs. the Steelers and Browns, and the Christmas Day matchup with the Lions, which is a 3:30 kickoff.
6. Gauntlet in Weeks 7-10: getting off to a good start the first five weeks becomes more important when after the Week 6 bye, the Vikings host the Eagles, are at the Chargers on a short week with the Thursday night game (that didn’t go well last season at the Rams in Week 8), at Detroit and are home against the Ravens in Week 10. That’s four 2024 playoff teams in a row, but as Bud said, we’ll have to see how they’re all playing at the time and how healthy they are.
7. Another tough stretch with four road games in five weeks in Weeks12-16—at Green Bay, at Seattle (with the expected QB matchup of J.J. McCarthy vs. Sam Darnold that should be highly hyped), home vs. Washington and at Dallas and the Giants which leads to the final two games at home against the Lions and Packers that should decide the NFC North title.
Overall, the Vikings have the fifth-toughest schedule in the league based on 2024 records. The other NFC North teams have similarly difficult schedules entering the season, mostly due to the NFC North being the NFL’s best division last season (which should continue to be the case in 2025), and the crossover division for non-conference games is the AFC North, which is among the best divisions.
Around the NFL Schedule Observations
In looking around the league, here are some of the schedule highlights I picked out:
1. There’s the always interesting Eagles-Cowboys divisional matchup to kick off the season on Thursday night, September 4, in Philly.
2. It’s the Chiefs vs. the Chargers in an AFC West battle the next day on Friday night, September 5, in Brazil. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid take on Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh.
3. Gotta love the Week 1 Sunday doubleheader game of Detroit at Green Bay which will be the first test for new Lions offensive coordinator John Morton (replacing Ben Johnson) and new Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard (replacing Aaron Glenn).
The Sunday night opener also is attractive — Baltimore at Buffalo in a rematch of their exciting divisional round matchup last January, won by the Bills 27-25 in the game that ended with Ravens tight end Mark Andrews dropping a perfect two-point conversion pass from Jackson.
As they seek to defend their division crown, the Lions have a tough bunch of early-season road games — at Green Bay in Week 1, Baltimore in Week 3, Cincinnati in Week 5, and Kansas City in Week 6. Then throw into the mix back-to-back roadies at Washington and Philadelphia in Weeks 10 and 11, plus the short week Christmas Day game on a Thursday at the Vikings. I’d say another 15-win regular season for the Lions will be tough to achieve.
Speaking of Detroit’s schedule, the Lions have an attractive Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Packers.
We’re less than four months away from the start of the 2025 season, and the schedule release certainly excites everyone for the return of NFL football.
Jeff Diamond is a former Vikings GM, former Tennessee Titans President and was selected NFL Executive of the Year after the Vikings’ 15-1 season in 1998. He now works for the NFL agent group IFA based in Minneapolis and does other sports consulting and media work along with college/corporate speaking. Follow him and direct message him on Twitter– @jeffdiamondnfl
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