Hello again sports fans. We’re back with another season of putting together a consensus power ranking for the Vikings each week, and with Week 3 now in the rear-view mirror, we’re off and running.
Let’s talk to it (rankings are hyperlinked for maximum clickage):
The Rankings
NFL.com — 15th (last week: 19th)
Key excerpt: “Sunday showed it was too soon to punt on Minnesota.”
The Athletic/New York Times — 14th (last week: 22nd)
Key excerpt: “At this point, it would be fun to see which quarterback you could drop onto this roster with O’Connell and still win a game.”
ESPN.com — 13th (last week: 20th)
Key excerpt: “Through three weeks,
the Vikings have the NFL’s best defensive expected points added per play (minus-0.17).”
Pro Football Talk — 15th (last week: 21st)
Key excerpt: “Carson Wentz played well enough to keep on playing.”
CBS Sports (Pete Prisco) — 13th (last week: 17th)
Key excerpt: “If they play defense like they did against the Bengals, it won’t matter who plays quarterback.”
The Score — 12th (last week: 15th)
Key excerpt: “Trading for Mason, who’s averaging 5.4 yards per carry, was a genius move from this front office.”
NFL Trade Rumors — 16th (last week: 19th)
Key excerpt: “(Isaiah Rodgers’ game) was a ludicrously productive game, and he’s the first player in PFF history to record a perfect 99.9 game grade. He outscored the Bengals by himself. Have a day, Isaiah.”
Sports Illustrated — 14th (last week: 16th)
Key excerpt: “The return of Harrison Smith has been a game-changer for this defense and absolutely ripped apart a quality backup in Jake Browning.”
USA Today (Nate Davis) — 15th (last week: 22nd)
Key excerpt: “Next up, the league’s first regular-season game in Ireland − and doesn’t ginger Carson Wentz kinda resemble an oversized leprechaun?”
Yahoo! Sports — 14th (last week: 16th)
Key excerpt: “The Vikings are well-served by the strength of their coaching staff and roster but QB being unsolved remains a big-picture concern.”
New York Post — 14th (last week: 19th)
Key excerpt: None provided.
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Average ranking: 14.1 (155 ranking points/11 rankings| High: 12th; Low: 16th)
Spare thoughts: Joe Schad’s power rankings are now behind a paywall that I don’t have access to. Either way, I was never that big of a fan (especially of his analysis that was simply copied and pasted the week before) and he put them out before the Monday night game. Never understood that.
Anyway, it’s good to see the Vikings on the ascent. This is more like it, though there’s still work to be done.
What do you think? Join the conversation below (and recommend other power rankings to add if you wish)!
