The Vikings’ 5-0 start has already blown up plenty of preseason assumptions, but not every bold call from before the opener is dead and buried. With the Week 6 bye here, it’s a good time to revisit three predictions and see which ones still have a pulse.
Start with the defense, because that was always the trickiest one to trust. Minnesota rolled into the season relying on a front built around Levi Drake Rodriguez, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, Jalen Redmond and two rookies who never exactly lit up the preseason.
Fair enough if there was skepticism there. But Brian Flores’s unit has answered through five games, holding up as the NFL’s fifth-best run defense at 86.6 yards allowed per game.
That’s a long way from the bottom-five concern many expected.
Still, this isn’t a verdict anyone should stamp just yet. The Vikings have not yet dealt with Jahmyr Gibbs twice, Bijan Robinson, Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, or 2025 rushing champion James Cook.
Those games are coming, and the toughest stretch may still be ahead. Bottom five feels unlikely now, but staying in the top 10 all year may be a different story.
The offensive line prediction has aged in a far more complicated way. For a stretch, it looked pretty solid, especially with Christian Darrisaw and Brian O'Neill anchoring the edges.
But Jackson’s season-ending injury in Week 4 changed the picture fast. Before going down, he had allowed only two pressures all season and had not given up a quarterback hit or sack.
After an up-and-down rookie year shaped by a wrist injury, he had started to show why he was drafted in the first round.
Now the bigger question is whether he can keep that momentum going after two seasons shortened by injury. Darrisaw is still elite, even if this is now his sixth straight season missing at least one game because of injury. O'Neill remains the steady hand, and he may end up as Minnesota’s best blocker this season.
The playoff prediction is the one with the most life left in it. At 5-0, the Vikings have room to dream, but the NFC North is still crowded enough that the margin is slim. Minnesota only holds a two-game edge over every other team in the division, which means the eventual seed could still swing anywhere from one to seven unless this turns into something resembling 2016.
Kyler Murray’s early play was the biggest worry attached to that forecast, and the first few weeks did not calm much of anything. His start with the Vikings came out as slowly as Linval Joseph’s 40-time, and there were real questions about how he would fit with Kevin O'Connell. The rough outing in Green Bay and another flat performance against Tampa Bay didn’t help.
But Murray has started to settle in lately. Over the last two weeks, he has completed 76% of his passes, and O'Connell has adjusted by using more shotgun against Miami than he ever has before. That combination keeps the NFC Championship Game idea alive, even if Minnesota’s defense staying healthy and Murray continuing to climb will decide how far this really goes.
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