The NFC North is shaping up to be a brutal race in 2026, but one prediction has the Minnesota Vikings avoiding the kind of disappointment that would leave them at the bottom of the standings.
Bleacher Report’s Moe Moton set out to pick the team that would finish last in each division, and in the NFC North, he landed on the Green Bay Packers instead of Minnesota. That choice gives the Vikings a small bit of breathing room in a division that already features the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, and Chicago Bears as the expected front-runners.
Moton pointed to Green Bay’s defense and the absence of star edge-rusher Micah Parsons as a major reason for concern. “Green Bay's defense could struggle to give the offense more possessions without star edge-rusher Micah Parsons, who's recovering from a torn ACL with meniscus damage.
The Packers have a nine-month recovery policy for players returning from that type of injury. Parsons reveled he'll start the 2026 season on the physically unable to perform list with a possible return date in October.
Without Parsons to mask coverage issues in the secondary, the Packers could be off to a slow start this year. If the Minnesota Vikings offense looks sharp with quarterback Kyler Murray, Green Bay could be in an uphill climb to stay out of the NFC North basement.”
It’s an understandable path to the Packers being the pick, especially with those injury questions hanging over them. But Minnesota isn’t exactly in the clear. If the Vikings’ quarterback situation with Kyler Murray doesn’t click, they could just as easily wind up chasing the rest of the division from behind.
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For now, the concern is less about upside than availability. Banks has yet to take a snap for the Vikings because of a foot issue that has already interrupted his path before, and his limited 2025 season only sharpened the worry around his durability. For a team that passed on other needs to get him, the early months of his NFL career are already carrying more pressure than anyone in Minnesota probably wanted. [Read more 🡒]