Vikings-Packers rivalry as fierce as ever
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Will the Minnesota Vikings pick up where they left off, following their surge to the NFC championship game last season?
Or will the Green Bay Packers rebound forcefully enough to take back the division they’ve mostly dominated for two decades?
The annual report on the NFC North has almost always focused on the Packers, the Vikings or both of these fierce rivals since the NFL’s most recent realignment produced the current eight-division format in 2002.
With new head coaches in Detroit (Matt Patricia) and Chicago (Matt Nagy) this year, a big breakout by the Lions or Bears would be necessary to bump the Vikings and Packers from the lead story of 2018.
The Vikings overcame early season knee injuries to quarterback Sam Bradford and running back Dalvin Cook to finish 13-3 and beat New Orleans on the last-second touchdown pass from Case Keenum to Stefon Diggs, before the league’s best defense was dissected and humbled by eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia in the NFC title game.
Bradford and Keenum departed with Teddy Bridgewater as free agents, but the Vikings signed the best available replacement on the market in Kirk Cousins . They upgraded at defensive tackle with Sheldon Richardson, too, toting as many top-tier players in the 22-man starting lineup as any competitor in the NFL.
With the aspiration of winning the Super Bowl for the first time in the franchise’s 58-year history, the Vikings must be concerned about an entire NFC that’s as stacked as ever. But for Minnesota, there’s no greater competition, now or over the past quarter-century, than Green Bay. The Packers are past the pain of losing two-time league MVP award winner Aaron Rodgers, whose broken collarbone in the sixth game of the season effectively ended the dream scenario of hoisting the Super Bowl trophy on Minnesota’s home turf. Five-time Pro Bowl tight end Jimmy Graham has joined Green Bay’s dangerous offense. As if Rodgers needed anymore motivation to go with his game-changing ability, the Vikings are the very team that knocked him out of action when linebacker Anthony Barr flattened him with a hard hit.
So who’s the favorite here? Well, the answer will start to form quickly, when the Vikings visit the Packers in the second game on Sept. 16.
Here’s a quick tour around the NFC North:
The pressure is heavy on Cousins to perform as well or better than Keenum did as a fill-in for Minnesota last fall. The offensive line is again carrying major question marks, with right guard Joe Berger retired and left guard Nick Easton likely out for the year with a neck injury.