The NFL has made its way through 11 weeks of the schedule. While no team has technically been eliminated from the playoffs, we have seen teams emerge as contenders and pretenders. Now, of course, anything can happen on a Sunday, but we can make assumptions of who is going to win and lose in the long term.
However, Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon went through 21 teams in the NFL and separated them into these two categories. The Minnesota Vikings are 4-6 and have shown flashes of brilliance against teams like the Detroit Lions. But, they have really fumbled most of the season, which leads us to where Gagnon puts them in his categorization.
Gagnon makes the case for them being pretenders, writing, “The offense has been stuck in neutral for much of the season. Injuries factor in, but J.J. McCarthy has struggled regardless. The defense has also seemingly lost something this season.”
While he also makes an argument for them to be contenders, he settles on the latter as his verdict for the team.
“They were probably worse than their record in 2024, and now McCarthy is going through it while the rest of the roster regresses to the mean. It would be a shock if they made the playoffs at this point.”
Not the best news for Vikings fans as they look to get back on track against a tough Green Bay Packers team in Week 12.