The Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers will wrap up the 2025 regular season at U.S. Bank Stadium next weekend. When those two teams take the field, they will do so knowing that there is nothing on the line for either of them.
The Vikings were eliminated from postseason contention a week or two ago, but have managed to claw their way back to the .500 mark with a four-game winning streak since their disastrous performance in Seattle a month ago. The Packers got locked into the playoff picture on Thursday after the Vikings beat the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium, but following their 41-27 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night, Green Bay can not move higher than the #7 seed in the NFC playoffs.
That’s because the Packers currently have a record of 9-6-1, meaning that they can’t finish with more than 10 wins. The two teams that currently occupy the other two wild card spots in the NFC, the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, already have 11 wins each. Green Bay can’t pass either of them before the end of the season, so they’re locked into the last playoff spot in the conference.
Green Bay’s loss also means that the Chicago Bears have won the NFC North for the first time since 2018. They join the Philadelphia Eagles in having already clinched divisional titles this season. The NFC West is still being decided between the Seattle Seahawks, the 49ers, and the Rams, while the annual pillow fight in the NFC South has come down to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers. Both of those divisional races will very likely come down to the final weekend of the season.
What this means for the Vikings/Packers game, since it no longer has anything riding on it, is that it will likely either be one of the two Saturday games the NFL has scheduled for Week 18, or it will be in the noon Central time early window on Sunday. The trend in recent years is for the NFL to put the games that have any sort of meaning into the late window on Sunday, with the biggest game being set for Sunday Night Football.
If the past couple of years are any indication, the league will announce the Week 18 schedule during the Bears/49ers game on Sunday night, and when we know for certain when the Vikings’ final game for the 2025 season will be broadcast, we will bring that news to you here.