Frank Schwab breaks down why he thinks the Minnesota Vikings could repeat the success their impressive 2024 season despite a roster that looks very different.<\/p>\n
Hear the full conversation on \u201cInside Coverage\u201d – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, YouTube<\/a> or wherever you listen.<\/a><\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n View more<\/p>\n Video Transcript<\/p>\n For me, this is an easy rise and the Vikings are one of those teams where I think they’re being very disrespected, uh, the betting market by a lot of casual fans.<\/p>\n What’s different about the Vikings this year?<\/p>\n Why are they going to be that much worse?<\/p>\n The same people who are like the Vikings are gonna come and they’re gonna try and have a run heavy offense which is going to keep them from actually getting to use Justin Jefferson as much as they can.<\/p>\n He’s their best player.<\/p>\n He is, but the same.<\/p>\n People who are saying the Vikings are gonna come crashing back to Earth are the same ones saying, well, Sam Darnold’s no good.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Well, what is it then?<\/p>\n Was Sam Darnold just this diamond and a rough superstar, or was he just a guy who ran the offense really, really well, because I think JJ McCarthy could be that.<\/p>\n Like, yes, we’ve never seen it.<\/p>\n There’s no proof of concept.<\/p>\n The Barrow fits is, uh, off used term, but I don’t see why JJ McCarthy is that much worse than Sam.<\/p>\n JJ McCarthy was a guy they traded up for.<\/p>\n Draft 10th overall.<\/p>\n He’s got to stay healthy.<\/p>\n That’s a big deal.<\/p>\n But I don’t see why he can’t play at a really, really high level, like, at least the Sam Darnold level in that offense, he’s putting in the time.<\/p>\n Everybody’s raving about, like, yes, he’s here to work, he’s here to be great.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The Vikings improved the middle of their offensive line, they still have Justin Jefferson.<\/p>\n TJ Hopkinson didn’t play all last season.<\/p>\n He’s healthy now.<\/p>\n I just, I think Brian Flores is a defensive genius too.<\/p>\n I don’t see why the Vikings.<\/p>\n Fall off as far as as everybody else does.<\/p>\n I guess McCarthy could just be a bust, but I don’t, I don’t know why we assume that.<\/p>\n he looked good in the one preseason game.<\/p>\n I get it, one preseason game, but he did look good then.<\/p>\n He played really good at Michigan.<\/p>\n There’s a reason this kid was the 10th pick of the draft.<\/p>\n I think the Vikings are gonna be good again, like, maybe not 14 wins good because that’s just hard to repeat, but I don’t think it fall off either.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n I, I think it’s a very good sound football team that has a very good foundation.<\/p>\n Fitz, can we have some intellectual honesty here?<\/p>\n And Frank is like, why does think they’re gonna come crashing back to ground as if we thought that they were like massively retreating?<\/p>\n We said repeating.<\/p>\n We don’t think they’re falling off.<\/p>\n We just don’t think they’re getting better.<\/p>\n I get that.<\/p>\n I’m more talking about the betting market has them as 8.5.<\/p>\n They have them as a 500 team.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Why did they have last year?<\/p>\n It was yeah, it was worse than that.<\/p>\n I think it was 7.5.<\/p>\n But again, they’re not playing the AFC and NFC West this year.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n They do have a juggernaut hits in October.<\/p>\n The juggernaut hits late October because they have the Eagles in consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n The Eagles then at the Chargers, then at the Lions, then the Ravens, then the Bears, then the Packers, then at Seattle, then Washington, then the Cowboys.<\/p>\n