{"id":888924,"date":"2026-05-12T04:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/888924\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T04:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:30:23","slug":"could-the-vikings-actually-contend-in-2026-one-analyst-thinks-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/888924\/","title":{"rendered":"Could the Vikings actually contend in 2026? One analyst thinks so"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Vikings<\/a> ended the 2025 season with a five-game winning streak. That gave them a 9-8 record, somewhat skewing perceptions of how close they were to making the playoffs.<\/p>\n

But the addition of Kyler Murray, and hoping to bring back a tenacious defense that ranked third in yards allowed, gives them some optimism for a return to the postseason. Sure, the rest of the NFC North is stacked, too, but this team is two years removed from winning 14 games.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report sees the Vikings as a team that can contend<\/a> if Murray can make the offense respectable again.<\/p>\n

Kyler Murray hasn’t officially been named Minnesota’s starting quarterback yet, but given how McCarthy has played to date that announcement is coming. Murray is a two-time Pro Bowler who will have plenty of passing-game weapons, but there’s a reason the team threw in the towel on him.<\/p>\n

There are defensive questions as well. Longtime starting safety Harrison is gone, and the team could be looking at a pair of rookie starters up front in Caleb Banks and Domonique Orange.<\/p>\n

The Vikings could be the fourth-best team in the NFC North. But this was a team that was third in the league in total defense last year. If Kevin O’Connell can coach Murray up, Minnesota could do some damage in 2026.<\/p>\n

Verdict: Contender (Buy)<\/p>\n

Getting Murray back to his early-career success could fix the damage done by allowing Sam Darnold to leave for Seattle last offseason. The Vikings have yet to win a playoff game under Kevin O’Connell, but the defense showed the ability in the second half of 2025 to carry the team.<\/p>\n

If Murray can exceed the low bar set by McCarthy and Max Brosmer, Minnesota could not only return to the postseason but also win some games.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Vikings Wire: One analyst has faith in the Vikings heading into 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Vikings ended the 2025 season with a five-game winning streak. That gave them a 9-8 record,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,89165,4827,3218,233,259,2529,6,1878,234],"class_list":["post-888924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-vikings","tag-football","tag-kevin-o39connell","tag-kyler-murray","tag-max-brosmer","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-nfl","tag-sam-darnold","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116559729368210939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}