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Why the rest of the NFL is sleeping on the Minnesota Vikings | Inside Coverage

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.

Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

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.

What's different about the Vikings this year?

Why are they going to be that much worse?

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.

He's their best player.

He is, but the same.

People who are saying the Vikings are gonna come crashing back to Earth are the same ones saying, well, Sam Darnold's no good.

Well, what is it then?

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.

Like, yes, we've never seen it.

There's no proof of concept.

The Barrow fits is, uh, off used term, but I don't see why JJ McCarthy is that much worse than Sam.

JJ McCarthy was a guy they traded up for.

Draft 10th overall.

He's got to stay healthy.

That's a big deal.

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.

Everybody's raving about, like, yes, he's here to work, he's here to be great.

The Vikings improved the middle of their offensive line, they still have Justin Jefferson.

TJ Hopkinson didn't play all last season.

He's healthy now.

I just, I think Brian Flores is a defensive genius too.

I don't see why the Vikings.

Fall off as far as as everybody else does.

I guess McCarthy could just be a bust, but I don't, I don't know why we assume that.

he looked good in the one preseason game.

I get it, one preseason game, but he did look good then.

He played really good at Michigan.

There's a reason this kid was the 10th pick of the draft.

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.

I, I think it's a very good sound football team that has a very good foundation.

Fitz, can we have some intellectual honesty here?

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?

We said repeating.

We don't think they're falling off.

We just don't think they're getting better.

I get that.

I'm more talking about the betting market has them as 8.5.

They have them as a 500 team.

Why?

Why did they have last year?

It was yeah, it was worse than that.

I think it was 7.5.

But again, they're not playing the AFC and NFC West this year.

They do have a juggernaut hits in October.

The juggernaut hits late October because they have the Eagles in consecutive weeks.

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.

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