Five Takeaways From the Vikings' 2024 Regular Season Schedule

This could be a long season for the Vikings, especially if they start slowly.

Oct 23, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison (3) / Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The Vikings' 2024 regular season schedule is officially out. Let's go over my five biggest takeaways.

The first two months are a gauntlet

We're going to find out pretty quickly if Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings are going to be a competitive team this year. After opening on the road against the Giants, five of their next six games are against teams that made the playoffs last year. The Vikings will really want to win that game against NYG, because the next three after that are against the 49ers, Texans, and Packers. Then there's a trip to London to take on the Jets, who have a chance to be one of the AFC's best teams if Aaron Rodgers stays healthy. After the Week 6 bye, the Vikings host the Lions and then travel west on a short week to face the Rams on Thursday Night Football. Those first seven games are going to be quite tough. Can the Vikings get to 3-4 or better to stay afloat?

Just two primetime games on the slate

Last year, coming off their 13-win 2022 campaign, the Vikings had five primetime games. They played on Thursday night once and on both Sunday and Monday night twice. This year, unsurprisingly, things have swung back in the other direction. With the Vikings coming off a 7-10 season and no longer having Kirk Cousins, they have just two night games in 2024. They get the Rams on TNF in Week 8 and host the Bears on MNF in Week 15. They don't have an SNF game scheduled, but there's always the chance that a game could get flexed to Sunday night later in the season if the Vikings are outperforming expectations. It's similar to the 2022 season, where Minnesota had just two primetime games and a trip to London.

The early bye could be a time for change

It's unclear when rookie J.J. McCarthy will become the Vikings' starting quarterback, but the safe assumption is that it'll be bridge veteran Sam Darnold getting the nod for Week 1 against the Giants. The Vikings having an early bye week presents an interesting potential opportunity for the coaching staff to make the switch, depending on how those first five games go. If Darnold is struggling and the Vikings believe McCarthy is ready, they could use the bye week to get him prepared before turning things over to him against the Lions in Week 7. The key thing is that McCarthy will have to show that he's ready to seize the opportunity; he won't be put in there before O'Connell deems that the time is right, no matter how poorly Darnold might be playing.

Weather shouldn't be much of a factor

For the second consecutive season, the Vikings have avoided the dreaded early-January trip to Lambeau Field. They'll go to Green Bay in late September, where it should still be nice and sunny. Conditions should also be nice for the opener against the Giants in New Jersey, and for November trips to Jacksonville and Nashville. The Rams and Lions play indoors, so the only potential cold-temperature games are probably the late-November Chicago trip and the Christmastime Seattle trip. It could always rain for one of these road games, but for the most part, weather seems unlikely to be a big factor.

The Vikings need a big November before the closing stretch

The Vikings’ schedule opens up a bit (on paper) in November, with three consecutive games against AFC South teams leading into home matchups with the Bears and Cardinals. If the Vikings start slowly, they’ll need to take full advantage of those five games to be in the playoff hunt heading into a difficult final five games. Kirk Cousins’ return to Minneapolis will be a marquee game, and the final four include three divisional games and a trip to Seattle. It’s a tough slate at the beginning and end, so stacking some wins during a theoretically easier November will be important.

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