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NFL Schedule Release: Vikings Will NOT Begin 2020 Season With Four Games Against AFC South

According to John Clayton, the 2020 season will begin with the AFC-NFC matchups in case of a potential shortened season.
Will Ragatz|
NFL Schedule Release: Vikings Will NOT Begin 2020 Season With Four Games Against AFC South
NFL Schedule Release: Vikings Will NOT Begin 2020 Season With Four Games Against AFC South

Update: It looks like this report was false. Others are reporting that the NFL will not be starting with four straight weeks of NFC vs. AFC games, and leaks of Week 1 games are emerging that go along with that idea. Feel free to disregard the following information!

Read: Three Things to Look For When the Vikings' Schedule Drops on Thursday Night

Original post:

The NFL season is going to begin with every team playing four straight games against teams from the opposing conference, according to a report from ESPN's John Clayton. Clayton broke the news while making an appearance on a Pittsburgh radio station.

If this report is to be believed – and Clayton certainly has the credibility for it to seem legitimate – the Vikings will open the 2020 season by playing four games against the AFC South as part of their normal rotation through each AFC division. They're scheduled to take on the Colts and Texans on the road and to host the Titans and Jaguars.

The reasoning for this is obvious: with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic creating uncertainty over the season, this would allow for the possibility of the NFL shortening the season by cutting off a few games on the front end if this virus persists into the fall. The intra-conference matchups are the least important for playoff seeding and thus would be the easiest to cancel without major ramifications, so putting them first makes a lot of sense.

Here is the breakdown of which NFC and AFC divisions are scheduled to play each other in 2020.

The Vikings last played the AFC South in 2016, going 3-1. They defeated the Titans, Texans, and Jaguars, but were blown out at home by the Colts late in the year. 

The Titans are the defending champions of the division and made it all the way to last year's AFC Championship game by upsetting the Patriots and Ravens. The Texans traded star receiver DeAndre Hopkins this offseason, while the Colts signed Philip Rivers to a one-year deal to be their new quarterback.

The Vikings have played three straight Week 1 games at home, so it seems likely that they will open with a road game in Houston or Indianapolis.

The full schedule will be announced on Thursday night.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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