The Minnesota Vikings found out their 2023 schedule on Thursday night. It included eight home and nine away games while playing the NFC South and AFC West.
The Vikings are also playing a first-place schedule, which means playing the Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers.
With the schedule release, here are eight major takeaways.
Week 16-18 will decide the division
The Vikings will host the Lions on Christmas Eve and the Packers on New Years Eve before finishing up the regular season against the Lions likely on January 7th. If the Vikings want to win the division, they will need to play well in the final three weeks.
The Vikings have five prime-time games
Last year, the Vikings played on Thanksgiving night, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. This year, they will play once again on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, with the latter being the prime-time game and the final one of 2023. They will host three of those games (Chicago, San Francisco, Green Bay) with two on the road (Denver, Philadelphia).
The Vikings have two stretches of back-to-back road games
The Vikings will have back-to-back road games twice: week eight at Green Bay and week nine at Atlanta along with week 14 at Las Vegas and week 15 at Cincinnati. Their only stretch of back-to-back home games comes in week 16 and 17 when the host the Lions and Packers.
Thursday night game is in a good spot
Last season, the Vikings lost 24-7 to the Eagles in week two on Monday Night Football. This year, they will travel to Philadelphia once again in week two, but this time for Thursday Night Football. Having the Thursday game in week two is a nice advantage, as the Vikings’ will be much fresher on the short week than they would be later in the season.
Flights are already going up
Leading up to and following the announcement of the 2023 Vikings schedule, flights to both Denver and Las Vegas have gone up significantly over the course of the day. Read about the specifics here.
The Vikings have a very late bye
With a run to the playoffs potentially coming down to the end of the season, having a bye in week 13 could be a massive benefit to the Vikings. They had a bye in week seven each of the last three seasons.
Top quarterbacks face the Vikings early
In the first five weeks of the season, Brian Flores’ defense will face Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert, No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young and Patrick Mahomes. That’s quite the test for the Vikings’ youthful secondary. We will see early and often how well they can handle the stress of playing against great offenses.
The Vikings have eight games at noon
As the schedule currently sits, the Vikings only have eight games at noon. The five prime-time games they have is more than the two they had last year. The Vikings in 2022 played in ten noon games, not including the one they played at 8:30am in England, which is 1:30 local time.
