Seems a little weird, no?
You wouldn’t think that a team that won 14 games last season would be an underdog to anyone to start a new season, let alone to a team that finished last in their division. However, this is the situation that the Minnesota Vikings find themselves in as it pertains to the very, very early Week 1 odds now that the 2025 NFL schedule is out.
The folks at FanDuel have released their odds for the first week of the season, and they show the Vikings as being a 1.5-point underdog to the Chicago Bears for their Monday Night Football matchup at Soldier Field. The over/under for the contest is currently set at 45.5 points.
I’m sure that there are some Really Smart Football People™ out there who still have a bad taste in their mouths over the way the Vikings’ 2024 season ended, and there are still plenty of questions about young J.J. McCarthy taking over for the departed Sam Darnold. . .but, come on. This Vikings team is still loaded on defense and has a ton of weaponry on offense as well, so I’m not sure if I understand the logic here.
Again, I’d like to emphasize that it’s early and a lot of things could change over the next two and a half months or so. Still, it’s a little jarring to see our favorite team being declared an underdog to a squad that they should still be able to handle.
What do you think of the early line in this one, folks? Do you think it seems legitimate or do you think this is just another case of the purple being disrespected?