Vikings schedule has multiple advantages which can propel them to playoff success, with one that could define the 2025 season

The Minnesota Vikings have learned their schedule for the 2025 season, and the countdown to kickoff is set to begin. Unfortunately for Vikings fans, they will have to wait one more day, as the season opener will be on Monday Night Football against the Chicago Bears.

Last season, the Vikings looked to have a really hard beginning of the schedule with a gauntlet of the San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans, Green Bay Packers, and New York Jets. They didn't just play well in the five games before the bye week, they won them all.

This year, the schedule looks to be brutal, with the fifth-hardest schedule in regard to win totals with the sportsbooks. There are some interesting themes with this schedule.

J.J. McCarthy's national debut

The Vikings having their first-year starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy making his debut on Monday Night Football is far from an ideal situation. Not only is the debut on Monday Night Football, but it's at Soldier Field. It's been a house of horrors for the Vikings over the last 30 years, and there isn't a single game that's been normal.

Not only is the season debut on Monday night, but McCarthy will follow it up with his second career start on Sunday Night Football at home against the Atlanta Falcons. If he shows the normal struggles that a rookie quarterback has, it could end up shaping narratives with the national media and NFL fans. There won't be much grace for McCarthy.

Primetime Games

Not only do the Vikings start their season with back-to-back games in primetime, but they will have seven stand-alone games this season. Four of those games come in the first five weeks, with both games in Europe counting toward that number.

After the bye week, the Vikings will have three scheduled games either in primetime with the Los Angeles Chargers (Thursday Night Football), Dallas Cowboys (Sunday Night Football), and the Detroit Lions (Christmas Day). The NFL believes that the Vikings will be a good football team with McCarthy, and they are right in believing so.

Structure of road games

The Vikings do have nine official road games this season, but it's not structured in the way that you might think. They start out playing at Soldier Field, and each ensuing road game is in pairs.

• Weeks 4 & 5 (In Europe)
• Weeks 8 & 9
• Weeks 12 & 13
• Weeks 15 &16

It's interesting that the Vikings have four back-to-back road games, and they come with some very difficult opponents, including the Chargers and Lions in weeks 8 & 9. Handling those well will go a long way for the Vikings to have a successful season.

Advantages 

The Vikings have a lot of advantages this season when it comes to the structure of the schedule. One of them is the trip over to Europe to play back-to-back games. Playing in two of them essentially gives the Vikings two neutral-site games and only seven true road games. That's a major advantage.

The other one is having 10 days of rest ahead of their week 18 matchup with the Green Bay Packers. If the Vikings have something to play for in that final game, which they did last year and in 2015, which was the last time the Vikings played the Packers in the final week. Those extra days of rest are huge and could seal the deal for the Vikings.