Vikings back in Prime Time!

With the NFL 2015 Draft this week being held in Chicago, the Vikings are looking to improve on last year’s 7-9 season. This week could deliver some fireworks regarding Adrian Peterson and if he is traded or not, and that situation could go a long way toward determining how competitive the 2015 Vikings are potentially.

Right now, Las Vegas has the Vikings at 35-1 not to win Minnesota’s first-ever Super Bowl. With some good young players about to join an up-and-coming team, hope springs eternal. We do know the 2015 schedule was released, and the Vikings will be challenged to step up.

They open the regular season with a Monday Night Prime Time game vs. the San Francisco 49ers at their new stadium, the site of Super Bowl 50. The following week they come home to open with Detroit. The Lions were a playoff team in 2014.

This year the Vikings play no fewer than seven playoff teams from 2014. The Vikings play at Arizona on a Thursday night, their second Prime Time game of 2015. Remember, the Cardinals were also a playoff team in 2014. They also have three Minnesota home-born players: Larry Fitzgerald Jr., John Carlson and Michael Floyd.

The Vikings are playing teams from both the NFC West and AFC West. Week 13 the Vikings host the NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks at TCF.

The Vikings have San Diego week three at home, and week four they travel to Denver for a date with Peyton Manning and the Broncos. The Vikings obviously play Division rivals Chicago, Detroit and Green Bay at home and away, but this time they play the Packers — can you say “very cold”? — on January 3, 2016 at Green Bay.

Week sixteen the New York Giants are here at TCF, but clearly Mike Zimmer’s team will be tested from the beginning to end playing seven teams that qualified for the playoffs in 2014. When the NFL gives you some Prime Time games, they expect you to be good. The question will be, how good?

Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:25 am, on WDGY-AM 740 Monday-Friday at 12:17 pm and 4:17 pm, and at www.Gamedaygold.com. He also commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2). Follow him on Twitter at FitzBeatSr. Larry welcomes reader responses to info@larry-fitzgerald.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.