Cris Carter was a part of some great teams in his NFL, but the best one may have been the 1998 Minnesota Vikings.
That team is widely regarded to be one of the best ever to not win a Super Bowl and it probably is the best ever to not advance to the Super Bowl. That was the year the Vikings went 15-1 and set an NFL record with 34.8 points per game. Led by the likes of Carter, veteran quarterback Randall Cunningham and rookie receiver Randy Moss, the Vikings coasted through the regular season, starting out the year 7-0, with their lone loss being to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by a field goal.
Fast forward to now and the current Vikings aren’t as dominant, but they’re off to one heck of a start. They’re 5-0 and one of just three undefeated teams entering Week 6.
While the current team is stacked with offensive stars in Kyler Murray, Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones and T.J. Hockenson, it’s the defensive unit that has mostly carried things as the offensive unit has struggled to maintain consistency. While the offensive unit ranks just 20th in points per game, the defensive unit ranks first in points allowed per game, allowing just 12.8 points per game.
Cris Carter spoke with Heavy on behalf of Covers.com — which gives a detailed overview of the Stake Promo Code Canada — detailed that he would rank the Vikings in the top three just because of their undefeated start. However, he cautions he doesn’t like to rank at this stage of the season and would prefer to wait until after the trade deadline once October ends.
Why Cris Carter Is Hesitant to Rank Vikings This Early
“I don’t think you should have rankings in the NFL this early in the season,” Carter said in a one-on-one interview with Heavy Sports on where he would rank the Vikings. “I think you set yourself up for a disaster. If you look at the Raiders, two weeks ago they were undefeated. If you had a ranking system at that time, I said they wouldn’t make the playoffs. Now they’re 3-2. I had a lot of Raiders fans in my DMs saying a lot of cruel things to me, but now we’re looking at that way.
“Because the first month of the season is really preseason when you don’t have a lot of your frontline players, your marquee players playing in the preseason,” Carter continued. “Now you’re going to start to see ‘Okay, what are teams looking like?’ We have the trade deadline. We’re starting to see a couple of trades come through, so let’s wait till we get to Halloween. Alright, we get past the trade deadline, we’ve had a number of of injuries. We’ve had a number of divisional games. I think that’s the time to rank the teams. But being undefeated, it’s awful nice. There’s only a couple teams that are undefeated, so they would at least be in the top three.”
Vikings, 49ers and Chiefs Are Remaining Undefeated NFL Teams
The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs are the only other remaining undefeated teams, with the 49ers defeating the Seattle Seahawks and the Chiefs having a bye in Week 5.
We’ll see where the Vikings ultimately stand as the season progresses. They’ll have upcoming matchups against the Indianapolis Colts and Buffalo Bills and divisional matchups against the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.
But as Carter mentions, the fact that the Vikings are 5-0 and have won 10 straight games gives Minnesota some instant credibility one month through the regular season.
Cris Carter Gives Blunt Take on Vikings’ Surprising Undefeated Start