The Minnesota Vikings will open the 2026 NFL season with two division games against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1 and the Chicago Bears in Week 2. As a result, the Vikings have to hit the ground running to ensure that they aren’t out of the NFC North picture.
Minnesota will need to balance trying to gel with a new QB, as Kyler Murray is still learning the offense, while also needing to get these wins to put themselves in a good position to win the NFC North.
Having these important games for the Vikings and other teams with divisional contests so early in the season doesn’t sit well with NBC Sports NFL insider Mike Florio. As a result, Florio criticized the league for having these divisional games so early.
“If I could make one change, it would be to allow me to make a thousand changes,” Florio said on the Aug. 24 edition of “PFT Live.” “But, No. 1, no division games Week 1, possibly Week 2, because they are not reflective of what the team is ultimately going to be.
“They already cluster them at the end of the season. Let’s not start the year with them because they mean more than a regular game, and no one is the team that they’re ultimately going to be in Week 1. I would go one or two weeks without that.”
NFL Division Games Shouldn’t Happen Outside of the U.S.
Moreover, while this doesn’t apply to the Vikings this season, with more and more games being played abroad, Florio notes that division games should be off-limits to being played outside the U.S.
“Definitely not any division games that are being played in another country,“ Florio added. “49ers-Rams, there’s a Texans-Jaguars game in London. Yeah, those games are too important to play on foreign soil. And hey, if you’re the Rams and you’re happy to have that home game played elsewhere, no, this is how it works.
“Home and home, and if the road team overtakes your stadium, then come up with better ways to avoid that. Don’t try to get that game played in a different country so it will at least feel like a neutral site instead of a road game for you to be playing one of your archrivals at home.”
Lions’ Jared Goff on Facing Vikings Defense
Minnesota is playing two of its three division rivals in the first two weeks of the season, and that is welcome news for Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff, who recently shared that playing against defensive coordinator Brian Flores and the way he uses his safeties is a major challenge.
“Harrison [Smith] and [Josh] Metellus allowed [for Flores and the Vikings defense] to do things that I’m not sure every other team could do,“ Goff told former NFL player Chris Long on the Aug. 24 edition of “Green Light with Chris Long.”
“Those guys were so smart and so confident in what they wanted to do that they were able to hold down and get out of there at the snap with no repercussion. They knew where their problems were and understood the game in that way, which made it really hard.”
NFL Gets Brutal Criticism Over Bears, Packers Games for Vikings