The Wild Card round of the 2023 NFL Playoffs is very nearly in the rearview mirror, but with one game left to be played, it's clear that the most shocking outcome from the opening round has been that the Minnesota Vikings were eliminated by the New York Giants. The Vikings beat out the Green Bay Packers for the NFC North crown this season, but weren't able to capitalize on their 13-win campaign.
With the Vikings eliminated, no teams from the NFC North are playing football at this stage of the season, which says a lot about the current state of the division. The Packers and Detroit Lions came on strong at the end of the season, but it feels like the NFC North could be up for grabs next season, and in the future, after the 2022 season.
For the past decade or so, the NFC North has largely run through Green Bay, but Minnesota proved that may not be the case anymore. But with the Vikings crashing out of the playoffs in the first round, are they really set up to continue winning, or was this season just a fluke? With both teams heading into the offseason, let's take a look at the Packers and Vikings and see which team has the brighter future at this point in time.
Who has a brighter future? Packers or Vikings
The Vikings may have been the only NFC North team to make the playoffs, but the Packers very nearly found their way in as the seven seed in the NFC after an extremely slow start to the season. Chances are these teams are in a fairly similar spot as of right now, which makes it fair to wonder which team will get an advantage over the other in the future.
Right now, the Vikings find themselves in a strange spot. They won 13 games, but they never dominated their opponents, and in the opinion of some evaluators across the league, they were one of the worst teams in the league. Flaming out of the playoffs in the first round doesn't exactly dispute that notion unfortunately.
The good news for Minnesota is that they have a ton of talent on their roster. Offensively, Justin Jefferson is arguably the best wide receiver in the entire league, Dalvin Cook is an easy pick as a top-10 running back, and T.J. Hockenson, who was acquired from the Lions at the trade deadline, proved he can be a key piece of their offense with a strong second half of the season.
You can have your complaints with Kirk Cousins if you want, but he's better than most quarterbacks in the NFL right now. He's not anything special, but considering the talent around him, it's not out of the question to say he could lead the Vikings to a Super Bowl. Minnesota's defense needs work this offseason, but the good news is that their offense should almost always be able to keep them in games moving forward.
With the Packers, there's a much different feel surrounding the team this offseason. It was a trying season on both sides of the ball, as Aaron Rodgers struggled to get on the same page with his new group of pass-catchers for much of the season, and the defense failed to meet expectations. But they finally figured things out in the second half of the season, and if they beat the Lions in Week 18, they would have made it into the playoffs.
But now, all the questions that surrounded this team last offseason have popped up again. Is the defense strong enough as is to make up for the struggles on the offensive side of the ball? And more importantly, what's the deal with Rodgers? Is he retiring, is he going to try to force his way to a new team, or will he be returning for the 2023 season after having a rough go of it in 2022?
Final decision: Vikings
The Packers certainly were playing better football than the Vikings at the end of the season, but their future is tied to Rodgers right now. If their defense had been better throughout the season, it would be a lot easier to feel good about this team, but they were inconsistent for much of the season. There are offensive weapons such as Aaron Jones and Christian Watson, but they don't exactly match up to what the Vikings have.
Minnesota is in a good spot to build off of their strange 2022 season. Having all the talent they have on offense makes it tough to beat them anytime they take the field, and if they can add to their defense this offseason, they will be in a good position to run the NFC North for the foreseeable future. The Packers will be dangerous for as long as Rodgers sticks around, but the Vikings may already be better than Green Bay, even with Rodgers, and once he is gone, it won't even be a question of which team is better.
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