You make the call: How will the Vikings fare with the NFL’s sixth-toughest schedule?

Bears in 2024: 5-12

The first look at McCarthy comes on “Monday Night Football” against a new-look Bears offense crafted to build upon Caleb Williams’ up-and-down rookie season. Ben Johnson, the former Lions offensive coordinator who went 4-0 with 30.5 points per game against Vikings defensive guru Brian Flores, makes his head coaching debut. Both teams start entirely new interior offensive lines, and both teams spent big free-agent bucks on defensive linemen (Chicago’s Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo and the Vikings’ Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave).

Falcons in 2024: 8-9

On “Sunday Night Football,” Kirk Cousins gets a front-row view of the two young guns who rendered him unwanted in Minnesota (McCarthy) and grossly overpaid as the backup in Atlanta (Michael Penix Jr.). Penix, 1-2 as a rookie starter last year, leads a youth movement for a slumbering franchise. The defense, led by new coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, spent great resources to jump-start the NFL’s lamest pass rush, signing Leonard Floyd and drafting two pass rushers in the first round (Georgia’s Jalon Walker and Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr.).

Bengals in 2024: 9-8

Beware, Vikings cornerbacks! The notoriously slow-starting, fast-finishing Bengals visit Justin Jefferson’s house with the NFL’s highest-paid receiving duo — Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins — and Joe Burrow, who averaged 303.1 yards with 36 touchdowns and eight interceptions from Week 5 through the end of last season’s frantic run that fell just short of the playoffs. If the Bengals defense, which blew four games in which the offense scored 30 or more points a year ago, shows up just a little, look out.

Steelers in 2024: 10-7; lost in wild-card playoffs

Browns in 2024: 3-14

Despite last year’s three wins and this year’s dysfunctional four-man QB competition, the Browns are still a scary team with game-wrecker Myles Garrett leading Jim Schwartz’s attacking defense. The Vikings will have the fresher legs, having been overseas since Week 4. Expect Kevin Stefanski to lean again on 40-year-old Joe Flacco to help save him from the Deshaun Watson fiasco, not to mention the Shedeur Sanders (over)hype and the possibility that Cleveland’s QB of the future won’t come until next year.

Eagles in 2024: 14-3; NFC East, NFC and Super Bowl champions

The world champs visit U.S. Bank Stadium with Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts, 2,000-yard rusher Saquon Barkley, wide receiver A.J. Brown, four returning starters from the league’s best O-line and a Vic Fangio defense that ranked first in yards allowed and second in points allowed in 2024. Other than that, piece of cake, eh, Vikings fans? Yes, there were key defections defensively — Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, C.J. Gardner-Johnson — but the Eagles remain the team to beat in the NFC, if not the NFL.

Chargers in 2024: 11-6; lost in wild-card playoffs

Lions in 2024: 15-2; won NFC North; lost in divisional playoffs

Twenty of 22 starters return, but both of the coordinators — Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn — are gone from the NFC’s top seed. New offensive coordinator John Morton had one failed season as Jets coordinator in 2017, while defensive cohort Kelvin Sheppard is a first-year coordinator. Jared Goff’s offense led the league in scoring last season while edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson returns to a hard-luck defense that collapsed under a plethora of injuries, giving up 30 or more points in four of the final six games.

Ravens in 2024: 12-5; won AFC North; lost in divisional playoffs

Lamar Jackson has two league MVP awards but only three playoff wins in seven years. Last season, the league’s most electric player was first in yards per pass (8.8) and yards per rush (6.6). Ageless running back Derrick Henry added 1,921 yards to the NFL’s most bruising ground game while averaging a career-high 5.9 yards at age 30. All-Pro talent returns at all three levels of a defense that had some growing pains but is heading into Year 2 under coordinator Zach Orr.

Bears in 2024: 5-12

Packers in 2024: 11-6; lost in wild-card playoffs

Jordan Love and the Packers are 2-for-2 in making the playoffs in the post-Rodgers era, but they also were one-and-done pretenders a year ago, when they went 0-6 against the Vikings, Lions and Eagles. Green Bay selected a receiver, Matthew Golden, in the first round for the first time in 23 years. Perhaps he can help Love’s completion percentage, which suffered through 33 drops last year. Defensively, Jeff Hafley elevated the Packers to sixth in points allowed (19.9) in his first year as coordinator.

Seahawks in 2024: 10-7

By this time, we’ll know whether the Vikings or Seahawks were right about Darnold being worth $100 million, or 10 times what the Vikings paid him last season. Seattle has gone full-makeover mode under second-year coach Mike Macdonald, who not only replaced Geno Smith but brought in former Vikings assistant Klint Kubiak as offensive coordinator and Cooper Kupp as Darnold’s top receiver. Seattle missed the playoffs because of a very un-Seahawks-like 3-6 record at home.

Commanders in 2024: 12-5; lost NFC Championship Game

Cowboys in 2024: 7-10

Brian Schottenheimer’s assignment as first-year coach is to win a Super Bowl with an arrogant franchise that’s 5-13 in the postseason since last winning the big game in 1995. America’s (Alleged) Team hasn’t even been to the NFC title game since 1995, the longest drought in the conference. Schottenheimer’s success depends on the health of Dak Prescott, who has missed 26 games since 2020, including nine during last year’s faceplant. Former Bears coach Matt Eberflus replaces Mike Zimmer as the team’s third defensive coordinator in three years.

Giants in 2024: 3-14

Will 2022 NFL Coach of the Year Brian Daboll make it to Week 16? Ditto for Giants GM Joe Schoen? They sit upon the NFL’s two hottest seats and are attaching their sink-or-swim season to Russell Wilson, a 36-year-old QB who hasn’t swum in years. Daboll is 9-25 since 2022. Not good for an impatient Mara family that’s endured nine double-digit loss seasons the last 11 years. McCarthy should, however, beware of a potent Giants pass that added Penn State’s Abdul Carter third overall in the draft.

Lions in 2024: 15-2; won NFC North; lost in divisional playoffs

Packers in 2024: 11-6; lost in wild-card playoffs

Happy 2026! Now let’s try to motivate O’Connell’s counterpart, Matt LaFleur, who Packers fans like to gripe should have been coach of the year at least once while opening his head coaching career with three straight 13-win seasons (2019-21). LaFleur heads into this season 67-33 in the regular season. But he’s 28-23 since 2021. He’s also 3-5 in the postseason. And, after going 4-2 against Zimmer, LaFleur is 2-4 against O’Connell.

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