Minnesota Vikings 2018 Schedule

The 2018 NFL Schedule was released last night. Despite knowing the "who" and the "where" of the schedule since the end of the 2017 season, this is a big deal. It's such a big deal that the NFL Network spent two hours announcing and debating the new schedule. We now know who plays who, where, and when. Here's the Minnesota Vikings slice of the schedule.

Week	Day	Date	Opponent	Time (PST)
1	Sunday	Sep 9	San Francisco 49ers	10:00 AM
2	Sunday	Sep 16	at  Green Bay Packers	10:00 AM
3	Sunday	Sep 23	Buffalo Bills	10:00 AM
4	Thursday	Sep 27	at Los Angeles Rams	5:20 PM
5	Sunday	Oct 7	at Philadelphia Eagles	1:25 PM
6	Sunday	Oct 14	Arizona Cardinals	10:00 AM
7	Sunday	Oct 21	at New York Jets	10:00 AM
8	Sunday	Oct 28	New Orleans Saints	5:20 PM
9	Sunday	Nov 4	Detroit Lions	10:00 AM
10	Sunday	Nov 11	Bye
11	Sunday	Nov 18	at Chicago Bears	10:00 AM
12	Sunday	Nov 25	Green Bay Packers	5:20 PM
13	Sunday	Dec 2	at New England Patriots	1:25 PM
14	Monday	Dec 10	at Seattle Seahawks	5:15 PM
15	Sunday	Dec 16	Miami Dolphins	10:00 AM
16	Sunday	Dec 23	at Detroit Lions	10:00 AM
17	Sunday	Dec 30	Chicago Bears	10:00 AM

*** 

A Week 10 bye is nice. Playing nine straight games without a break is a fairly long haul but the bye week break is better in the second half of the season than the first. The Vikings do get a mini-break after the Week 4 Thursday Night game against the Rams. That break comes courtesy of the NFL-mandated two games in five days. If the league gave a hint of a concern about player safety they'd get rid of the Thursday games. But money trumps all.

Four prime time games is a fine total. Anything more is excessive. So the NFL gave five prime time games to 10 teams.

The Vikings will be doing a lot of flying this year. That's what happens when a team from the middle of the country is matched against teams from the east (AFC East) and west (NFC West).

A lot of debate goes into NFL schedules. A two-hour televised release is clear proof of that. And that's just the start. Many analysts and fans will even dish out wins and losses. That exercise is nothing but silly in April. The debates and silly exercises will continue until most people are again distracted by the shine of next week's draft. As schedules go, the Minnesota Vikings 2018 schedule looks like a fine one. The home and away games are balanced throughout. Last year they had a majority of their home games in the first half. That left a road-heavy second half. It was a second half that included a stretch during which they didn't play a home game in over a month. There's none of that in 2018. They have a well-placed bye week and their Thursday night game is early. It's a challenging schedule but a team that was 13-3 and a step away from the Super Bowl last year should face a challenging schedule this year.

The NFL's next season just got a whole lot closer.