Minnesota Vikings' 2020 Schedule

Since the end of the 2019 season, the Minnesota Vikings have known which teams that they will play during the 2020 season. They even knew where they would be playing those teams. They just didn't know when. With last night's heavily anticipated release of the 2020 NFL Schedule, that question has been answered. Here's what the Vikings have in front of them in the 2020 season.

Week	Day	Date	Time (PST)	Opponent
1	Sunday	9/13	10:00 AM	Green Bay Packers
2	Sunday	9/20	10:00 AM	@ Indianapolis Colts
3	Sunday	9/27	10:00 AM	Tennessee Titans
4	Sunday	10/4	10:00 AM	@ Houston Texans
5	Sunday	10/11	5:20 PM	@ Seattle Seahawks
6	Sunday	10/18	10:00 AM	Atlanta Falcons
7	BYE
8	Sunday	11/1	10:00 AM	@ Green Bay Packers
9	Sunday	11/8	10:00 AM	Detroit Lions
10	Monday	11/16	5:15 PM	@ Chicago Bears
11	Sunday	11/22	1:25 PM	Dallas Cowboys
12	Sunday	11/29	10:00 AM	Carolina Panthers
13	Sunday	12/6	10:00 AM	Jacksonville Jaguars
14	Sunday	12/13	10:00 AM	@ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
15	Sunday	12/20	10:00 AM	Chicago Bears
16	Friday	12/25	1:30 PM	@ New Orleans Saints
17	Sunday	1/3	10:00 AM	@ Detroit Lions

***

A Week 7 Bye is a good thing. Having it early in the season is terrible. Later is better. About midseason isn't bad. So, Week 7 is good. 

After the Week 7 Bye, the three-game stretch of home games from 11/22-12/6 stands out.

The Vikings host the Packers in Week 1. It's astonishing that in 60 years of playing the Packers this is the first time that the Vikings are hosting them in Week 1. By comparison, the Packers have hosted the Vikings in Week 1 six times.

Speaking of out of balance home/away games, the Vikings travel to Seattle for what feels like the hundredth consecutive meeting. 

The Vikings have no Thursday game. Instead, they have a Friday game. On Christmas. Having the league-mandated short week extended by a day is a good thing. But the team is still sent out on the road for Christmas. 

It isn't right that all three of the Vikings' prime time games (if Christmas Day is considered prime time) are played on the road. Perhaps the league did this so that the slappies in the media can pull out those sad Kirk Cousins prime time stats.

So, no prime time games in the best stadium in the league. 

At least their second-window Sunday game against the Cowboys is at home. 

I think that it's a mistake to judge a team based on how they played the season before. So much can change in a single offseason. Just look at the current Buccaneers team. Despite that, eight of the Vikings' final nine opponents failed to make the playoffs last season. 

Then there's this from Mike Zimmer:

"We've got five playoff teams in the first seven games, five of them won a game in the postseason last year. It will be a tough start."

The Vikings will play in only four stadiums without a roof.
Seattle
Green Bay
Chicago
Tampa Bay

The only cold weather game might be Chicago in mid-November. Although there's always a chance of rain and chilly days in Seattle. 

Speaking of Chicago, the Vikings close out their home regular season schedule against the Bears. Since the opening of US Bank Stadium in 2016, the Vikings have only closed their regular season home schedule with the Bears.

I love that 3/4 of the games have an early Sunday start.

It's a fine schedule. Can't wait to see it play out.

The NFL also released the 2020 Preseason schedule. 

1	TBD	TBD	TBD	Houston Texans
2	TBD	TBD	TBD	Cincinnati Bengals
3	Sunday	8/30	1:00 PM	Cleveland Browns
4	TBD	TBD	TBD	Seattle Seahawks

So, the Vikings play the Texans and Seahawks in the preseason and the regular season. That always feels like a scheduling mistake.