The new NFL season is inching closer, and the league just announced the full 2025 schedule last week. Now, the Minnesota Viking are looking at that schedule and analyzing their opponents and when and where they’ll meet. Glancing at the schedule, some of the games look easier than others, although there are no easy games in the NFL.
The Minnesota Vikings have one of the more difficult schedules in the league this year, along with the entire NFC North, but hopefully that won’t stop them from having a great season. Now, one NFL expert and analyst is predicting the most important games of the season for each NFL team, and that includes the Vikings.
Minnesota Vikings’ Toughest Game of 2025
In a May 15 feature for Fox Sports, Ralph Vacchiano discusses the most important game for every NFL team in 2025. In the piece, he states that, “Everyone in the NFL says it at some point during the season: This is the game we circled on our calendar.”
He continues, “Players and coaches say it every year. Sometimes they say it several times. Usually it’s about rivalry games. Sometimes it’s a playoff rematch. Often times, it has something to do with revenge.” His roster includes games that are a “big test, a huge rivalry or an opportunity for revenge that should be juicy enough for everyone in the organization to get excited about.”
For the Minnesota Vikings, it’s Week 13 at the Seattle Seahawks. Of course, this game makes sense, because of Sam Darnold.
“The Vikings are big believers in J.J. McCarthy, the 10th overall pick of last year’s draft — so much so that they were willing to move on from Sam Darnold even after he played like an MVP and won 14 games last season,” he stated in the piece. “It was a big risk, and McCarthy will spend all season trying to prove that they were right to believe in him.”
He added, “Showing that head-to-head against his predecessor, especially this late in the year, would be a big step in the right direction.”
Christmas Game for the Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings, as mentioned earlier, have one of the most difficult schedules in the NFL. On May 9, the NFL released the predicted “strength of schedule” for all 32 NFL teams, and the Vikings were ranked seventh. The team with the toughest schedule was the New York Giants, while the team with the easiest schedule was the San Francisco 49ers.
The NFL also released its 2025 schedule of games on May 15, and it includes three Christmas games, including the Vikings taking on the Lions. The NFL’s latest holiday schedule in 2024 featured a doubleheader on Netflix. This year, the games are on Netflix (Commanders vs. Cowboys and Vikings vs. Lions) and Amazon Prime (Chiefs vs. Broncos).
It’s only the third time in NFL history that Christmas Day will be home to a regular-season tripleheader. The teams playing on Christmas Day include the Commanders vs. Cowboys at 1 p.m. Eastern time, the Vikings vs. Lions at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time and the Chiefs vs. Broncos at 8:20 p.m. Eastern time.
