ESPN Gives Minnesota Vikings a Slight Chance to win the Super Bowl this Season

Remember the line, "so you're telling me there's a chance?" from the movie Dumb and Dumber? That's the hope that ESPN gave the Minnesota Vikings for this season.

ESPN launched its 2021 NFL Football Power Index that gives a preseason look into the odds and chances for each NFL team this season. As expected, the Kansas City Cheifs have the best odds to win the Super Bowl at 18.5%. Defending champion Tampa Bay is second with a 14.5% chance. ESPN's FPI also gives it an 8% chance that we see a Chiefs/Buccaneers Super Bowl rematch this season.

As for the Vikings, the numbers are fair and even consistent with how Las Vegas sportsbooks project them for the season. The FPI projects the Vikings to win eight or nine games. This gives them a 46.4% chance to make the playoffs, 28.3% chance to win the NFC North, 25.1% chance to make the divisional round, 11.3% chance to go to the NFC Championship Game, and a 5.1% chance to reach the Super Bowl.

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What about winning the Super Bowl though? The FPI has the Vikings with the 15th best overall odds at 2.1%. The 2.1% is seventh-best in the NFC behind the aforementioned Tampa Bay Buccaneers (14.5%), Green Bay Packers (6.2%), San Francisco 49ers (5.8%), Los Angeles Rams (5.2%), Seattle Seahawks (4.8%), and Dallas Cowboys (2.5%).

AFC teams ahead of the Vikings for best Super Bowl odds include the Buffalo Bills (9.3%), Baltimore Ravens (6.1%), Cleveland Browns (5.3%), Tennessee Titans (2.7%), Indianapolis Colts (2.6%), New England Patriots (2.6%), and Miami Dolphins (2.4%).

All but three teams were given at least some form of a percent chance of winning the Super Bowl on the ESPN FPI. Detroit, Jacksonville, and the New York Jets all have a 0% chance to win the league's championship, but the numbers give Detroit (.1%), and the Jets (.2%) the slimmest of a chance to reach the Super Bowl this year.

To see the entire ESPN FPI projections for the 2021 season, click here.