Vikings' Receive Bold Warning on Potential NFC Challenger in 2026

The Minnesota Vikings are rolling in the early going of the 2026 season. Despite ups and downs, the Vikings have played largely good football this year. Still, there are large volume of doubters and detractors.

Believe it or not, there are still some who view the Vikings' 5-0 start as a fluke. If you have covered the Vikings for any time, you know that's not an unusual take by those outside of Minnesota regardless of how unfair it might be.

It's not a fluke because Minnesota has far and away the best defense in the NFL. Their offense will likely only get better. Still, there is one potential challenger the team should give their attention.

Former Minnesota Vikings linebacker Ben Leber opines that the Green Bay Packers will be a team worth keeping eyes on as the season unfolds. Here's some of what he had to say on his concerns about the Packers making the divisional race interesting.

“Yes, I think (the Vikings) should be worried. They’re getting things figured out on defense, and that’s obviously been a big question mark this whole season. Now it seems like they’re starting to figure it out, and every day they go through the season, Micah Parsons is going to get healthier and healthier.

So, they add him back to an already pretty good front four that’s kind of figured it out. Their safety play is outstanding. I mean, they might have the three best safeties in the league. So, they do a really good job.

The only thing is they just choose not to run the football. It’s not like they’re super competent at running the football. But they’re scoring points by basically telling the defense, ‘Yeah, we’re going to run just a few times. We don’t really have to run because we got Jordan Love and we got these receivers.’ It would have been a blowout (against the Cowboys in Week 6) had Matthew Golden caught a touchdown pass."

Leber would certainly know about the Packers' ability to make things interesting. The former Vikings linebacker was involved in several high leverage games with Green Bay over the course of his career. And while the players are different, the Packers' systemic pattern of contention is still the same.

Earlier this year, we predicted the Vikings would finish first in the division ahead of the aforementioned Packers. We'll see if the Vikings can fend off the Packers in the second half of the season.