No. 8 (up 13 spots): NFL Staff, Bleacher Report

When the Sam Darnold-led Vikings rolled the New York Giants in Week 1, no one really batted an eye. After all, the Giants are, um, awful.

However, the San Francisco 49ers are most assuredly not awful — they are the defending NFC Champions. And beating the Niners in Minnesota’s home opener was an eye-opening victory.

Facing one of the NFL’s best defenses, Darnold played one of the best games of his professional career, completing 17 of 26 passes for 268 yards and two scores, including a 97-yarder to star Justin Jefferson. It was a performance that surprised quite a few people — but not Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell.

“The amount of work that goes into that position on your quarterback journey when everybody decides that you cannot play — we always believed in him, and awesome to go watch him go do that thing, so really proud of Sam Darnold,” O’Connell told reporters.

[Bleacher Report NFL analyst Kristopher] Knox isn’t slamming purple Kool-Aid just yet. But he admitted the Vikings may just be for real.

“I’m not ready to crown Minnesota as the team to beat in the NFC North, but with a 2-0 record to start the year, it can steal a division title in 2024,” Knox said. “Minnesota’s defense looks better than it was a year ago, and wideout Justin Jefferson is clearly just as effective as he was when healthy last season — and he doesn’t believe his latest injury is serious. Perhaps most importantly, Darnold is playing like a quarterback with whom the Vikings can win. We’ll see if he continues doing so once teams have more film of him operating O’Connell’s offense.”