Call your shots about the 2021 Vikings schedule

The National Football League is set to release the regular season schedule for 2021 tomorrow at 7:00 PM Central time, and because pretty much everything the NFL does is a big damn production these days, there’s going to be a prime time special for it on the NFL Network, NFL.com, and the NFL app.

So, with things getting so close for us, we want to hear you all make some predictions about the Minnesota Vikings’ schedule for the upcoming season. Specifically, we want you to take a stab at answering these three questions:

1. Which game will be the Vikings’ opening game of the year?
2. Which game will be the Vikings’ season finale?
3. How many “prime time games” do you think the Vikings will get this year?

Before you make your guesses, let me remind you of all of the Vikings’ opponents for the 2021 season:

Home Games: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers

Away Games: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Los Angeles Chargers

Remember, the Vikings have eight home games this year and nine on the road with the addition of the 17th game to the NFL schedule. Next year the purple will have nine home games and eight on the road to balance things out.

So, here are my guesses:

The Vikings will open at home against the Seattle Seahawks. Hey, why not commemorate the first time the Seahawks have actually had to come to Minnesota since the 1980s, eh?

(I know it hasn’t been that long. It just seems that way.)

The Vikings’ season finale will be against the Chicago Bears. . .at Soldier Field. Since the NFL went to the “every Week 17 game is a divisional game” setup, the Vikings have had every other potential outcome: they’ve hosted Detroit, they’ve played at Detroit, they’ve hosted Green Bay, they’ve played at Green Bay, they’ve hosted Chicago (like half a dozen times), but they’ve never finished the year at Chicago. It’s going to happen eventually.

(That just means the Vikings need to clinch a playoff spot early, because honestly, do we really want to go into Soldier Field in Week 18 for a game that matters?)

For prime time games, I’m gonna go a little conservative and say 3: Packers at home, at San Francisco, at Baltimore. I don’t want to get greedy. And by that I mean, “Damn, I wish all of our games could be at noon Central on Sundays.”

So, what do you have, folks? Give us your best guesses on the Vikings’ 2021 schedule before the big party tomorrow!