Vikings/Saints matchup in London now official

UPDATE: To clarify, this game is considered a home game for the Saints. The Vikings will still get nine games at U.S. Bank Stadium this year along with seven “traditional” road games and their trip to the UK.

The matchup that has been rumored for weeks is now official.

The National Football League released its schedule for the games in this year’s International Series on Wednesday morning, and our Minnesota Vikings will be making another trip to the United Kingdom. This time, they will be taking on the New Orleans Saints on 2 October, which will be a Week 4 matchup. Kickoff for this contest will be much earlier than usual, as the game is slated to start at 8:30 AM Central time.

While teams are no longer automatically given a bye week following an international matchup anymore, it seems like this means the Vikings will be getting an early bye week. Personally, I’m not a big fan of that, but we’ll have to see how the schedule works out.

The full slate of international games this year looks like this:

• 2 October: Minnesota Vikings vs New Orleans Saints, London
• 9 October: New York Giants vs Green Bay Packers, London
• 30 October: Jacksonville Jaguars vs Denver Broncos, London
• 13 November: Seattle Seahawks vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Munich
• 21 November: San Francisco 49ers vs Arizona Cardinals, Mexico City (Monday night)

This game will be the third for the Vikings in the UK over the course of the last ten seasons. They defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers at Wembley Stadium in 2013 and the Cleveland Browns at Twickenham Stadium in 2017. This game will take place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

We’ll have the full 2022 NFL schedule a week from tomorrow, 12 May, but I’m sure there will be leaks between now and then for us to discuss.

Are you excited to see the Vikings take another trip overseas this season, folks?