6 Takeaways from Week 17: Vikings are for real, Burrow is scary, Colts are Pathetic and much more

1. The Minnesota Vikings are FOR real

The Minnesota Vikings will travel to Detroit’s Ford Field to battle the Detroit Lions for the number one seed. Kevin O’Connell is one of the top five Head Coaches in the NFL, and that cannot be questioned. The Vikings were depleted by injuries BEFORE the season even started, yet here they are months later, one win from being the number one seed for the NFC playoffs.

I thought Sam Darnold was a bust. It no longer looks like it. That means the New York Jets organization and coaches were why Darnold was a bust in New York.

Vikings fans deserve this. The Vikings have made it to four Super Bowls and lost them all. Plus, don’t forget that 15-1 season when kicker Gary Anderson, who had not missed a field goal all year, missed a kick to send the Vikings to the Super Bowl. Plus, that Skol chant is cool as heck!

Xavier Rhodes Leads Skol Chant & Sounds Gjallarhorn Prior to Vikings vs. Cardinals Game

2. The Indianapolis Colts are pathetic

The Colts gave up over 40 points to Drew Lock and the Giants on Sunday. It was so bad that the Colts looked like they were the team tanking for the number one pick. The Colts defense is atrocious and the offense outside of Jonathon Taylor is not much better.

Does anybody think Anthony Richardson is a long-term answer for Indy? Nobody with half a brain does, and if the Colts roll into next year planning on AR being the man they might be playing for the first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Indianapolis needs a new general manager, head Coach, and owner. The real problem is the ownership group, and that’s not changing anytime soon. The Colts and their fans look doomed.

3. What about Burrow or Barkley for MVP?

Both of these guys are putting up historic numbers, and Barley hardly ever gets mentioned for the MVP. Barkley has put the Eagles over the top with his legs. The addition of Barkley to the Eagles has made life much easier for Jalen Hurts, who now just has to be a good quarterback for the Eagles to get to the Super Bowl. Everything is no longer on Hurt’s shoulders, and the offensive play-calling is much better. Hurts is not a Burrow, Allen, or Jackson that can put the team on his shoulders. Barkley has run for over 2,000 yards, averaging almost six yards per carry.

Joe Burrow is the best quarterback in the NFL. He plays on a team with a bad offensive line, a bad defense, and sub-par coaching, yet they still have a shot at the playoffs. This has been Burrow’s best season, and with Burrow at Quarterback, the Bengals have been impossible to stop on offense.

The MVP award is not the MVTP award, so I know that the Bengals are 8-8, but what if Burrow wasn’t playing in Cincinnati? Joe Burrow and Saquon Barkley are once-in-a-generation players and should be recognized for it. Jackson and Allen have had insane years but they haven’t been better than Burrow or Barkley this season.

While we’re at it, why don’t we change the award to the Quarterback on the team with the best record award?

4. Since the Commanders are relevant again, can we please call them the Redskins again

The name change was stupid from the start; questions about the team name being racist were never the biggest problem in DC. The biggest issue was the pathetic owner Daniel Snyder, he is now rightfully gone, so can we please return the name and logo?

Commanders sounds like the name of an Arena Football team. I do not wanna see the Commanders vs the Vikings, I wanna see the Redskins vs the Vikings, am I wrong?

5. Please, no more games in the middle of the week

Don’t get me wrong—I love Football every day of the week, and I do not want to watch the NBA all Christmas day, but come on—teams having to play three games in 10 or 11 days is ridiculous! Maybe that’s why the games weren’t even competitive.

The NFL’s talk about player safety seems like nothing more than a show when you make players play with little rest. That is more likely to lead to injuries than anything else that the NFL does. You gotta get that bag, though; that is more important to the NFL than the players or the fans.

6. The Giants dodge a bullet

“We know where we’re going,” Shedeur Sanders said in the days leading up to his final collegiate game.

The New York Giants said not so fast as they bludgeoned the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Why do I say they dodged a bullet? That simple: Sanders will be a bust in the NFL; his game doesn’t translate to the NFL. It doesn’t translate in College when he plays the better teams. He holds on to the ball too long, making poor decisions, and the NFL is a whole different game from College. So, if I am the Giants, I am ok with dropping a few spots. No Quarterback coming out in this draft is a franchise Quarterback, and the top two all come with baggage.