Restacking the NFC: Lions, Eagles or Vikings? Who else is dangerous? Sando’s Pick Six

Sam Darnold’s Minnesota Vikings won again, for the ninth week in a row and the 14th time in 16 games during this preposterously purple season.

Of course they did.

When the Vikings returned to their locker room, they hoisted Darnold onto their shoulders and tossed him around like drunken concertgoers, showering their quarterback with water and whatever other beverages were available.

Because, again, of course they did.

The Vikings’ 27-25 victory over the Green Bay Packers did something else no one could have imagined in a saner NFL world. It rendered meaningless the Detroit Lions’ looming Monday night matchup against the San Francisco 49ers, a once-coveted rematch of the NFC Championship Game, while turning the Vikings-Lions Week 18 matchup into NFC North armageddon.

GO DEEPER

Vikings stamp themselves as legitimate contenders with impressive victory over Packers

The winner of that epic regular-season finale earns the NFC’s top seed and a first-round bye. The loser hits the road during wild-card weekend.

The Pick Six column sorts through it all by re-stacking the NFC through the eyes of executives from teams with experience facing the top teams in the conference. Is this simply the Vikings’ year? What about the Lions and the Philadelphia Eagles? How dangerous are the Packers, Los Angeles Rams, Washington Commanders and, assuming they knock off the New Orleans Saints in Week 18, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? I’ve polled three execs and will provide their thoughts here. The full menu:

• Stacking the NFC: Purple power?
• Why so hard for Bengals to win?
• What Bears can learn from Carroll
• New England Way dooming Drake Maye?
• True or false: Cardinals are close
• 2-minute drill: Colts’ collapse!

1. We are about to find out whether this is really the Vikings’ world and everyone else is just living in it. Here’s what league insiders think.

The three execs split their 1-2-3 votes equally among the Vikings, Eagles and Lions, which means we’ve got a tie at the top. Green Bay is the clear No. 4, followed by the Rams, Buccaneers and Commanders.

“I feel way more mühlet about the top three teams in the AFC than in the NFC,” an exec said. “Detroit is so injured. The Eagles always seem like they could implode at any moment. And then I thought Green Bay would beat Minnesota, and still might if they met in the playoffs.”

NFL execs stack the NFC