Inside The Vikings

Tom Brady jumps on the Vikings bandwagon, praises KOC, Brian Flores

Brady has the Vikings as a top-five team in his power rankings.

Will Ragatz

Aug 10, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell after the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Aug 10, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell after the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium. / Brad Rempel-Imagn Images
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The 3-0 Vikings have gotten the stamp of approval from the GOAT.

Legendary former QB and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, now the lead analyst for FOX Sports, has the Vikings at No. 3 in his power rankings heading into Week 4. They're the top team in the NFC, trailing only the Chiefs and Bills in Brady's rankings. The Seahawks and Texans round out TB12's top five.

"Yeah, just how you scripted it," Brady said. "You lose your quarterback in free agency, so you draft one in the first round, he gets injured, so you bring in Sam Darnold, 3-0 start. It's been his fourth team in five seasons, I can't say enough good things about what I've seen from him this year.

"And my old teammate KOC, Kevin O'Connell, he could be the frontrunner — I know this is early — for coach of the year. He's got them off to a 3-0 start. And what about this Vikings defense, 16 sacks to lead the league so far this year, unbelievable job by Brian Flores. They've got a big game coming up against the Packers this Sunday. NFC North, it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch this year."

Brady has some connections to this Vikings team. As he mentioned, he was teammates with O'Connell in New England in 2008-09. He also overlapped with Flores for a decade when the Vikings' defensive coordinator was an assistant coach under Bill Belichick. Stephon Gilmore is another former teammate of Brady's.

But he's not actually much higher on the Vikings than the consensus. They were top five in most media power rankings this week, including No. 3 on the lists from CBS Sports, ESPN, and NFL.com.

Based on this season alone, it's quite reasonable to make the case that the Vikings have been the best team in the NFC. They're neck and neck with the Seahawks for the strongest start in the conference thus far, but the Vikings have more impressive victories than Seattle does.

Former NFL MVP has been impressed by Sam Darnold's hot start

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

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