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MINNEAPOLIS — There will be no easing into the 2026 season for the Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota opens Sunday afternoon against Green Bay at U.S. Bank Stadium, immediately putting an NFC North game on the standings and renewing one of the NFL's oldest and most competitive rivalries.
This will be the 132nd meeting between the franchises, with Green Bay holding a 67-61-3 advantage in the series. Fifteen of the past 23 regular-season meetings played in Minnesota have been decided by single digits, another reminder that home field has rarely guaranteed much when these teams get together.
The larger story Sunday, however, is not history. It is change.
Kyler Murray will make his Vikings regular-season debut after beating out J.J. McCarthy for the starting quarterback job during training camp. Minnesota signed Murray to a one-year contract in March after seven seasons with Arizona, where the former No. 1 overall draft pick made 87 starts.
Murray played only five games last season, completing 110 of 161 passes for 962 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions. His ability to extend plays and create yardage with his legs gives Kevin O'Connell a dimension the Vikings have not consistently had at quarterback, but Sunday will provide the first meaningful measurement of how quickly Murray has mastered one of the NFL's more demanding offenses.
He will not lack options.
Justin Jefferson remains the center of Minnesota's passing game, with Jordan Addison and newcomer Jauan Jennings joining him at receiver and T.J. Hockenson at tight end. Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason are listed as co-starters at running back, giving O'Connell multiple ways to attack Green Bay without asking Murray to carry the offense by himself.
Jefferson remains the matchup Green Bay must solve first.
He finished the 2025 season by catching eight passes for 101 yards against the Packers in Minnesota's 16-3 victory at U.S. Bank Stadium. Green Bay won the first meeting 23-6 at Lambeau Field.
The Packers arrive with a proven quarterback of their own.
Jordan Love remains firmly established as Green Bay's starter and leads an offense with Christian Watson, Jayden Reed and Matthew Golden at wide receiver and Tucker Kraft at tight end. That collection of targets gives Love speed and versatility against a Minnesota defense that once again will depend heavily on Brian Flores' ability to disguise coverages and manufacture pressure.
Flores remains Minnesota's defensive coordinator, and Green Bay has spent the week preparing for the pressures and late movement that have become trademarks of his defense. The Packers have another concern up front: Their offensive line enters Week 1 with considerable turnover and health questions.
That matchup could decide the game.
Minnesota has Dallas Turner and Andrew Van Ginkel coming off the edges, with Blake Cashman and Eric Wilson inside. If the Vikings can make Love play under pressure and force Green Bay into obvious passing situations, Flores can open considerably more of his defensive playbook.
Green Bay cannot afford to let U.S. Bank Stadium become part of Minnesota's pass rush.
The Packers also enter the opener without their established feature back available. Josh Jacobs was placed on the commissioner's exempt list while the NFL reviews his situation, leaving third-year running back MarShawn Lloyd positioned for a much larger role.
That places more responsibility on Love, particularly if Minnesota can control Green Bay's running game on early downs.
The Packers' defense presents its own uncertainty. Green Bay turned the unit over to new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, whose first assignment happens to be Murray, the quarterback he coached as Arizona's head coach. Gannon has installed an aggressive defense featuring multiple pressure looks and disguises, giving Sunday's quarterback matchup an unusual layer of familiarity.
Murray knows Gannon. Gannon knows Murray. The advantage may belong to whichever side has changed enough since Arizona to make that familiarity less useful.
Green Bay strengthened its defense during the offseason, while Minnesota enters with enough offensive firepower to stress every level of that unit. The Vikings also received an important veteran addition just before the opener when safety Harrison Smith returned for a 15th NFL season.
There is unfinished business on both sides.
Green Bay finished 9-7-1 last season after losing its final five games, including a wild-card playoff defeat to Chicago. Minnesota finished 9-8 and ended its season by holding Green Bay to three points in the January finale at U.S. Bank Stadium.
None of those results carries into Sunday's standings. But they carry into the expectations.
Minnesota needs to establish that Murray can take command of O'Connell's offense and restore consistency at quarterback. Green Bay needs to demonstrate that its late-season collapse was an ending rather than the beginning of a larger decline.
And neither team has the luxury of figuring things out slowly.
For the Vikings, the formula is straightforward: protect Murray, put Jefferson in advantageous matchups, establish enough of Jones and Mason to keep Green Bay from attacking the quarterback, and force Love to operate against Flores' pressure packages without the benefit of an established feature running back.
For Green Bay, it begins with controlling Minnesota's pass rush, forcing Murray to win from the pocket and preventing Jefferson from turning routine completions into explosive plays.
Opening day always produces uncertainty. Packers-Vikings usually eliminates it quickly.
By late Sunday afternoon, one of these teams will already own a division victory, a head-to-head tiebreaker advantage and the first meaningful statement in what should again be a difficult NFC North race.
For Week 1, that is about as consequential as September football gets.
Prediction: Minnesota's home-field advantage, Jefferson's ability to tilt coverage and Flores' pressure packages should be enough to make the difference in a close opener. Murray will have some uneven moments in his first Vikings start, but Minnesota has more ways to create explosive plays and should be able to make Love uncomfortable often enough to swing the game.
Vikings 27, Packers 23.
