MINNEAPOLIS — The Vikings’ return from their bye week on Monday, after a victory in London that got them to 5-0, came two days before they would start full preparations for their most important game of the year to date. To linebacker Jonathan Greenard, a light practice and a day of meetings was the perfect reset after a week where the narratives around the team continued to shift.

Met with tepid expectations before the 2024 season, the Vikings have been showered with praise on national talk shows after a five-game start that has them atop the NFC as the conference’s only remaining unbeaten team. “Anybody who would say they’re not listening to it or they’re not hearing it, they’re lying to you,” Greenard said. “Of course, we hear it all. It’s up to us to have that level of discernment to not listen to it, to not accept the pats on the back for the good things — because we all know, they were [previously] not talking about us. In fact, they were talking about us in a negative way. For us, continuing to keep that foot on the gas is what we’re all preaching here.”

The Vikings exuded a quiet confidence before the regular season, which began with five victories by a total of 63 points over five teams carrying a collective .552 winning percentage. If the run helped establish their bona fides to those outside the organization, it also provided backing for Kevin O’Connell’s exhortations about how good they could be, to players who even wondered if they were really capable of accomplishing all the coach said was possible.

“We’re human,” Greenard said. “K.O. will have all the fire, and we’re in it; we’re listening to him, for sure. And there’s a little bit of that self-doubt, where it’s like, ‘Hey, is he really blowing smoke, or could we really be this good?’ And I feel like that’s where, once we get that out of our mind and just play with the fire and the confidence that he has in us, this staff has, the city has, man, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

It’s a fine line to walk, maintaining self-belief that doesn’t veer toward overconfidence on one side or doubt on the other. O’Connell tried to steer the Vikings along that path Monday, when he told players in a team meeting: “It’s perfectly fine with nobody talking about the Minnesota Vikings. I feel even more confident now that the best football team we could possibly have is in this room right now, capable of accomplishing anything we want this year. Let everybody else talk about predictions and expectations and all those things; we know everything we need is in this room, and we’re more than capable of going to do it. But mark my words: Before it’s all said and done, they’re going to be talking about the guys in this room.”

If the Vikings win on Sunday, the talk only figures to increase.

They play host to the Lions, the defending NFC North champions. Detroit has beaten the Vikings three consecutive times and, at 4-1, is the only other team in the conference with fewer than two losses. If the Vikings win, they will head into a Thursday night game with the Rams with a two-game lead in the division and two fewer losses than anyone else in the conference. If they lose, they will share the division lead with the team that sealed up the 2023 title last Dec. 24 by winning at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The state of the NFC North is another reason for the Vikings to keep their focus. All four teams in the division are at least 4-2, making this the first time since the NFL’s 2002 realignment that one division has four teams with four victories through Week 6.

“If we want to go to the places we want to go, it starts with our division,” safety Josh Metellus said. “If we can handle our division, which is playing so well, we’re setting ourselves up nicely for the rest [of the season].”

The Lions game precedes a stretch of games where the Vikings could stack up some wins. Three of their next four after the Detroit game are on the road, but all of their road games are against teams (the Rams, Jaguars and Titans) who have won just once this season. The Vikings visit the Rams before a home game with the 3-3 Colts, and then they make their three-game road trip to Jacksonville, Tenn., and Chicago before three consecutive home games against Arizona, Atlanta and the Bears.

The Vikings are approaching what appears to be an inviting portion of their schedule, after their undefeated start came in a stretch of the season that was projected to be their toughest. While tight end T.J. Hockenson seems unlikely to return from a torn knee ligament for Sunday’s game against the same team and on the same field where he was injured, his return for the Rams or Cardinals game could add another important weapon to the offense. And the Vikings, who still have more than $11 million in salary cap space, might be in position to add to the roster before the Nov. 5 trade deadline if they find a deal despite the fact they currently have only three picks in the 2025 NFL draft.

The outlook is a stark contrast to where most expected the Vikings to be in 2024, to the point where receiving praise for their 5-0 start with perspective takes some work.

It’s why part of the Vikings’ work Monday involved a level set that Greenard thought was well-timed.

“It also snaps us back into it,” Greenard said. “It’s, ‘Hey, listen — lock back in. We had a whole week to chill. Get rid of everything: get rid of the bye week, get rid of the other stuff. Now we’re really locking back in.”

____

©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.