NFL Schedule Release: Vikings get stuck with brutal international trip

The NFL officially announced the 2025 international games for the coming season, and the Minnesota Vikings really got screwed here. Maybe too much of my personal feelings are seeping in here, but I just absolutely cannot stand the international games at all.

It's a massive overdone mistake by the NFL, but with how big this league is growing, I guess it makes sense to a certain extent. It does seem like momentum is slowly building for there to eventually be an international NFL team at some point.

Well, that may not happen for a little while, but the league did announce their full international slate, and you can see it below:

Vikings get two international games in the 2025 season

Seven total international games highlight the 2025 NFL Season, and they run from the beginning of September through the middle of November. Well, as you can see, the Minnesota Vikings of all teams have been stuck with a two-week international trip, playing the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 28th and then playing the Cleveland Browns on October 5th.

Minnesota burst onto the scene in the 2024 NFL Season, going 14-3 and seeing former QB Sam Darnold light up the stat sheet. With Darnold leaving in free agency, the team is now turning to de-facto rookie JJ McCarthy, who is going to get the full NFL scheduling experience, as Minnesota will surely have a Monday or Sunday night football game as well.

There is reason to believe though that the Vikings will regress, as McCarthy is entering his first year as a starter, and I am not sure we can expect him to throw for over 30 touchdowns like Darnold did in 2024. Minnesota may finish closer to nine or 10 wins, and this international trip could truly mess with their internal clock as well, so it really would not shock me if we saw some iffy football from Kevin O'Connell's team during this stretch.