Are the Vikings Legit? That's the Question Everyone's Asking After NFL Week 5

October 13, 2026 · 41 sources

Quick Hits

The Vikings are the talk of the NFL. Both CBS Sports and ESPN led their Week 5 coverage by asking the same question: are these Vikings legitimate Super Bowl contenders?
Monday Night Football closes Week 5 tonight: the Rams host the Bills with an over/under — the combined points oddsmakers expect — of a whopping 54.5, so brace for a shootout.
Baseball is down to its final four: the Rays, Guardians, Brewers and Dodgers are the last teams standing.
Expansion magic in the WNBA: the Golden State Valkyries, who didn't exist two years ago, are playing in the Finals.
Fresh power rankings: CBS's Pete Prisco ranks the 49ers as the NFL's best team entering Week 6, with the Packers rocketing up 10 spots.

Vikings: Something is happening in purple. CBS's Week 5 "overreactions" column asks point-blank whether the Vikings are legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and ESPN's Sunday takeaways lead with the very same "are they legit?" question. When two national outlets are asking the identical question about your team, you're doing something right — the challenge now is keeping it rolling.
Lynx: Cheryl Reeve was named WNBA Executive of the Year for the third time in her career, per CBS Sports, narrowly edging Atlanta's Dan Padover — league recognition of the roster-building work in Minnesota.
Wild: Back in action tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights — one of just three NHL games on Monday's slate, and ESPN is billing it as an early-season Western Conference showdown.
Otherwise quiet: The Twins aren't among baseball's final four, so their season is done, and there's no Timberwolves or Gophers news of note today.

What we learned in Week 5, per CBS: Mike Evans is a perfect fit with 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, Josh Allen has extended his early lead in the MVP race, and this year's draft class looks excellent. ESPN's takeaways, meanwhile, pose a Baltimore question: can the Ravens win big with Tyler Huntley at quarterback?
New power rankings: Prisco's Week 6 list has San Francisco No. 1 and Green Bay up a whopping 10 spots. CBS also surveyed which teams beyond the heavyweights (Chiefs, 49ers) could win Super Bowl 61, tabbing the Jaguars and Bengals as dangerous second-tier threats.
Tonight's finale: Bills at Rams wraps Week 5 — that 54.5 over/under is the headline number. One Rams red flag via CBS: their special teams (kicks, punts, returns) rank dead last in the league, a problem coach Sean McVay needs to fix before it costs him again.
Cowboys move: Dallas hired Mike Pettine — a former NFL head coach and longtime Packers defensive coordinator — to reinforce a defense that struggled in Thursday's loss to Tampa Bay. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer, per CBS, is "calling in reinforcements."
Awkward watch: Bill Belichick was a no-show at the Patriots' celebration of their 2001 Super Bowl team — the first title of his dynasty — notable because he recently did attend a Giants reunion.
Week 6 predictions, if you like that sort of thing: CBS's John Breech forecasts the Seahawks destroying the Broncos, the Eagles losing again, and the Cowboys stunning the Packers.

Deadline day: Monday is the NBA's contract-extension deadline, and ESPN's Bobby Marks runs through the rookie and veteran deals still hanging in the balance, with stars like Karl-Anthony Towns, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokić among the storylines.
Cooper Flagg fever: ESPN's Brian Windhorst writes that the Mavericks' young star's ascension "is starting to feel inevitable" after the NBA's China Games showcased his evolving game, leadership, and what Windhorst calls a franchise-savior ceiling.
WNBA Finals: The Golden State Valkyries — an expansion team that didn't exist two years ago — are chasing a championship in just their second season. ESPN has the full story of how they pulled it off this fast.

Your final four, if you're just tuning in: Rays, Guardians, Brewers, Dodgers. ESPN breaks down how each roster was built — the mix of homegrown talent, superstar signings, under-the-radar finds and very different payrolls behind the last teams standing.

Early-season guide: With the new season a few weeks old, ESPN published a team-by-team look at why all 32 clubs are worth watching — star scorers, tantalizing rookies, and the legit Stanley Cup contenders.

Actual news today: SEC university presidents voted Monday to standardize NIL contracts and revenue-sharing agreements, following the Big Ten's uniform contract model — CBS calls it the latest step toward conferences governing themselves. (Quick jargon note: NIL deals are how college athletes get paid for their name, image and likeness.)
Basketball is coming: Florida is the SEC preseason favorite after back-to-back No. 1 NCAA tournament seeds, while CBS's panel tags Alabama and Georgia as overrated and LSU and Missouri as underrated.
Football check-in: CBS flags Oregon and Texas A&M among six teams confronting major regression — a reminder that last year's success guarantees nothing. ESPN, meanwhile, digs into how programs like Miami and Indiana keep winning with a new transfer quarterback seemingly every season.

Premier League is back: After a three-week international break, England's top soccer league returned with a bang. ESPN's overreactions column asks whether Manchester City will eventually crumble under the pressure — and whether this Manchester United is the real deal.
Champions League, round 2 this week: CBS's experts see a stiff test for Manchester United at Atlético Madrid, Barcelona is chasing a tenth win in ten games, and Arsenal's Bukayo Saka is taking heat for missed chances even though CBS says the numbers show he's getting better scoring looks than ever.
The story behind a scoreboard: Shakhtar Donetsk, the Ukrainian club, visits Chelsea's Stamford Bridge this week while Russian strikes continue back home — the club sees these European nights as a chance to show resilience and attract vital investment.