Overreaction Monday: 5 NFL teams better off blowing it all up after three weeks

No. 4 NFL team who should blow it up: Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings went 13-4 last season and won the NFC North. Then the New York Giants beat them in the wild card round, sending the entire season up in smoke. The Vikings were always a ticking time bomb, as evidenced by the team's reluctance to pay Kirk Cousins. Still, going into the season, Minnesota was widely proclaimed as the favorite to win the division again.

Don't look now, but the Vikings are 0-3. The schedule gets tricky from here — Carolina in Week 4 and Chicago in Week 6 are chalk wins, but Kansas City in Week 5 and San Francisco in Week 7 feel like chalk losses. If the Vikings approach the midway point of the season 2-5, that would be a difficult hole to climb out of.

On the surface, Minnesota still has the offensive firepower to turn its season around. Cousins is a tried and true gunslinger who will continue to air it out to his top targets. Rookie Jordan Addison looks great and we all know what Justin Jefferson brings to the table. Alexander Mattison bounced back from a shaky first two weeks on Sunday, accumulating 125 yards from scrimmage.

The Vikings have ostensibly lost to three quality teams: the Eagles in Week 2 and the high-powered Chargers in Week 3. There could be some minor quibbles about qualifying the Week 1 Bucs as "good," but Tampa is 2-0 with a chance to make it three straight on Monday night. The Vikings could be victims of the schedule gods as much as anything else.

No matter how you slice it, though, the Vikings face a severe deficit in the NFC North standings with Detroit and Green Bay both jumping out to 2-1 starts. Cousins' free agency looms large on the horizon and there's no reason to believe the team will re-sign him. If the Vikings trade the veteran signal-caller, that would essentially be an admittance of failure.

It's hard for a team with so much quality talent to bite the bullet and rebuild. Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson are some of the best at their respective positions. Danielle Hunter is a force on the D-line. And yet, the Vikings feel destined for mediocrity this season. There's no reason to stick around in no-man's land when the direction of the franchise is clear. Cousins is halfway out the door. He will take this era of Minnesota football with him.

Embrace the change. Skol!