The 2000 season was the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

' 40th in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). They won the

NFC Central The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for t ...

division title with an 11–5 record. After not retaining either Randall Cunningham or Jeff George, the team was led by first-year starting quarterback Daunte Culpepper and running back Robert Smith, who ran for a then team record 1,521 yards and seven touchdowns. The Vikings started out 7–0 and were 11–2 after 14 weeks, but slumped briefly, losing their last three to the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played ...

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

and

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

while Culpepper was hampered by injury. After easily beating the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

in the Divisional game 34–16, they were defeated 41–0 by the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

in the Conference Championship. Running back Robert Smith retired at the end of the year, after only playing eight NFL seasons. It would be 2004 before the Vikings returned to the playoffs. After a contract dispute, Hall of Fame defensive tackle John Randle was let go after 11 seasons with the Vikings. Randle had only eight sacks this year, ending a streak of eight consecutive seasons with 10+ sacks. Seven Vikings including Culpepper, Moss, Carter, Smith, Korey Stringer, Robert Griffith and

Matt Birk Matthew Robert Birk (born July 23, 1976) is an American former professional football player who was a center for 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily for the Minnesota Vikings. Born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota ...

were selected to play in the Pro Bowl after the season. It was Stringer's only Pro Bowl appearance before his death in 2001. This would be the final full season for Dennis Green as the team's head coach, he was fired the next season with just one game remaining on the schedule.

Offseason

2000 draft

Notes:

Undrafted free agents

Staff

Roster

Preseason

Schedule

Game summaries

Week 1: vs. New Orleans Saints

Week 2: at San Diego Chargers

Week 3: vs. Arizona Cardinals

Week 4: at Indianapolis Colts

Regular season

Schedule

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1: vs. Chicago Bears

Week 2: vs. Miami Dolphins

Week 3: at New England Patriots

Week 5: at Detroit Lions

Week 6: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week 7: at Chicago Bears

Week 8: vs. Buffalo Bills

Week 9: at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week 10: at Green Bay Packers

Week 11: vs. Arizona Cardinals

Week 12: vs. Carolina Panthers

Week 13: at Dallas Cowboys

Week 14: vs. Detroit Lions

Week 15: at St. Louis Rams

Week 16: vs. Green Bay Packers

Week 17: at Indianapolis Colts

This was the first occasion the Colts hosted the Vikings in the regular season since 1968 in Baltimore, although the two teams would again play in the Colts’ stadium during that postseason. The intervening gap of 31 seasons constitutes the second-longest gap without one team visiting another in NFL history, and at the time was a record.

Standings

Postseason

Schedule

Game summaries

NFC Divisional Playoffs: vs (#3) New Orleans Saints

NFC Championship Game: vs (#1) New York Giants

Statistics

Team leaders

League rankings

Awards and records

*Gary Anderson, NFC Special Teams Player of the Week, Week 8 NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book, Workman Publishing, New York, NY, , p. 202 *Mitch Berger, NFC Special Teams Player of the Week, Week 14 *Mitch Berger, NFC Special Teams Player of the Month, December * Cris Carter, All-NFL Team (as selected by the Associated Press, Pro Football Weekly and the Pro Football Writers of America) *Cris Carter, NFC Pro Bowl Selection * Daunte Culpepper, NFC Offensive Player of the Week, Week 6 *Daunte Culpepper, NFC Offensive Player of the Week, Week 12 *Chris Hovan, PFW/Pro Football Writers of America All-Rookie Team * Randy Moss, All-NFL Team (as selected by the Associated Press, Pro Football Weekly and the Pro Football Writers of America) *Randy Moss, PFW/PFWA All-Pro Team *Robert Smith, NFC Offensive Player of the Month, December

40-year team

The Vikings named an all-time team in 2000 in recognition of the franchise's 40th year in the NFL. *Offense **WR:

Ahmad Rashad Ahmad Rashad ( ; born Robert Earl Moore; November 19, 1949) is an American sportscaster and former professional football wide receiver. He was the fourth overall selection of the 1972 NFL draft, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals. He was known ...

, Cris Carter **T: Ron Yary, Tim Irwin **G: Ed White, Randall McDaniel **C:

Mick Tingelhoff Henry Michael Tingelhoff (May 22, 1940 – September 11, 2021) was an American professional football center who played for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL) from 1962 to 1978. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall o ...

**TE: Steve Jordan **QB:

Fran Tarkenton Francis Asbury Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940), nicknamed "the Scrambler", is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Minnesota Vikings. He is wi ...

**RB: Chuck Foreman, Robert Smith **K: Fred Cox **ST: Bill Brown *Defense **DE: Jim Marshall, Carl Eller **DT:

Alan Page Alan Cedric Page (born August 7, 1945) is an American former Minnesota Supreme Court judge and professional American football, football player for the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears. He was the NFL's MVP in 1971. He was awarded the Presid ...

, John Randle **LB: Jeff Siemon, Matt Blair, Scott Studwell **S: Paul Krause, Joey Browner **CB: Bobby Bryant, Carl Lee **P: Greg Coleman **RS:

Darrin Nelson Darrin Milo Nelson (born January 2, 1959) is an American former professional football player who was a running back and return specialist in the National Football League (NFL) for the Minnesota Vikings and San Diego Chargers. He played college ...

*Head coach:

Bud Grant Harry Peter "Bud" Grant Jr. (May 20, 1927 – March 11, 2023) was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). Grant was head coach of the NFL's Minnesota Viki ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2000 Minnesota Vikings Season Minnesota Vikings seasons

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

NFC Central championship seasons