NFC North
Vikings Early Season Review
By Jimmy Ng
Oct 3, 2007, 13:04

Sorry for those expecting a long write-up, similar to my Rams one. This one will be significantly shorter(due to my lack of knowledge of the NFC North), but I’ll try to cover the main points.

First, the offense:
The Vikings entered the season with an atrocious passing game, and an excellent rushing attack, and this remains true three games into the season.

Tarvaris Jackson entered the season as the starter, as Vikings management wanted to see if he could fulfill their hope as the quarterback of the future. He was expected to have his ups and downs and expected to learn and progress as the season went on. I would say he had pretty mild expectations - 10-15 passing touchdowns and 2-3 rushing sounded about right. A TD/interception ratio of 1/1 would be all anybody could ask for. However, the situation is now much more complicated. An injury to Jackson and the fact that the Vikings are unexpectedly a contender in the NFC North means that the Vikings will go with the QB who gives them the best chance at winning. Kelly Holcomb will have the first chance at it, and if he does well, could end up starting for the rest of the season. Brooks Bollinger is the backup for now, but I don’t expect him to play unless Holcomb does terribly.
UPDATE: Well, Holcomb had 258 passing yards to go with 1 TD and 1 interception in a loss to the Packers. This probably wasn’t enough to convince the coaches he deserved the job, ad Jackson will likely be the starter against the Bears in two weeks(they have a bye this week). With that loss to the Packers, moving the Pack to 4-0 and the Vikings to 1-3, the Vikings will probably spend the rest of the season focusing on developing Jackson as the QB of the future.

Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor were expected to split the carries fairly evenly this year, but this has changed with Taylor’s injury, leaving Peterson with the bulk of the carries the first three games and his opportunity to shine. I expect them to split carries 65/35 when Taylor returns, with Peterson getting the bulk of the carries. However, do not underestimate Taylor, as he is a very solid back in his own right. Peterson remains a high injury-risk candidate, as he is a tough inside runner, but also one that runs fairly upright at times, a bad combination. There is no doubt that Peterson will be pretty dominant when healthy, but a word of caution to Peterson owners: he IS a rookie, and will therefore not be able to handle a huge workload(causing a split with Taylor), and he will be injury-prone due to his running style. If possible, don’t put your eggs in one basket and get Taylor as a handcuff while he’s cheap.

The WR/TE situation is a mess, and it doesn’t help things that there aren’t many fantasy stats available even if anybody should break out of this mess and establish himself as the go-to-guy (not with Jackson/Holcomb at QB). The biggest name of course is Troy Williamson, who combines excellent speed and athleticism, and was supposed to be the heir-apparent to Moss. While he has continued to be a disappointment so far, one word of advice to Williamson owners : DO NOT sell him cheap, in an attempt to get a mediocre veteran that will help you contend this year. Some WRs just figure it out a bit later than others, and Williamson is only in his 2nd year. As many know, that “magical” 3rd year is when most put it together. If you were to decide to trade him, treat his value as a good, solid #2 WR, even when he obviously is not that good at this point. On the other hand, I’m the type of guy who rode Charles Rogers until he was out of the league, and I’m a big Rich Harden/Mark Prior fan in baseball.
Another talented WR is Sidney Rice, their second round draft pick this year. He could be a candidate to step up and be the leader of this WR corps. Other names include Robert Ferguson, recently coming over from Green Bay, and Bobby Wade, also from another NFC rival(Chicago). Both are veterans who will have their days contributing, but not much potential and not worthy of starting in most EFS leagues. Both are available in many leagues on UFA/PS, if you’re desperate at WR. Yet another Viking WR, rookie Aundrae Allison, is a deep, deep sleeper, if you’re really desperate. TE Visanthe Shiancoe is the new starter at TE, and he has put up some surprising numbers so far this year.

The Vikings have a very strong offensive line, though this is more important in real-life than in fantasy. At tackle are Bryant McKinnie and Ryan Cook, both with a firm hold on the job. At guard are Steve Hutchinson(last year’s big free agent signing that signaled to the league that the Vikings were to build through their offensive line) and Artis Hicks. At center is Matt Birk. This is a solid group that paves the way for an excellent ground attack, but due to the limited effectiveness of the offense as a whole, their fantasy value is not great.

The defense is where this Vikings team shines, and are the main reason the Vikings have been able to contend in the NFC North despite an atrocious offense. The fact that they play in possibly the worst offensive conference in the NFL (facing Griese/Grossman, turnover-prone Favre, and Jon Kitna, who is always good for 20+ interceptions) adds to the fantasy value of many of these guys.
Some standouts include(stats are for players played IN position):

DT Kevin Williams 11 PPG
DE Brian Robison 14.75 PPG
IB EJ Henderson 26.75 PPG
OB Chad Greenway 21.25 PPG
CB Antoine Winfield 30.50 PPG
S Darren Sharper 20.50 PPG

I also wanted to point to two sleepers on the Vikings defense (I’m kinda boasting about my own team here, since I acquired both of these guys last offseason)
CB Marcus McCauley 14.25 PPG. Already has 3 passes defensed, and has solid production for a nickel back. I targeted him in the lower rounds of the EFS rookie draft, expecting to carry him on my PS all year, and hopefully take over a starting CB job next year. He’s definitely exceeded my expectations and is one to watch. (Though he was the guy who gave up Favre’s 421st passing TD by getting burned by Greg Jennings)
DE Keneche Udeze 14.00 PPG. He hasn’t been lighting it up, but this is a good performance considering many Udeze owners were asking : Could he be THAT bad? How can a guy get 0 sacks despite playing the whole year? Well, in many leagues, he was near the end of an expensive ORC, and that no-sack season was the final straw for this former first round pick., and he was probably cut in many EFS leagues. His coach predicted he would have a good year, and he hasn’t disappointed. This is a good example of not giving up too early on a highly-touted rookie. In most cases, I would wait until after the third year to cut bait, if you have the roster space to hold onto a guy.

As you can see, this defense is excellent, and will continue to be the backbone of the team as it compensates for an ugly offense. They already have two interception returns for a TD(one by DT Kevin Williams against the Falcons), and will need to keep making plays in order for Minnesota to stay in contention.

Anyways, hope everybody enjoyed my write-up. See you guys in my game-of-the-week write-ups with Travis in Week 6!

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