Sports
Vikings Territory: Slept On No More? Vikings Roster Gets Some Kudos
With the league's ninth-best roster, it shouldn't be too difficult to excel.
July 1, 2021
As an offseason morsel of excitement, Pro Football Focus handed the Minnesota Vikings an impressive one on Thursday.
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ranked all NFL teams by roster talent
And, the Vikings were not far off that elite club. Per PFF, Minnesota holds the NFL’s ninth-best roster, emphasizing the upcoming maturation of Justin Jefferson amid a sophomore campaign and the addition of All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson via free agency. Based on the projected depth chart, offseason moves that focused on defense, and the Jefferson-Peterson mentions, the Vikings are evidently hitting Top 10 radars.
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Minnesota provided fans with a lackluster campaign during the pandemic, earning a 7-9 record on the backbone of key injuries to defensive personnel like Danielle Hunter, Michael Pierce (COVID opt-out), Anthony Barr, Mike Hughes, and Eric Kendricks [when the season hit crunch time]. Zimmer – forever the defensive proprietor of football operations – could not circumvent the injuries, offering instead a brief resurgence after a 1-5 start. The Vikings sniffed playoff contention for a few weeks, only to faceplant when Kendricks was lost for the rest of the year in Week 13. All told, Minnesota inhabited the basement of the NFL for defense, allowing the fourth-most points leaguewide to opposing teams – a massive departure from fifth-best in this metric during 2019.
This is aside from PFF’s claim to fame for the 2021 bunch. Ben Linsey of PFF said this about the team’s core strength:
Linsey still suspects the offensive line as a weak spot – even though “the plan” this year for the Vikings is more optimistic than years past. Spielman drafted Christian Darrisaw to play left tackle while adding Wyatt Davis from Ohio State to cover right guard patrol. The rapid development of those two youngsters in 2021 alongside Brian O’Neill, Ezra Cleveland, and Garrett Bradbury will determine just how reconditioned the offensive line really appears.
With the league’s ninth-best roster, it shouldn’t be too difficult to excel.
This press release was produced by Vikings Territory. The views expressed here are the author’s own.