Fantasy Football Rankings: Vikings Players You Should Draft, Avoid This Season

Editor?s note: To help you prepare for your fantasy football draft, NESN.com will profile each NFL team and analyze which players are worth picking and which players aren?t worth your time. Today, we look at the Vikings.

The Minnesota Vikings made quite a leap forward last season into the playoffs, narrowly missing a shot at the divisional round.

Now, with another year of experience under their belts, the young Vikings are poised for even more success — both on the gridiron and in your fantasy football leagues. In advance of the upcoming fantasy season, we took a closer look at the Vikings players you should draft, avoid and peg as sleepers.

DRAFT-WORTHY
Adrian Peterson, Running Back: Peterson is a beast and just had his best season since 2012 — 1,485 rushing yards with 11 rushing touchdowns and 30 catches for 222 yards. He’s currently being taken ninth and is the fifth running back off the board after Le’Veon Bell, Todd Gurley, David Johnson and Ezekiel Elliot. There’s no reason to think Peterson will regress besides his age (31), but we won’t be concerned about a potential decline until we see it. Consider yourself lucky if Peterson drops that far to you.

Stefon Diggs, Wide Receiver: He’s the best wide receiver on a team that lacked much talent at the position last year, and he’s good for an occasional breakout game. As long as Peterson is successful, he’ll be the focal point of the offense, but he’s a nice flex/depth guy to have on your bench. He’s being taken in the ninth round as the 40th wide receiver.

Blair Walsh, Kicker: Walsh finished with the third-most points among kickers last season and is always good for some long-range bonus points. He should be one of the kickers drafted in your league.

Vikings Defense/Special Teams: The Vikings’ defense surprised a lot of people last season, and there’s no reason to think it will get any worse. Minnesota’s D finished seventh in fantasy points last season and had six defensive touchdowns and three return touchdowns. The Vikings are being drafted as the 15th overall defense (do people actually draft two?!) in the 14th round. That’s a steal for potential top-five talent.

AVOID
Teddy Bridgewater, Quarterback: Bridgewater is becoming a good NFL quarterback, but he’s nothing more than a mediocre backup option. He’s not even really a guy you want filling in during a bye week considering he had just one game in which he scored 20 or more points last season — a minimum threshold of points you need from the QB slot.

Jerick McKinnon, Running Back: If you’re someone who always drafts a handcuff, take McKinnon and hope Peterson is sidelined for some reason. Otherwise, don’t expect much. He’s got all the talent in the world, but he’s a third-down back who doesn’t get reps because Peterson is a four-down player.

Kyle Rudolph, Tight End: For all the hype he got last summer, he just doesn’t produce. There are at least a dozen better tight ends than him, and you might find a sleeper somewhere for your backup/flex/bye week replacement slot.

SLEEPER
Laquon Treadwell, Wide Receiver: People already are buying into the Treadwell hype, taking him just after Diggs in the ninth round as the 41st receiver off the board. He could very well end up being the best WR on the roster by season’s end, as his explosive past at Ole Miss suggests. He had 82 catches for 1,153 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior last season before being taken at No. 23 by the Vikes. Half of those numbers would be a good floor projection for this potential star.

Thumbnail photo via  Jeff Hanisch/USA TODAY Sports Images