Five Minnesota Vikings Land on PFF’s Fantasy Football Rankings
Josh Frey
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Fantasy football draft season is just around the corner, and everyone is coming out with their fantasy football player rankings. Even here at PurplePTSD we’ve begun rolling out rankings this week. PFF‘s Dwain McFarland came out with a list of his own on Saturday, ranking the top 150 players for this fantasy football season. This list includes five Minnesota Vikings, and they are all the usual suspects. Here they are and where the fall on the list:
- No. 3: WR Justin Jefferson
- No. 10: RB Dalvin Cook
- No. 67: WR Adam Thielen
- No. 121: TE Irv Smith Jr.
- No. 130: QB Kirk Cousins
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Clearly, McFarland sees the Vikings offense as a prolific unit in 2022. Justin Jefferson is the projected WR1 of the entire NFL while Dalvin Cook comes in at RB5 behind Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, Austin Ekeler, and Derrick Henry.
Of course, it’s safe to assume Justin Jefferson will be one of the top receivers in the NFL once again. He recorded over 1600 yards last season and tossed 10 touchdowns in there as well. He has the most receiving yards of any player since entering the league in 2020. There is no ceiling for Jefferson in 2022 with new head coach Kevin O’Connell at the helm of the offense.
As for Cook, if McCaffrey and Henry miss time once again this year, his actual ranking could end up even higher. There is the chance that Cook lands a bit lower, too. He has missed at least two games in every year of his career, and in 2021 he sat out four of Minnesota’s 17 games. Even still, Cook had the 11th-most yards from scrimmage last year, and if he develops more of a receiving role in 2022, this could help him stay on the field.
Adam Thielen and Irv Smith Jr. also make the list in the mid-tier of their respective positions. However, I would argue that Thielen belongs higher than the 33rd ranked receiver. A very important part of a player’s value is their ability to score touchdowns. Since 2020, Thielen is tied with Tyreek Hill for the third-most receiving touchdowns with 24. He has the 31st-most receiving yards in that timespan as well with 1651.
Finally, Kirk Cousins is the QB15 on the list, falling just behind Derek Carr. If the Vikings are to actually become a top-five NFL offense this year, they will need him to produce better than a league average QB. With the weapons at his disposal, I would expect him to be closer to No. 10 than No. 15 when all is said and done.
