ESPN Lists Five Vikings Among NFL’s Top 100 Players
Josh Frey
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NFL teams must be filled with star talent at multiple positions if they want to be considered Super Bowl contenders.
This week, ESPN’s Seth Walder released his list of the NFL’s Top 100 Most Valuable Players for the 2023 season, and somewhat surprisingly, there were five Vikings on this list despite Minnesota going 7-10 and missing out on the playoffs.
Here is how Walder described his ranking process:
The ballot represents my opinion, which is usually heavily influenced by quantitative evidence, such as pass block win rates and our Receiver Tracking Metrics. I factor in All-Pro teams and qualitative information such as Pro Football Focus grades, though, too. I also shared versions of the list with trusted colleagues and NFL team staffers to get feedback, which I consider quite valuable. Crowdsourcing is an important aspect of opinion-building.
To reconcile different positions, I considered how much value a player created over an average starter at his position. This means quarterbacks will dominate the top of the list because they play the position with the most variance, but also that there could be only 16 or so at most in the top 100. Another example is the league’s eighth-best offensive tackle is ranked ahead of the third-best running back, because running back value is much more tightly clustered than the value of tackles.
ESPN Lists Five Vikings Among NFL’s Top 100 Players
Here is a look at the Vikings who made the cut:
- No. 55: RT Brian O’Neill
- No. 70: OLB Danielle Hunter
- No. 86: LT Christian Darrisaw
- No. 88: WR Justin Jefferson
- No. 90: S Josh Metellus
This is yet another example of the 2023 season being a “what if” year for the Vikings. Had they not suffered a variety of injuries throughout the season, Minnesota almost assuredly would have been in playoff contention.
Instead, the loss of QB Kirk Cousins for the final nine games of the season and WR Justin Jefferson for seven games and the majority of an eighth proved to derail this season. Had Cousins been healthy throughout the season, he almost assuredly would have made the list considering he amassed 2331 passing yards, 18 TDs, and just five interceptions in the eight games he played.
Additionally, Jefferson likely would have landed among the top 10 if he had been able to put together a full season. In only 10 games, the star receiver put together 68 receptions for 1074 yards and five touchdown catches.
While the order of the Vikings players on the list may be a touch surprising, with O’Neill coming in ahead of both Darrisaw and Hunter, these five Vikings were certainly worthy of making the list.
Hunter put together a career season as he heads into free agency in search of a huge contract as he totaled 23 tackles for loss and 16.5 sacks. Both totals were career-highs for the pass-rusher, and he tied with Maxx Crosby for the league-lead in tackles for loss.
While Hunter was a key part of Minnesota’s defensive success, the impact of Metellus at safety cannot be overlooked, either. The do-it-all defender made a massive emergence this season, doing a little bit of everything for Brian Flores’ unit in 2023.
After primarily spending his first three years as a special teamer, Metellus started all 17 games this season and put together a complete stat line of 116 tackles, seven tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, five passes defended, and an interception.
In the end, the Vikings had a few very strong individual seasons from a number of players to help keep them in the playoff picture throughout the regular season.
It simply wasn’t enough to actually get them in the tournament, though. Hopefully, 2024 can be different for these Vikings if they retain some of their key playmakers in free agency and find better injury luck.
Editor’s Note: Statistics for this article were found via Pro Football Reference.
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Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.