Here’s Where the Vikings Offense Ranked in 2023
Josh Frey
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The Minnesota Vikings finished their regular season on Sunday with a loss to the Detroit Lions.
With the season behind us, today we will be breaking down where the Vikings offense ranked as a whole, and where individual players stood at the end of the year. Shout out to Pro-Football-Reference, Pro Football Focus, and nfeloapp.com for the numbers that went into this article. Stay tuned for the defensive rankings later today as well.
NOTE: Individual PFF Grades are sorted to include players with at least 20% of the league leader’s number of dropbacks, carries, or targets.
Team Offense
Total Offense
- Points Scored per Game: 20.2 (22nd)
- Total Yards per Game: 347.8 (10th)
- Plays per Game: 67.0 (17th)
- Yards per Play: 5.5 (10th)
- Turnovers per Game: 2.00 (31st)
- Penalties per Game: 5.24 (T-8th)
- Third-Down Conversion Percentage: 38.1% (18th)
- Fourth-Down Conversion Percentage: 58.6% (T-6th)
- Red Zone TD Percentage: 47.1% (28th)
- Overall PFF Grade: 77.6 (10th)
- EPA/play: -0.05 (17th)
The Vikings offense certainly took a step back in 2023. This can be attributed to a variety of reasons, including injuries to Kirk Cousins, T.J. Hockenson, and Justin Jefferson. However, there are very notable flaws with this team. They struggled on third downs, particularly down the stretch of the season, and they simply could not find ways to consistently get into the end zone. As a result, it’s no wonder this team ranked near the bottom 10 in scoring.
Passing Offense
- Completions per Game: 24.9 (2nd)
- Pass Attempts per Game: 37.1 (4th)
- Passing Yards per Game: 256.4 (5th)
- Net Yards per Attempt: 6.4 (10th)
- Passing TDs per Game: 1.76 (T-4th)
- Interceptions per Game: 1.12 (29th)
- Passing PFF Grade: 75.6 (15th)
- Pass-Blocking PFF Grade: 74.4 (2nd)
- Receiving PFF Grade: 77.8 (8th)
- EPA/pass: -0.02 (19th)
Rushing Offense
- Carries per Game: 23.1 (28th)
- Rushing Yards per Game: 91.4 (29th)
- Yards per Carry: 4.0 (23rd)
- Rushing First Downs per Game: 4.65 (T-30th)
- Rushing TDs per Game: 0.41 (T-30th)
- Fumbles Lost per Game: 0.88 (30th)
- Rushing PFF Grade: 75.2 (24th)
- Run-Blocking PFF Grade: 65.0 (10th)
- EPA/run: -0.15 (23rd)
The Vikings would have been fine in the passing game this year if Cousins never went down with his injury. However, the trio of Josh Dobbs/Jaren Hall/Nick Mullens simply never worked out, resulting in some lackluster effectiveness down the stretch of the season.
The major concern remains in the rushing department. Perhaps Ty Chandler can build off his performance down the stretch of the season, but the Vikings need to land much higher among the rankings in 2024.
Individual Players
QB Kirk Cousins
- Completions: 216 (27th)
- Pass Attempts: 311 (29th)
- Passing Yards: 2331 (24th)
- Passing First Downs: 112 (25th)
- Passing TDs: 18 (19th)
- Interceptions: 5 (T-35th-most)
- PFF Grade: 86.1 (7th among 45 qualifying QBs)
QB Josh Dobbs
- Completions: 262 (22nd)
- Pass Attempts: 417 (21st)
- Passing Yards: 2464 (23rd)
- Passing First Downs: 126 (22nd)
- Passing TDs: 13 (T-23rd)
- Interceptions: 10 (T-13th-most)
- PFF Grade: 65.9 (T-25th among 45 qualifying QBs)
RB Alexander Mattison
- Carries: 180 (T-29th)
- Rushing Yards: 700 (32nd)
- Yards per Carry: 3.9 (32nd)
- Rushing First Downs: 28 (46th)
- Rushing TDs: 0
- PFF Grade: 61.8 (56th among 63 qualifying RBs)
RB Ty Chandler
- Carries: 102 (52nd)
- Rushing Yards: 461 (45th)
- Yards per Carry: 4.5 (DNQ)
- Rushing First Downs: 20 (57th)
- Rushing TDs: 3 (T-48th)
- PFF Grade: 76.3 (20th among 63 qualifying RBs)
WR Justin Jefferson
- Targets: 100 (42nd)
- Receptions: 68 (T-42nd)
- Receiving Yards: 1074 (19th)
- Receiving First Downs: 51 (T-19th)
- Receiving TDs: 5 (T-35th)
- PFF Grade: 91.1 (T-3rd among 102 qualifying WRs)
WR Jordan Addison
- Targets: 108 (31st)
- Receptions: 70 (40th)
- Receiving Yards: 911 (33rd)
- Receiving First Downs: 38 (T-41st)
- Receiving TDs: 10 (T-4th)
- PFF Grade: 68.6 (56th among 102 qualifying WRs)
WR K.J. Osborn
- Targets: 75 (T-76th)
- Receptions: 48 (T-86th)
- Receiving Yards: 540 (82nd)
- Receiving First Downs: 28 (T-69th)
- Receiving First Downs: 3 (T-82nd)
- PFF Grade: 53.9 (95th among 102 qualifying WRs)
TE T.J. Hockenson
- Targets: 127 (22nd)
- Receptions: 95 (T-14th)
- Receiving Yards: 960 (31st)
- Receiving First Downs: 48 (T-23rd)
- Receiving TDs: 5 (T-35th)
- PFF Grade: 78.8 (3rd among 46 qualifying TEs)
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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.