Fantasy Football 2015: Previewing the Minnesota Vikings

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Dec 28, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater (5) breaks the tackle of Chicago Bears Jeremiah Ratliff (90) on a run in the first quarter at TCF Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Bear Goggles On, first and foremost, is a one-stop-shop for all things Chicago Bears.  Spending so much time and energy talking about our team inevitably results in tangential conversations about our division rivals, however, and today we’re once again taking a stroll down that dark path.  This is the second in a three-part series (Part One: Detroit Lions) where we’re looking at the relevant fantasy contributors playing for our NFC North brethren.  Today we take a fantasy-based look at the Minnesota Vikings.

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From strictly a fan perspective, the Vikings for me have often been an afterthought in recent years.  The Packers with Aaron Rodgers have largely owned the division and if you read my piece on the Lions, you know I tend to focus on whatever they are or aren’t doing due to where I reside.

An overall record in the last 10 years of 76-83-1 tends to make a team easy to ignore, I suppose, but that’s not to say the Vikings haven’t had their moments.  During that span they’ve won the division twice, once with AP powering a Gus Frerotte-led team in 2008 and the second in the following year with Favre leading the team all the way to the NFC Championship.

Of course in that game his horrific interception with less than 20 seconds left to play cost them what was shaping up to be a sure trip to the Super Bowl.

View image | gettyimages.com

For you Vikings fans out there, please keep reading, I promise that’s my last dig on your team.  This is a Bears site after all, what did you expect?

More recently the Vikings had another moment in the sun, this time at the Bears expense.  In 2012 the Bears and the Vikings entered the final week of the season vying for the playoffs with identical 9-6 records and divisional match-ups in front of them.  Both would win, the Vikes over the Pack and the Bears over the Lions, but Minnesota won the tie-breaker and the Bears at 10-6 were kept out of the playoffs.

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Minnesota would rematch Green Bay in the Wild Card round and lose, which for Bears fans brings the Packers’ stranglehold over us full circle.  They couldn’t beat the Vikings to help us get into the playoffs, but they dispatched them without too much trouble once in the playoffs.  Damn those Cheeseheads.

Last year the Bears were a football dumpster fire and the Vikings weathered a season with a rookie QB getting his first action and a star running back out for 15 games with legal troubles.  Despite their predicament the Vikings still finished 7-9 and third place in the division, ahead of the aforementioned 5-10 Bears.  Along the way the Vikings showed promise and are a popular pick to make a move this year and possibly contend for the division title.

Now that we’ve established a sufficient amount of context on the Minnesota/Chicago dynamic, lets move on with the real purpose of this piece and begin our discussion about fantasy football and which players on the Vikings roster are worth a look for your squad.  Keep in mind this is just a general outlook as the value of some players is extremely subjective from league-to-league based on the number of teams, the scoring settings, roster size, etc.

I’ll specify between PPR/Non-PPR when necessary, but for general purposes lets operate under the premise of a 10-team re-draft league.  With that said, click below to start the fun.

Next: The #1 Overall Pick?

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