Why the Minnesota Vikings lost in Free Agency | Yahoo Fantasy Football Show
Yahoo Sports' Matt Harmon and Dalton Del Don explain why the Minnesota Vikings are the underachievers of free agency this year. Listen to the entire conversation on the “Yahoo Fantasy Football Show” podcast, and make sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred listening platform.
Video Transcript
MATT HARMON: I do not think Justin Jefferson-- I mean, look. Obviously, if you were considering drafting him number one overall, like, you can't really do that anymore. You know, you can-- I think there are many receivers you're going to want to take in the first round ahead of him.
I'm not going to call him a traditional loser here, though, because Sam Darnold-- I mean, shoot you out there at quarterback. Like, Nick Mullens and all those boys last year-- Justin Jefferson was still productive. But I think Jordan Addison and Ty Chandler have to be considered big losers in the wake of Kirk Cousins leaving and Aaron Jones signing with the Minnesota Vikings, because, you know, you look at Jordan Addison's stats last year. A lot of it was big play induced, touchdown induced, in terms of his fantasy productivity. Obviously, you'd think that is going to come down.
Whether it's Sam Darnold starting-- I mean, Darnold hive is already excited. Good for them. Shout out to them. I think, at best, Darnold can be like an efficient caretaker, which is what he was when he had some success with the Carolina Panthers a couple years ago to end the season. That's still like-- that's not going to trickle down to pass catcher number two or pass catcher number three, in my opinion. And certainly, if it's a rookie quarterback, I don't think that Jordan Addison is going to be getting a lot of target volume.
So-- and yeah, Ty Chandler, like I said-- Aaron Jones is kind of like the actualized version of what people want Ty Chandler to be. So I think those two guys have to be considered losers in Minnesota.
DALTON DEL DON: Yeah, bad news for the Minnesota fantasy players, the quarterback downgrade. On one hand, Jefferson's stats last year without Cousins were very good. 20.6 fantasy points, all 10 targets or more. But they were against, like, bottom three secondaries, really situational there. So don't overrate that.
But he's obviously a special player. So my rankings, I moved him below Ja'Marr Chase, from my wide receiver three to my wide receiver four, also behind Lamb and Tyreek. Does that make sense? I mean, you're not moving Jefferson below St. Brown, right?
MATT HARMON: Nah, I don't think so. I mean, again, I think Lamb, Tyreek Hill, Ja'Marr Chase-- Yeah, St. Brown's tough. But I think I'll still go Justin Jefferson there.