2026 Team Previews: Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings 2026 Preview
All ADP data is courtesy of Fantasy Pros.
** = target in drafts at this ADP
Drafted Everywhere
**Justin Jefferson, WR (ADP: 12, WR6): 2025 was a nightmare scenario for Jefferson, as the Vikings moved on from Sam Darnold and went with their 2024 first round pick J.J. McCarthy who proved that he was not up for the task of running an NFL offense. Jefferson is such an elite receiver that he continued his career-long streak of 1,000-yard seasons, bringing it to six, but he posted 84 receptions, down from 103 the year before, and only two touchdowns. Ultimately, there isn’t much to say that’s revelatory. Jefferson is one of the absolute best, if not the best, WR in the NFL. His situation last year was nightmarish, but it figures to be improved after the Vikings brought in Kyler Murray to compete with, and likely supplant McCarthy. Murray’s had his own struggles at times, but he’s run competent offenses since coming into the league and at times he’s been elite while supporting elite fantasy receivers.
Jefferson managers who got burned might be swearing him off, while others who doubt Murray might just decide to spend this early of a pick on “surer” things. My counter is that 2025 was a worst-case scenario, and you still had a 1,000-yard receiver. Jefferson himself is one of the surest things in the NFL, and with an improved situation we should see a return to form. Ceiling is always important, but in the first two rounds security is equally, if not more important. Barring injury, we know with certainty Jefferson will be one of the best receivers on the field every Sunday and I’ll gladly bet on him again with improved QB play.
Jordan Mason, RB (ADP: 101, RB37): Mason is going in the ahead of Aaron Jones, and is being treated like a 50/50 bet for workload prominence. I don’t really get why. If you’re betting against Jones’ health, sure, but Mason has clearly never been a player involved in the passing game for either the 49ers or Vikings, and he’s not a lock for goal line work here. Jones has never displayed any issues scoring touchdowns before, so if Mason isn’t catching the ball, and isn’t getting heavy goal line work, why would he be comparable to Jones? Early down carries are nice, and he’ll probably have enough that he can be a playable option in weeks where rosters are thin, but he needs a Jones injury to have a clear path to a big snap share. Realistically, this range is not crazy for a back in this situation, and it’s Jones whose ADP is out of whack, but either way I’m not excited about Mason.
Interesting Players
**Aaron Jones Sr., RB (ADP: 117, RB41): Jones is 31, has been a shaky injury bet the last few seasons, and has some legitimate competition for work in his backfield. He’s also a player who, when he makes it through a full season, has been a virtual lock for 1,400+ total yards. We don’t think of him as a premier dual threat back because he’s spent his career in committees, but he’s rushed for 4.9 yards per carry as a career mark and has topped 300 receiving yards five times in nine years, and done so in every season in which he’s played in at least 14 games. Of course, Father Time comes for us all, and he comes for RBs with the quickness. We could see his athleticism fall off a cliff and he could wind up an afterthought to the players behind him. But that’s built into this ADP because he’s being drafted as a FLEX option. Starting RBs in offenses that project to be good don’t normally wind up this deep in drafts. Jones will definitely be ceding work at times, but if he has the biggest share of this backfield then he’s likely going to crush his ADP.
Jordan Addison, WR (ADP: 110, WR44): Addison is a classic boom or bust player who can make fantasy rosters with certain builds super dangerous, or can be a drag on teams that are over-reliant on his production. Last season stunk for him, but the entire offense was in shambles. Prior to 2025, Addison put up 911 yards and 10 touchdowns as a rookie, followed by 875 yards and nine touchdowns in Year 2. He was drafted specifically as a complement to Jefferson, and he’s been perfect in that role when the QB play was competent.
Addison thrives on efficiency vs. volume, hence the roller coaster nature of how he arrives at his production. His rookie year was his best statistically, and illustrates his game perfectly. He had four games with 70+ receiving yards, and six of his touchdowns came in those four games. He also had six games with under 40 yards receiving, scoring only once in those games. So at the end of the season he might look like a low-end WR2 with all the touchdowns he amassed in those first two years, but the path is dark and full of terrors along the way. I do like Addison if he’s a WR3 or FLEX because those big weeks can really make a difference, but it makes him a solid buy at this price rather than a value.
**Kyler Murray, QB (ADP: 153, QB17): Murray is a player I’ve struggled with evaluating forever, because of how high his ceiling is in a dream scenario, but also how limited he is at times. Murray’s both an example of how short QBs have a place in the NFL, but also of why teams shy away from them. He has a cannon of an arm and can make you gasp with his deep ball prowess, but he’s proven to avoid throwing over the middle because he has trouble seeing the field.
He’s also a player who, at his peak, rushed for 819 yards and 11 touchdowns in a season. Production like that vaults him into the Top 5 conversation at the position even if he sucks as a passer, which he didn’t that year. He also hasn’t come close to that production ever again on the ground, with his next-best rushing yardage total being 572 yards in 2024, and his second-highest rushing TD total also coming in 2025 with five. He notched five rushing TDs in 2021 as well.
Murray didn’t run well last year, but he was out with a foot injury by Week 5 and never returned, with it being unclear whether the foot injury truly was the reason by the end, or if Jacoby Brissett’s performance and the impending divorce from the Cardinals was the real factor. If history is our guide, the expectation for Murray should be around 400 rushing yards and 3-5 touchdowns. 400 rushing yards would put him around seventh among QBs last year, and five rushing TDs would place him tied for fifth at the position. Good stuff, but nothing special. Murray has never thrown for 4,000 yards, so the primary driver of his value is the rushing which is solid, but unspectacular. When healthy, Murray is reliably around 3,700 passing yards and 20-25 touchdown passes, which is underwhelming but fine when paired with the rushing. At the end of it all, we’re looking at a QB1 when healthy, and he has the upside of being in a Kevin O’Connell offense with better receivers than he’s ever had in Arizona. That makes Murray a pretty good value bet, and one you can take a flier on late if you want to get a safer QB a bit earlier.
Jauan Jennings, WR (ADP: 168, WR59): Jennings landed in a pretty nice spot here, because while he cosplayed as an alpha in San Francisco at times, it’s a role he was miscast for. That became very clear last year as the 49ers were once again decimated by injury and unable to keep pace with Jennings leading the charge. 2024 was by far the best season of his career, when he put up 77 receptions for 975 yards and six touchdowns. Last season he did salvage a lot of games through scoring, by finding the end zone a career-high nine times, but he fell to 55 catches and 643 yards in 15 games.
The 49ers really leaned on him more in the intermediate part of the field, as his dig routes jumped from 15.9% to 21.8%, but his success rate fell from 75% to 66%. He was a mess down the field, with below-average win rates on digs, posts and nines, with nines making up 9.5% of his routes and him winning just 39.1% of them. This is pretty ghastly stuff that resulted in a 12th-percentile finish vs. man (56.9%) and a 20th-percentile finish vs. zone (74.2%). It’s worth noting that Jennings did play through injuries, and was also drawing opponents’ best DBs because of the lack of options the Niners had. He’s healthy now, and he has Jefferson and Addison present to relieve him of that primary coverage. That will help him return to being a high-level separator who serves as glue for both the Vikings and fantasy rosters. I believe he can outperform this ADP, but he likely won’t outperform it to the degree that he becomes a must-start. Jennings is a nice fill-in type player to round out the bottom of a roster.
Deep Cuts
T.J. Hockenson, TE (ADP: 174, TE24): Hockenson had a brief period of time where he was a high-volume player worthy of lofty fantasy investment. It came and went though, and we haven’t seen him put up more than 455 yards in two seasons. Last season was especially brutal, because he played in 15 games and was just unproductive and appeared to be running in molasses. I believe injuries have simply caught up to him, and without a wild TD spike, he’s not going to get the necessary targets to be worth starting outside of smash matchups.
**Demond Claiborne, RB (ADP: 217, RB80): Claiborne’s a player I highlighted in the Top 10 rookies for this upcoming season, despite his sixth-round draft pick status. He put up some big scoring numbers for Wake Forest, finding paydirt 23 times in the last two seasons and racking up 1,000+ total yards in both campaigns. Claiborne has proven he can hold up to a heavy workload after surpassing 220 carries as a junior and nearing 180 as a senior, and he can catch the rock, which provides a clear path to playing time in the event of a Jones injury. He’s also a speed demon, who can tilt the field in a blink a la R.J. Harvey, who went much earlier in drafts last season than Claiborne is now. You probably don’t need to draft him, but I wouldn’t think you’re crazy if you did, as I believe Mason is overdrafted and has a much less secure role than people realize.