The Vikings have plenty of pieces offensively to be one of the most productive units in the league. There’s Dalvin Cook at running back, Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson at wide receiver, Irv Smith Jr. at tight end, and Kirk Cousins at quarterback.
This unit ranked fourth in total yards last season and 11th in points scored.
Cynthia Frelund over at NFL.com projects the Vikings will have the eighth-best offense in the NFL in 2021.
Here’s what Frelund wrote about the Vikings:
Don’t sleep on the Vikings this season. The addition of Christian Darrisaw with the No. 23 pick last month addressed a real problem that matters for this style of offense and how Kirk Cousins executes it. Minnesota ranked 23rd last season when it came to its rate of sacks per pass attempt (7.6%). Basically, when defenses had a good sense the Vikings were passing, pressure increased and Minnesota’s efficiency went down. One way to see this is that the Vikings ranked 16th on third down (40.9 percent conversation rate) despite having the third-most earned first downs per game (23.9). With a rushing average of 4.9 yards per attempt (fourth in the NFL) and a passing figure of 8.3 yards per attempt (second), the Vikes were creating the right opportunities and making the most of them, just not keeping the sequencing efficient enough.
The only other NFC North team on the list are the Packers at No. 3. Of course, if the Packers lose Aaron Rodgers, it’s safe to say that they would fall off this list.
You can check out Frelund’s full top-10 list here.