The Purple People Eaters stand among the great defensive fronts anybody has assembled, and the noise under a closed roof is worth points nobody bothers counting. nobody moves quite like Justin Jefferson, and there is no bad week to watch him work. Minnesota does its worrying with spreadsheets, which keeps it precise.
Fantasy-relevant players only. Quarterbacks, backs, receivers and tight ends, which is what HexMetrics prices. 1 of them sit inside the league's top 25, 1 inside the top 50, 2 inside the top 100.
HexScore rates a player against others at his own position, so the seven below are not added up: each is weighted by what its slot is worth to an offence, and the weights are in the last column.
Minnesota's pass defense z-scores at 1.41, 3 of 32. Justin Jefferson rates 99.0, 11 of 457, and is the only Minnesota player inside the league's top 50. Roster strength reads 76.2, 14 of 32; Team Power reads 86, 11 of 32. Nobody in this market needs the downside explained, so here it is quantified rather than implied.
Pass defense 1.41 at 3 of 32, rush defense 0.37 at 14. 11 of 17 games indoors, 8 of 32. Strength of schedule 28 of 32 counting easiest first, which is one of the harder slates in football, and Team Power still lands at 11 of 32.
An indoor home field is worth measurable points and most schedule models ignore it entirely. This site does count the roof, in the sense that it prints the count, and it does not price it. So take the eleven indoor games as an unpriced asset and the third-ranked pass defense as a priced one, and this club is better than a fifteenth-place skill group suggests.
Justin Jefferson rates 99.0. The next receiver rates 69.5 and the flex rates 57.5. The first receiver slot carries 17% of the club figure and the second carries 12%, so the drop from the first name to the second costs about four rating points of roster strength on its own.
I am sceptical of receiver value that depends on a single alpha staying healthy, and this is the most concentrated receiver dependency in the division. That is not a prediction of an injury. It is the observation that this club's ceiling and its floor are separated by one player, and that a fanbase which can list the one-score games from three seasons ago does not need reminding what that shape produces.
Quarterback 78.9, 96 of 457. First back 76.6, second back 65.0, tight end 66.4. None of those is bad and none of those is good, which is precisely the profile that produces a club figure of 76.2 against a league median of 75.6.
The line ranks 15 of 32, pass efficiency reads 0.64, tempo 0.89 against a league average of one, which is among the slowest in football. The value-weighted age is 27.7, 29 of 32 counting youngest first, with 18.6% of the rated talent under twenty-five. This is an older roster with one great player and a very good defense against the pass.
One-score-game records are noise and I say so in the years the noise favoured this club as well as the years it did not, so nothing in this case is built on last season's margins. The forward-looking defensive composite reads -0.48 at 23 of 32, which disagrees with the backward pass number by twenty places and is the single largest open question on this page. The bye is early, week 6.
The case: a top-three pass defense, eleven games indoors, and the tenth-rated skill player in football, which in a division decided by two or three games is enough to be the club that gets in. The case against it is on the same page and it is one sentence long. There is one player inside the top 50 and the rest of the offense is average, and average offenses in January are how this specific market has learned to expect a season to end.
76 players. Read from www.vikings.com on 2026-09-12. Not a HexMetrics rating: this is what the club publishes.
Read from www.vikings.com on 2026-09-12.
| # | Player | Pos | Ht | Wt | Age | Exp | College |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active53 | |||||||
| Offense | |||||||
| 1 | Kyler MurrayRated | QB | 5-10 | 207 | 29 | 8 | Oklahoma |
| 9 | J.J. McCarthyRated | QB | 6-3 | 219 | 23 | 3 | Michigan |
| 11 | Carson WentzRated | QB | 6-5 | 237 | 33 | 11 | North Dakota State |
| 21 | Demond ClaiborneRated | RB | 5-10 | 188 | 22 | R | Wake Forest |
| 27 | Jordan MasonRated | RB | 5-11 | 230 | 27 | 5 | Georgia Tech |
| 33 | Aaron Jones Sr.Rated | RB | 5-10 | 208 | 31 | 10 | Texas-El Paso |
| 45 | Max Bredeson | FB | 6-2 | 252 | 23 | R | Michigan |
| 3 | Jordan AddisonRated | WR | 5-11 | 179 | 24 | 4 | USC |
| 4 | Myles Price | WR | 5-9 | 183 | 24 | 2 | Indiana |
| 13 | Tai FeltonRated | WR | 6-1 | 186 | 23 | 2 | Maryland |
| 14 | Jauan JenningsRated | WR | 6-3 | 212 | 29 | 6 | Tennessee |
| 18 | Justin JeffersonRated | WR | 6-1 | 195 | 27 | 7 | LSU |
| 84 | Josh OliverRated | TE | 6-5 | 264 | 29 | 8 | San Jose State |
| 86 | Gavin Bartholomew | TE | 6-5 | 249 | 23 | 2 | Pittsburgh |
| 87 | T.J. HockensonRated | TE | 6-5 | 248 | 29 | 8 | Iowa |
| 71 | Christian Darrisaw | T | 6-5 | 315 | 27 | 6 | Virginia Tech |
| 72 | Ryan Van Demark | T | 6-7 | 307 | 28 | 4 | Connecticut |
| 75 | Brian O'Neill | T | 6-7 | 310 | 30 | 9 | Pittsburgh |
| 60 | Joe Huber | G | 6-5 | 310 | 24 | 2 | Wisconsin |
| 69 | Trevor Keegan | G | 6-6 | 315 | 26 | 3 | Michigan |
| 74 | Donovan Jackson | G | 6-4 | 324 | 23 | 2 | Ohio State |
| 76 | Will Fries | G | 6-6 | 321 | 28 | 6 | Penn State |
| 62 | Nick Samac | C | 6-4 | 317 | 25 | 3 | Michigan State |
| 64 | Blake Brandel | C | 6-6 | 315 | 29 | 6 | Oregon State |
| 78 | Caleb Tiernan | OL | 6-7 | 323 | 23 | R | Northwestern |
| Defense | |||||||
| 50 | Levi Drake Rodriguez | DL | 6-2 | 307 | 26 | 3 | Texas A&M-Commerce |
| 61 | Jalen Redmond | DL | 6-3 | 305 | 27 | 3 | Oklahoma |
| 90 | Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins | DL | 6-5 | 290 | 23 | 2 | Georgia |
| 95 | Caleb Banks | DL | 6-6 | 327 | 23 | R | Florida |
| 97 | Domonique Orange | DL | 6-2 | 322 | 22 | R | Iowa State |
| 99 | Elijah Williams | DL | 6-3 | 298 | 24 | 2 | Morgan State |
| 0 | Ivan Pace Jr. | LB | 5-10 | 236 | 25 | 4 | Cincinnati |
| 41 | Jake Golday | LB | 6-4 | 240 | 23 | R | Cincinnati |
| 51 | Blake Cashman | LB | 6-1 | 235 | 30 | 8 | Minnesota |
| 55 | Eric Wilson | LB | 6-1 | 231 | 31 | 10 | Cincinnati |
| 15 | Dallas Turner | OLB | 6-3 | 247 | 23 | 3 | Alabama |
| 32 | Chaz Chambliss | OLB | 6-1 | 244 | 23 | 2 | Georgia |
| 43 | Andrew Van Ginkel | OLB | 6-4 | 242 | 31 | 8 | Wisconsin |
| 98 | Bo Richter | OLB | 6-1 | 248 | 26 | 3 | Air Force |
| 2 | Isaiah Rodgers | CB | 5-10 | 180 | 28 | 6 | UMass Amherst |
| 5 | Zemaiah Vaughn | CB | 6-3 | 180 | 24 | 1 | Utah |
| 7 | Byron Murphy Jr. | CB | 5-11 | 190 | 28 | 8 | Washington |
| 20 | Charles Demmings | CB | 6-1 | 193 | 23 | R | Stephen F. Austin State |
| 23 | James Pierre | CB | 6-2 | 185 | 29 | 7 | Florida Atlantic |
| 8 | Jakobe Thomas | S | 6-1 | 211 | 23 | R | Miami |
| 22 | Harrison Smith | S | 6-2 | 211 | 37 | 15 | Notre Dame |
| 24 | Jay Ward | S | 6-1 | 190 | 26 | 4 | LSU |
| 26 | Theo Jackson | S | 6-1 | 205 | 27 | 5 | Tennessee |
| 29 | Jacob Thomas | S | 6-1 | 212 | 22 | R | James Madison |
| 44 | Joshua Metellus | S | 5-11 | 208 | 28 | 7 | Michigan |
| Special teams | |||||||
| 16 | Will ReichardRated | K | 6-1 | 190 | 25 | 3 | Alabama |
| 19 | Brett Thorson | P | 6-1 | 237 | 26 | R | Georgia |
| 42 | Andrew DePaola | LS | 6-1 | 227 | 39 | 12 | Rutgers |
| Reserve/Designated to Return1 | |||||||
| 65 | Michael Jurgens | C | 6-5 | 311 | 26 | 3 | Wake Forest |
| Reserve/Injured5 | |||||||
| 32 | Jamal Adams | LB | 6-1 | 213 | 30 | 10 | LSU |
| 92 | Tyler Batty | OLB | 6-6 | 271 | 27 | 2 | BYU |
| 28 | Tyreek Chappell | CB | 5-11 | 180 | 23 | R | Texas A&M |
| 94 | Taki Taimani | DL | 6-1 | 324 | 26 | 2 | Oregon |
| 85 | Ben Yurosek | TE | 6-4 | 251 | 24 | 2 | Georgia |
| Reserve/Suspended by Commissioner1 | |||||||
| 82 | Jeshaun Jones | WR | 6-1 | 188 | 26 | 1 | Maryland |
| # | Player | Pos | Ht | Wt | Age | Exp | College |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practice Squad16 | |||||||
| Offense | |||||||
| 12 | Max Brosmer | QB | 6-2 | 218 | 25 | 2 | Minnesota |
| 31 | DeeJay Dallas | RB | 5-10 | 225 | 27 | 7 | Miami |
| 30 | Trayvon Rudolph | WR | 5-10 | 187 | 24 | R | Toledo |
| 81 | Michael Briscoe | WR | 6-2 | 209 | 24 | R | Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) |
| 89 | Dillon Bell | WR | 6-1 | 209 | 22 | R | Georgia |
| 83 | Cam Grandy | TE | 6-5 | 253 | 26 | 3 | Illinois State |
| 68 | Henry Byrd | G | 6-5 | 314 | 27 | 1 | Princeton |
| 79 | Jack Nelson | OL | 6-7 | 314 | 24 | 2 | Wisconsin |
| Defense | |||||||
| 91 | Naquan Jones | DL | 6-3 | 313 | 28 | 6 | Michigan State |
| 96 | Jahvaree Ritzie | DL | 6-4 | 290 | 23 | 1 | North Carolina |
| 59 | Bangally Kamara | LB | 6-2 | 235 | 24 | R | Kansas |
| 17 | Kyle Van Noy | OLB | 6-3 | 255 | 35 | 13 | BYU |
| 52 | Jihad Ward | OLB | 6-5 | 285 | 32 | 11 | Illinois |
| 35 | Bryce Phillips | CB | 6-0 | 195 | 23 | R | San Diego State |
| 38 | Da'Veawn Armstead | CB | 6-1 | 183 | 23 | R | North Texas |
| 37 | Tavierre Thomas | S | 5-10 | 212 | 30 | 9 | Ferris State |
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