Frigga's Fantasy Football: Week 12

The fun seemingly never ends with the Vikings.  After an excellent training camp, and an undefeated Preseason, followed by an absolute shellacking of the St. Louis Rams in week 1, the wheels came off the bus.  We lost our star running back temporarily, starting quarterback, starting right guard, starting tight end for most of the season,as it turns out that "temporary" loss of our star running back turned into "for the rest of the year", our pets heads are falling off and now we get to face a red-hot Packers team this week.  As Harry Dunne would say, "Alright, just calm down."   Things look awfully bad right now, I mean we even signed Ben Tate this week.  Things are bad, ok?  Our offense can't move the ball, our defense  is doing everything it can to keep the team in the game, and our punter, well...I'm just not that optimistic about the Vikings chances this week.  But win or lose, there should be fantasy points to had, just probably not very many by the Vikings players.

This week the Vikings start a 3-game home stand by first hosting their intrastate rival the Green Bay Packers.   Aaron Rodgers and company are rolling, but for fantasy purposes we don't care all that much about the offense.  The Packers have a "middle-of-the-road" defense against pretty much every position in fantasy.  They are slightly worse at wide receiver where they allow 24.6 fantasy points per game to the position, ranked 24^th overall.  But the last time the Vikings faced off against the Packers (and with Ponder at QB) our WR could only muster 13 combined fantasy points, the lowest total the Packers have allowed all year (and it's not particularly close).  I'm not expecting a whole lot from the Vikings passing game, especially with Jennings and Wright banged up.  What follows are the Fantasypros consensus projections for Week 12, which take into account 7 different sources including CBS, ESPN and Pro Football Focus among others.  It's worth pointing out that the "Season Average" stat is their average fantasy points per start (or game where they played the majority of the snaps).

With a plus matchup last week, almost everyone was projected over their season average, but unfortunately everyone not named Charles Johnson fell well short of their projections, including their season averages.  Teddy Bridgewater seemed to take a step backwards last week throwing for only 158 yards and 1 TD and 1 INT.  It amounted to a disappointing 8.5 fantasy points.  The prognosticators are expecting only a slightly better performance this week than last.  If Teddy fails to deliver once again, questions about his ability to play in cold weather will surely begin to surface, although it should warm up into the upper 30s/lower 40s by Sunday in Minneapolis.

Jerick Mckinnon returned to practice on Thursday, and if Norv Turner's comments to the media are any indication, he will continue to be the starting running back going forward.  Matt Asiata is dealing with a concussion and I would be surprised to see him suit up this week.  That puts Ben Tate in a backup role, at least for the short-term.  The Packers run defense isn't stellar, and they do allow 18.7 fantasy points per game.  However, the last time these two teams faced off, the Vikings running backs only managed a combined total of 10.7 fantasy points.  That was with Matt Asiata as the starter however, so perhaps they can move the ball on the ground a little more effectively with Mckinnon.  Mckinnon does have the highest odds of any Vikings player to score a touchdown (either rushing or receiving), so take that for what it's worth.  If the Vikings do get down on the goal line, with Asiata out, maybe Mckinnon will finally get a goal line carry (he still has 0 on the year).

There's not much to say about our receivers.  I would stay away from all of them this week.  I will be keeping a close eye on Charles Johnson though.  After Jennings and Wright exited the game last week with injuries, Johnson emerged as a consistent receiving threat catching 6 passes for 87 yards.  And since he was initially signed by the Packers coming out of college (and couldn't make their team), perhaps there is some extra motivation for him this week.  Even if Jennings and Wright were to miss the game (they will both probably suit up, with Wright limited in practice Thursday) I would not risk it with Charles Johnson in any lineup.  But he could be worth a speculative add in dynasty leagues.  His measurables are fantastic, and he has experience in Turner's offense as he was on Cleveland's practice squad last year.  So, we'll see what happens with his development the rest of the way.

Kyle Rudolph played only 14 of the offense's 47 snaps (29.8%) last week and was not targeted in the passing game, as it was pretty clear that the team was easing him back into game action.  Coaches mentioned after the game that he lacked confidence in his first game back from surgery, so hopefully as he continues to heal and get back into game shape we'll see his contributions increase.  Meanwhile, Chase Ford played on only 22 of the team's 47 snaps catching 1 pass for 4 yards.  It was instead Rhett Ellison who got the most snaps (24) and caught the team's only touchdown on the afternoon.  I have no idea what to expect out of the Tight Ends this week, but I wouldn't be starting any of them.

Blair Walsh had a respectable day last week hitting 2 of 3 field goals, one from 50+ and adding an extra point for good measure.  It all added up to 8 fantasy points.  Still, he only ranks 15^th among fantasy kickers this season averaging 7.9 points per game.  The Packers have allowed only two kickers to post double digit fantasy points this year, so the opportunities for Walsh could be limited this week.  I'm sure there are better options out there, but if you must start Walsh, feel free to roll the dice.  One risk I would not recommend is starting the Vikings D/ST.  They scored only 1 point in ESPN standard leagues the last time these two teams faced off, and just put up a -1 last week.  Stay away.

So, after 11 weeks I am now 49-39 overall in my 8 fantasy leagues.  As always here are the updated standings for the 6-team DN Writers League.  I've managed a little 2-game winning streak over the last two weeks to climb up into 4^th place, as my team is finally getting healthy again.  There has been some other shake-ups in the rankings too, but since this is a 6-team league, everyone makes the playoffs.  It's just that the top 2 teams get a 1st round BYE.  Playoffs for this league start in Week 14, so there are only 2 more weeks left to sort out the playoff seeds.  MarkSP18 has already wrapped up a 1st round BYE with Arif securing the #6 seed, but 2nd-5th seeds are still totally up for grabs.

Lastly, if Fantasy advice is what you seek, look no further.  I've stopped keeping track of the accuracy of Frigga's advice, but just know I tend to be slightly better than a 50/50 shot in the dark...slightly.  In any case, post your questions below in the comments section and Frigga's inspiration and wisdom shall be yours.