PFF Plops 3 Vikings Players in 2021’s Top 50 Rankings
This is primetime on the offseason calendar for rankings, predictions, and all the juicy speculative stuff. Soon, the NFL will even release its Top 100 players – voted on by players – for NFL Network to broadcast. It’s an annual event that holds special credibility because the players collectively opine. What else is there to do with NFL-related downtime?
That’s why so many Power Rankings float around, adjudicating each team against one another – and even players by position. Pro Football Focus is a credible arbiter of such rankings and decided to rank the Top 50 NFL players in the world right now.
Topping the list [in order] for 2021 are Aaron Donald, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Quenton Nelson, and Davante Adams.
Three Minnesota Vikings players made the cut. And that also indicates that several were snubbed – but a Top 50 ranking of players is not as robust to calculate when one puts a pen to paper.
These are the Vikings to inhabit 2021’s Top 50:
33. Eric Kendricks
Image courtesy of Vikings.com
The cardiovascular system of Mike Zimmer’s defense got the nod. He’s the center of everything, so much so that stuff collapses without him. See: The End of the Vikings 2020 season.
Kendricks is a monster, gradually ascending the league as an elite non-EDGE linebacker. Per PFF, only Bobby Wagner and Fred Warner are better than Kendricks in this role. PFF said about Kendricks:
“Over the last two seasons, Kendricks has not only forced more incompletions than any other linebacker, but he’s also forced them at the highest rate in the league. He’s allowed a passer rating of just 75.0 into his coverage over that same period, 30 points lower than the average passer rating when targeting linebackers.”
32. Harrison Smith
Detroit Lions running back J.D. McKissic makes a catch against Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith during the first half Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019 at Ford Field.
Lions Vs Minnesota
It wasn’t long ago – at least in terms of memory’s sake – that Smith was the lone bright spot on a miserable Leslie Frazier-led defense. Smith joined the NFL in 2012, the year that Adrian Peterson won the MVP award. The Vikings were fairly decent that season but took a turn for the worse in 2013. Minnesota showcased the league’s worst defense, paving the way for the hire of Mike Zimmer, who would fully unleash the power of Smith as a showstopping defender (he did the same for Everson Griffen, too). Smith never looked back. At age 32, the Vikings safety has shown very few signs of any age-related decline:
“Smith remains one of the best and most consistent safeties in the league, and while he isn’t coming off his best season, the same is true for most members of the Minnesota defense. Smith has elite versatility to play any safety role within any coverage shell the Vikings dial up, giving them the ability to play a little bit of every type of coverage in the book. The Vikings didn’t line up in any single coverage shell more than 17% of the time last season, and a huge part of that diversity is because of Smith’s ability to move around and fill any missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle.”
26. Dalvin Cook
Image Courtesy of Vikings.com
According to PFF, Minnesota’s running back is the best player on the team. Per talent, they’re probably not wrong. Just as the aforementioned Kendricks is the lifeblood of Zimmer’s defense, so goes it for Cook and the Vikings offense. Zimmer wants to run the hell out of the ball; Cook prefers to run the hell out of the ball. It’s a tango paired with just the right amount of salsa. Over the last two seasons, only Derrick Henry has more yards from scrimmage and touchdowns than Cook. The Florida State alumnus – after minimizing the early-career injuries – blossomed into a true bellcow back during the last two seasons.
“Cook continues to out-perform the blocking in front of him and just earned a 90.2 PFF rushing grade, the best of his NFL career. The Vikings back has averaged 3.1 yards after contact per carry over his NFL career, racking up 91 first down runs in 2020 alone.”
The snubs are evident, if that is the terminology one would like to assign. Curiously, Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, and Danielle Hunter did not enter PFF’s Top 50 this go-round.
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