Kyle Rudolph Is Really High on One Viking
Everyone is starting to buy in.
Kyle Rudolph Is Really High on One Viking
That’s what happens after a quarterback leads the NFL in EPA+CPOE and Pro Football Focus grade after Week 1. He’s Sam Darnold, the Minnesota Vikings QB1, and even former Viking Kyle Rudolph believes the sky is the limit for his career in purple.
Rudolph joined Kay Adams this week to predict a Vikings’ upset over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday and pounded the table for Darnold’s Baker Mayfield-like reclamation season. The ex-Vikings tight end mentioned all of Darnold’s weapons in Minnesota and claimed he had nothing to lose this season.
“I said this on KFAN, the local radio here in Minnesota on Monday after the game to Paul Allen, this could be a Baker Mayfield situation from Tampa last year where you ultimately go sign a guy on a one-year contract — Sam’s got nothing to lose,” Rudolph told Adams.
Rudolph spent a decade in Minnesota as the team’s TE1, so he’s quite familiar with the franchise’s business practices. And in Darnold, he sees an upside comparable to Mayfield’s. Mayfield totally resurrected his career in Tampa Bay last season, thanks to weaponry like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Rachaad White.
Darnold’s outing at MetLife Stadium, where he’s now started 21 career games, checked in at the tops of the charts per a couple of trustworthy statistical metrics. The guy played phenomenally, and there’s just no other way around it. All told, Darnold tabulated 208 passing yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, and 79.2% completion percentage last weekend.
A surprisingly sweet level of Week 1 production, Vikings fans will cross their fingers as the purple team encounters a murderer’s row of opponents before the start of November, including games against the San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans, Green Bay Packers, New York Jets, Detroit Lions, and Los Angeles Rams. It won’t be easy, and Darnold will receive a more daunting test than the New York Giants offered when Minnesota prevailed in Week 1 28-6.
Darnold personally said about his performance following the Week 1 triumph: “I think for me it was coming out here and just playing my game. Playing one play at a time. Just playing with confidence. I think that’s the biggest thing. We’ve got a great offense, a great system. If I just play all the time and do all the things I need to do to execute, we’ll be all right.”
Rudolph said about a Vikings-49ers prediction for Week 2, “I’m going with the Vikings again. They’re gonna knock ’em off. Christian McCaffrey also missed the game in Minnesota last year.”
It’s worth noting that Rudolph misspoke about McCaffrey. Deebo Samuel missed the 2023 showdown, and although McCaffrey was questionable leading into the contest last year, McCaffrey indeed played.
Oddsmakers believe Darnold’s Vikings will lose by five or six points.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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