Vikings' Projected Starters

Around The NFL editor, writer, podcaster Gregg Rosenthal is wrapping up his annual task of projecting the starting lineups of all 32 teams. He did the AFC last week. He's doing the NFC this week. On Tuesday, he posted his NFC North projections. This is a mammoth, thankless undertaking. It's mammoth because diving into the ~90-man roster of every team isn't small. It's thankless because there are surely fans of every team that disagree with his projections. Some will disagree simply for the sake of disagreeing. What sort of fans would they be if they didn't disagree with how a national writer views their team? Anyway, this is how Gregg Rosenthal sees, in May, the starting offense and defense of the 2020 Minnesota Vikings.

Offense	Player		Defense	Player
QB	Kirk Cousins		DE	Danielle Hunter
RB	Dalvin Cook		DT	Shamar Stephen
WR	Adam Thielen		DT	Michael Pierce
WR	Justin Jefferson		DE	Ifeadi Odenigbo
TE	Kyle Rudolph		OLB	Anthony Barr
TE	Irv Smith Jr.		ILB	Eric Kendricks
LT	Riley Reiff		CB	Mike Hughes
LG	Pat Elflein		CB	Jeff Gladney
C	Garrett Bradbury		CB	Holton Hill
RG	Dakota Dozier		S	Harrison Smith
RT	Brian O'Neill		S	Anthony Harris

On offense, Rosenthal went with a second tight end rather than going with C.J. Ham at fullback or a third receiver. He isn't wrong as I'm pretty sure the Vikings will want to have Irv Smith Jr. on the field as much as possible. In his write-up, Rosenthal mentions Smith as a breakout candidate. He isn't wrong.

Ham will see the field plenty.

On defense, he projected the Vikings' nickel defense rather than their base. That's really no surprise as the Vikings are in nickel for about 2/3 of the snaps.

If the Vikings were forced to whip up a depth chart right now, I wouldn't be surprised if Rosenthal's projected starters were at the top of their respective positions. In that sense, he did a fine job, especially for a national writer. Come August, I'd be stunned if Pat Elflein is still the starting left guard and I'd be very surprised if Shamar Stephen is one of the starting defensive tackles.

My current projections for the Vikings' starters, using Rosenthal's offensive and defensive parameters, look something like this:

Offense	Player		Defense	Player
QB	Kirk Cousins		DE	Danielle Hunter
RB	Dalvin Cook		DT	Armon Watts
WR	Adam Thielen		DT	Michael Pierce
WR	Justin Jefferson		DE	Ifeadi Odenigbo
TE	Kyle Rudolph		OLB	Anthony Barr
TE	Irv Smith Jr.		ILB	Eric Kendricks
LT	Riley Reiff		CB	Mike Hughes
LG	?		CB	Jeff Gladney
C	Garrett Bradbury		CB	Holton Hill
RG	Dru Samia		S	Harrison Smith
RT	Brian O'Neill		S	Anthony Harris

On offense, left guard is so wide-open that I can't even project the starter. I suppose that I'd like to see second-round rookie Ezra Cleveland as the starting left tackle and Reiff moving to left guard. That probably puts the five best offensive linemen on the field and that's been the stated goal of the coaches. The wildcard for the left guard spot might be second-year Oli Udoh. That would allow Reiff to hold down the left tackle spot until Cleveland is truly ready for the NFL.

On defense, I really like Armon Watts. I think that he'll be on the field a lot. Whether that's as the starter at 3-technique or as a significant part of the tackle rotation, it's up to him. The other candidate to start next to Michael Pierce is fourth-round rookie James Lynch. If he can be the pass rusher in the NFL that he was in college, he could be the Day 1 starter for the Vikings.

This is a fun May topic. Nice job Mr. Rosenthal. It's rare for a national writer to come in and accurately comment on and tinker with the Vikings' roster.