Minnesota Vikings vs Chicago Bears
Date/Time: November 16, 8:15pm ET.
Spread: Vikings -3
Over/Under: 43 points
Implied Vegas point totals: Vikings 23, Bears 20
Minnesota Vikings
| POS | NAME | COMP/ATT | PASS YDS | TDs | INTs | RUSH YDS | TDs | FPTS |
| QB | Kirk Cousins | 17/24 | 187 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 12.53 |
| POS | NAME | CARRIES | RUSH YDS | TDs | RECS | REC YDS | TDs | FPTS |
| RB | Dalvin Cook | 19 | 81 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 1 | 23.17 |
| RB | Alexander Mattison | 9 | 37 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 4.98 |
| POS | NAME | CARRIES | RUSH YDS | TDs | RECS | REC YDS | TDs | FPTS |
| WR | Adam Thielen | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 52 | 0 | 7.38 |
| WR | Justin Jefferson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 47 | 0 | 6.46 |
| WR | Olabisi Johnson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 1.65 |
| POS | NAME | CARRIES | RUSH YDS | TDs | RECS | REC YDS | TDs | FPTS |
| TE | Irv Smith Jr. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 28 | 1 | 10.09 |
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Chicago Bears
| POS | NAME | COMP/ATT | PASS YDS | TDs | INTs | RUSH YDS | TDs | FPTS |
| QB | Nick Foles | 28/44 | 332 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 19.74 |
| POS | NAME | CARRIES | RUSH YDS | TDs | RECS | REC YDS | TDs | FPTS |
| RB | David Montgomery | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 31 | 0 | 4.99 |
| RB | Lamar Miller | 10 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.61 |
| POS | NAME | CARRIES | RUSH YDS | TDs | RECS | REC YDS | TDs | FPTS |
| WR | Allen Robinson II | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 103 | 1 | 20.04 |
| WR | Anthony Miller | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 64 | 0 | 8.84 |
| WR | Darnell Mooney | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 59 | 0 | 8.11 |
| POS | NAME | CARRIES | RUSH YDS | TDs | RECS | REC YDS | TDs | FPTS |
| TE | Jimmy Graham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 33 | 1 | 10.92 |
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Quarterback
Minnesota: Cousins hasn’t been asked to throw the ball a ton recently with Dalvin Cook playing at an extremely high level. While I expect Cousins to throw a bit more in this game, it’s still not going to be enough to push him into streaming consideration against the Bears pass defense. He’s a low-end QB2 this week in my rankings.
Chicago: Foles has been among the worst QBs in the NFL lately, but he’s someone that we should consider in fantasy football lineups this week due to the matchup. The Vikings are the 5th easiest matchup for opposing QBs right now, which puts Foles at least in the low-end streaming QB conversation.
Running Backs
Minnesota: Cook has been playing out of his mind recently and that shouldn’t stop here against the Bears. While the Bears defense is elite, they can be beat on the ground. Cook should pick up chunk gains all game long and he can continue to be viewed as a top-5 lock at the position.
Chicago: Montgomery is still currently in the concussion protocol, but there’s the possibility that he clears it by Monday night. If Montgomery plays, you can view him as a low-end RB2 with the state that this offensive line is currently in. If Montgomery sits, it’s most likely best to just avoid this backfield altogether.
Wide Receivers
Minnesota: Thielen hasn’t been needed much the past few games with Cook playing out of his mind. Against the Bears pass defense, it’s hard to feel confident plugging Thielen into your starting lineup after what we’ve seen the past few weeks. He can be viewed as a low-end WR2 that will need to find the end zone to finish much higher than that. Jefferson was moving into the weekly WR2 conversation there for a little bit, but he’s fallen back down with the way the offense has looked recently. Jefferson could see an uptick in targets this game, but it’s going to be difficult for him to be efficient with those touches. The Bears are suffocating opposing WRs, which puts Jefferson in the mid-range WR3 conversation.
Chicago: This offense is insanely dysfunctional, but there’s still fantasy value to be found here. Robinson should be viewed as a locked-in WR1 this week in this matchup. The Vikings are currently allowing the 2nd most fantasy points to opposing WRs and ARob should put on a clinic in this one. Assuming that Foles can get him the ball, Robinson’s an automatic start this week. Mooney has been rising up the fantasy football ranks here recently and is now someone that plenty of fantasy managers are debating plugging into their lineup on a weekly basis. While this offense is terrible, there’s value to be had here for fantasy football due to the passing volume. Mooney’s a risky play, but one that could absolutely pay off. He can be viewed as a FLEX option this week due to the wide range of outcomes. Miller saw his snap share diminish in week nine, but he only ran one less total route than in week eight. In week nine, Miller ran 38 routes, as compared to the 20 routes that he ran back in week five. He’s getting on the field in this offense and he’s now providing a safe floor each week based off of pure volume. In this matchup, Miller’s worth considering as a low-end FLEX play that gets a slight bump up in Full PPR formats.
Tight Ends
Minnesota: Irv Smith has shown flashes of his talent this season, but he’s not running enough routes for us to fully buy in from a fantasy perspective. Until Kyle Rudolph‘s no longer in the picture, Smith will be a low-end TE2 every week.
Chicago: Graham continues to see targets in this offense. While it’s not exactly pretty, he’s someone that you can plug into your lineup as a low-end TE1 this week that has an excellent chance of finding the end zone.
FantasyProjection Buster: The Bears offense has looked atrocious the past few weeks, but this is a really good matchup against the Vikings secondary. If Foles can even be competent, they could perform much better than my projections…but let’s not hold our breath.
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Kyle Yates is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Kyle, check out his archive and follow him @KyleYNFL.
