Fantasy Football Player Notes

He went down with what looked like a serious injury last week, but after missing a handful of plays, he returned. It's something to monitor as the week goes on, but for now, we'll assume he's good to go. Here's an odd stat I found while researching this game: Cook has accounted for just 58.1 percent of the Vikings' red zone rushing attempts. That's just the ninth-highest mark among running backs. We watched Nick Chubb rack up 144 yards on the ground against this Jaguars defense last week, which doesn't quite hit the 150-yard plateau that Cook has established this year. Fun fact: Cook has three 150-yard rushing games this year, while the rest of the NFL has seven of them. He's now broken 50 tackles on the ground, which is the most in the NFL, and that's despite missing some time. Even though the Jaguars have allowed the fourth-most fantasy points per game to quarterbacks, running backs have been getting theirs as well, averaging the fifth-most points per game. The Jaguars opponents run the ball 46.1 percent of the time bodes well for Cook, as the Vikings run the ball 48.5 percent of the time. The Vikings average 30.8 running back touches per game while the Jaguars see 29.9 running back touches per game. We could be looking at another 25-touch game for Cook against the team that allows the sixth-most fantasy points per weighted opportunity. Oddsmakers have opened this game with a 30.5-point team-implied total, which bodes well for all Vikings players, especially Cook. He's a smash-play in both redraft and DFS cash games, as he's now seen 13 targets over the last three weeks, raising that floor you need when paying top-dollar.

Thielen's off the COVID list and he should be ready to go for this matchup here against the Jaguars secondary. The Jaguars are allowing the 5th most fantasy points to opposing WRs this season and Thielen should be in line for a big performance. He can be started as a mid-range WR1.

With the matchup this week, Jefferson's an automatic start. While he doesn't have top-5 upside due to Adam Thielen being back in the lineup, he's not that far off. Jefferson can be viewed as a low-end WR1 this week.

It's looking unlikely that Irv Smith suits up for this game, which instantly puts Rudolph into the streaming conversation. With the matchup against the Jaguars, who are allowing the second most fantasy points to opposing TEs, Rudolph should be viewed as a high-end TE2 this week.