Vikings Depth Chart - To Be Updated

[Vanimal46]

38 minutes ago, Danchat said:

A 37 year old Hitman isn't going to bump this defense positively in my opinion. He hasn't been in his prime for 2+ seasons and having to ramp up mid-season is probably going to lead to some bad early games for him... when he could have just showed up to training camp like the rest of the players.

Yeah I realize he's not the same. It's the irrational fan in me hoping he didn't just walk away quietly without an official announcement. He's been one of my favorite Vikings players since we drafted him. Ideally, Jay Ward is ready to move into a starting "traditional safety" role along with Theo Jackson... That way Metellus can go back to his hybrid role where he performs much better IMO. 

[Danchat]

5 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Yeah I realize he's not the same. It's the irrational fan in me hoping he didn't just walk away quietly without an official announcement. He's been one of my favorite Vikings players since we drafted him. Ideally, Jay Ward is ready to move into a starting "traditional safety" role along with Theo Jackson... That way Metellus can go back to his hybrid role where he performs much better IMO. 

I agree with that, Metellus is better when he gets to play LB/SCB rather than SS, which he is primed to be stuck at this year. Curiously, Jay Ward only played with the 2s during preseason and seems to be playing slot corner a lot, while Theo exclusively played with the 1st team at FS. So it looks like FS-Jackson SS-Metellus SCB-Ward. Jamal Adams looked like he was going to pick up some LB/SCB snaps ahead of Ward before he went down. But the Vikings unofficial depth chart has Ward clearly ahead of Jackson...

[TheLeviathan]

19 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm looking at the Vikings draft class once again. It's just as unfathomable now as ever, that KAM got fired because of his bad drafting, and they let the three guys who were most influential in his drafts (or secretly running it all along), do the job. 

They were NEVER qualified for that job. Did the Wilfs ever rationalize why they couldn't hire a new GM in February?

What was the Teasley interview like?

KOC: "Nolan, tell me about your draft strategy."

Teasley: "It's the exact opposite of what you guys have been doing up here for half a decade."

I think two things that seem somewhat contradictory but I believe they are totally reasonable:

KAM had TERRIBLE drafts.  I'm also not sure if he's a bad drafter.

Between the Wilfs pressuring him to competitively rebuild and coaches hounding him for "their guys"....I think he might have gotten hosed.

[Danchat]

20 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

If only the draft was filled with great centers last year, but taking an always injured out of shape guy was more important. 

There weren't any centers worth taking at #18, but yeah, their two picks at the end of the third round was a great time to take a shot. Instead they went with Tiernan who I liked and you could call BPA, but then they extended O'Neill so Tiernan might be a starter in 2029. And then Jakobe Thomas, who like Felton the year earlier I thought was a multi-round reach, a one year starter in college with a scary high missed tackle rate. This was a weaker draft class than previous years, but they didn't need to take projects with those picks who won't play for years. Centers Sam Hecht and Connor Lew would have been great selections there IMO.

20 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm looking at the Vikings draft class once again. It's just as unfathomable now as ever, that KAM got fired because of his bad drafting, and they let the three guys who were most influential in his drafts (or secretly running it all along), do the job. 

Yup, I think a lot of blame should go on Ryan Grigson, Kwesi's assistant GM who was essentially the top 'football' mind in the front office since Kwesi didn't have a background in that. Grigson was the Colts GM who somehow bungled the team in the midst of having Andrew Luck in his prime. The Wilfs also extended him a year ago, but Teasley made the smart move of changing his job title, prompting him to quit and probably saving the Wilfs a good amount of money.

My guess for the reasoning why is because the front office had already completed the scouting for the college season and scouts are almost always fired/promoted right after the draft. Which is strange given you let them do a great and then fire them. When new GMs are getting hired at the start of the calendar year, it's still usually the previous regime's scouts making the draft boards for the upcoming draft in the spring.

[Vanimal46]

Boom! Hitman is back baby!

[Danchat]

It's a base $8M deal, but geez, that's a ton of incentives for a guy who didn't exactly put up any notable counting stats last year. I hope he is ready to play in a week, I don't want to hear any excuses about him not having time to be ready.

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

Boom! Hitman is back baby!

37 is old for NFL safety

[nicksaviking]

I’ll take him back, but aren’t the eagles paying Greenard 25M, while the Vikings five months ago couldn’t afford to pay him 20M?

[TheLeviathan]

14 hours ago, Danchat said:

It's a base $8M deal, but geez, that's a ton of incentives for a guy who didn't exactly put up any notable counting stats last year. I hope he is ready to play in a week, I don't want to hear any excuses about him not having time to be ready.

Yeah, especially with two division games right out of the gate.  He took awhile to get up to speed last year and now he's one year older.

Happy to have the QB on defense back, but wish he'd have come back after the last preseason game and worked himself into shape with the team.

[Vanimal46]

16 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Yeah, especially with two division games right out of the gate.  He took awhile to get up to speed last year and now he's one year older.

Happy to have the QB on defense back, but wish he'd have come back after the last preseason game and worked himself into shape with the team.

I’m not too concerned with him being out of shape…

 

[TheLeviathan]

Just now, Vanimal46 said:

I’m not too concerned with him being out of shape…

 

That's awesome...but he definitely did not come back full speed/full Hitman at the start of last year.

[Vanimal46]

1 minute ago, TheLeviathan said:

That's awesome...but he definitely did not come back full speed/full Hitman at the start of last year.

He did have that mysterious illness last training camp for the record. 

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

He did have that mysterious illness last training camp for the record. 

I thought the illness was not being in football shape yet. 
 

Not trying to be flippant, that just seemed to be what the unspoken narrative was.

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I thought the illness was not being in football shape yet. 
 

Not trying to be flippant, that just seemed to be what the unspoken narrative was.

They certainly left it open to that interpretation by not saying anything for weeks.

[Danchat]

Here's the latest update. Ratings will be updated in a week or so.

[Vanimal46]

I hope you’re not using PFF grades anymore @Danchat for your ratings, but it does seem to match the eye test. PFF is dead to me…

My tidbits about your rankings… How is Jauan Jennings still above average? Has he had a catch yet? Byron Murphy I think has been pretty damn good this season so far. Donovan Jackson I would also upgrade to green…. Brandel and Fries are without a doubt the weak links on the OL. 

[Vanimal46]

Oh, and Dallas Turner needs to be green too. Having a great start to the season. 

[Mike Sixel]

59 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

I hope you’re not using PFF grades anymore @Danchat for your ratings, but it does seem to match the eye test. PFF is dead to me…

My tidbits about your rankings… How is Jauan Jennings still above average? Has he had a catch yet? Byron Murphy I think has been pretty damn good this season so far. Donovan Jackson I would also upgrade to green…. Brandel and Fries are without a doubt the weak links on the OL. 

PFF fired all their scouts, and I think use AI now, if that tells you anything....

[nicksaviking]

11 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

PFF fired all their scouts, and I think use AI now, if that tells you anything....

Which means it's crowd sourcing. The most active Reddit poster probably has more influence on PFF now than any real football person.

[nicksaviking]

12 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Oh, and Dallas Turner needs to be green too. Having a great start to the season. 

And if we were having serious conversations about which of the two QBs should be starting week 4, that probably means at least one of them has the wrong color.

Absolutely zero shade to Danchat though. I always enjoy that spreadsheet and I know how much thought, effort and knowledge he puts into his Vikings posts.

[Danchat]

13 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

I hope you’re not using PFF grades anymore @Danchat for your ratings, but it does seem to match the eye test. PFF is dead to me…

My tidbits about your rankings… How is Jauan Jennings still above average? Has he had a catch yet? Byron Murphy I think has been pretty damn good this season so far. Donovan Jackson I would also upgrade to green…. Brandel and Fries are without a doubt the weak links on the OL. 

Yes I am still using their grades, however, the depth chart has not been updated with anything from 2026 yet. I am aware of some of the recent incredibly questionable grades they've been handing out, and how they've lost a lot of talent in the organization.

Over the past couple weeks I have been considering switching over to Pro Football Network's grading system. See examples here: https://www.profootballnetwork.com/nfl-hq/rankings/quarterback - Dallas Turner is a 89 by PFN this season and 66.9 by PFF. I'm going to do my homework on what they have for past seasons to determine which is the more accurate source to me. I might even do a "PFF vs PFN depth charts" comparison and with some feedback from y'all, we can determine which is the better source.

11 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

And if we were having serious conversations about which of the two QBs should be starting week 4, that probably means at least one of them has the wrong color.

Absolutely zero shade to Danchat though. I always enjoy that spreadsheet and I know how much thought, effort and knowledge he puts into his Vikings posts.

Thanks. Kyler's at 48.9 right now vs Wentz at 62.7, but as mentioned previously, the grades I use are weighted from the past 3 years of play, so small sample sizes aren't going to affect the overall rating until they become larger.

[nicksaviking]

19 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Thanks. Kyler's at 48.9 right now vs Wentz at 62.7, but as mentioned previously, the grades I use are weighted from the past 3 years of play, so small sample sizes aren't going to affect the overall rating until they become larger.

Sadly at least one of their sample sizes must become larger.......

[TheLeviathan]

7 hours ago, Danchat said:

Yes I am still using their grades, however, the depth chart has not been updated with anything from 2026 yet. I am aware of some of the recent incredibly questionable grades they've been handing out, and how they've lost a lot of talent in the organization.

Over the past couple weeks I have been considering switching over to Pro Football Network's grading system. See examples here: https://www.profootballnetwork.com/nfl-hq/rankings/quarterback - Dallas Turner is a 89 by PFN this season and 66.9 by PFF. I'm going to do my homework on what they have for past seasons to determine which is the more accurate source to me. I might even do a "PFF vs PFN depth charts" comparison and with some feedback from y'all, we can determine which is the better source.

Thanks. Kyler's at 48.9 right now vs Wentz at 62.7, but as mentioned previously, the grades I use are weighted from the past 3 years of play, so small sample sizes aren't going to affect the overall rating until they become larger.

I, for one, think PFN is great.  I mean, just look how much they validated my draft takes on Deone Walker!

(They do seem to match the eye test way better on a cursory glance)

[Vanimal46]

20 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

I, for one, think PFN is great.  I mean, just look how much they validated my draft takes on Deone Walker!

(They do seem to match the eye test way better on a cursory glance)

There’s a market share to be gained with public facing analytics… All I know so far is PFF stinks 

[Danchat]

Here's the updated PFF depth chart:

Changelog:

+++++
TE Hockenson - Above Average to Good
DL Ingram-Dawkins - NEI to Average
ED Van Noy - (estimate) to Above Average
CB Murphy - Below Average to Average
K Reichard - Good to Great

------
LT Darrisaw - Great to Good
WR Jennings - Above Average to Average
WR Addison - Average to Below Average
RB Jones - Average to Below Average
QB Murray - Above Average to Average
SS Metellus - Below Average to Poor
S Jackson - Above Average to Average
SS Smith - Above Average to Average

 

And the PFN depth chart:

 

Thoughts?

[TheLeviathan]

TID in the awful category huh?  He hasn't stood out to me either way so I'm curious on that one.

[Parfigliano]

On 9/5/2026 at 7:25 PM, Parfigliano said:

37 is old for NFL safety

Not for one very near the bottom of a down slope.

[Mike Sixel]

Addison is hugely disappointing this year. 

[Danchat]

On 10/8/2026 at 10:12 AM, TheLeviathan said:

TID in the awful category huh?  He hasn't stood out to me either way so I'm curious on that one.

It is lowered by 250 fairly bad snaps in 2025 compared to playing better in 2026.

15 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Addison is hugely disappointing this year. 

It is funny how most the fanbase claims "he'd be a WR1 anywhere else", but then he doesn't produce when given the opportunity. He is a very good WR2, nothing wrong with that, but also not going to be worth paying.