QB

Brett Favre

(+) Plays every single game, without fail, and has the arm to make any pass on the field
(+) Has one of the easiest pass schedules in the league (4th based on PYRO SOS)
(+) Gunslinger QBs equal a great time for fantasy owners  -  Purple Jesus + Brett 3:04  =  Super Bowl XLV
(+) Has an awesome arsenal to throw to in Rice, Berrian, Harvin, and Shiancoe and has All Day AP28 to take the heat off
(–) “It starts with the ankle.  I can walk fine, but you don’t walk in football.” – Favre on ESPN
(–) Hallmark cards begin their “Over-the-Hill” jokes at 40… let’s hope Walgreens hasn’t made it to Minnesota yet
(–) Vikings might cut down on his passing attempts to protect him a bit in order to keep him rested and healthy for the playoffs

RB

Adrian Peterson

(+) AP28 has improved his pass-catching skills immensely, so with Chester Taylor gone to the Chicago Bears and just Ryan Moats behind him to work as a 3rd-down back, he could be looking at a lot of three-down play this year
(+) After being over-used in 2008, the Vikings reduced Peterson’s carries from 363 to just 314 in 2009.  A rested AP28 = A fully hungry Purple Jesus
(+) What was essentially considered a “Down Year” for AP in 2009 turned out to be almost 1,400 rushing yards and 18 TDs
(+) Has the best combination of power and speed since Bo Jackson
(–) Why is it that when his TDs are down, his yards are up - and when his yards are down, his TDs are up?
(–) Had just three 100-yard games in 2009 compared to 10 in 2008

Toby Gerhart

(+) Toby will be forced to step in quickly in filling the role left by Chester Taylor’s departure
(+) One AP28 injury away from getting a featured role on a team that will produce offensively… that’s sweet!
(+) 1,871 yards (1st in the country) and 28 TDs put him on the Heisman watch last year; taken in the 2nd round of this year’s draft
(–) His competition for snaps is with one the league’s special talents, and Red Zone touches will be severely few and far between

WR

Sidney Rice

(+) Brett Favre was quoted as saying that he’s never played with a receiver like this before
(+) Has the 4th easiest schedule against the pass in the league
(+) Excels in the short, over-the-middle game that Favre loves to play, yet is also a big-time, big-play receiver (15.8 YPC)
(+) Learned from Cris Carter and Larry Fitzgerald at Fitz’s camp before the 2009 season, then broke out
(–) Has a lingering hip injury that has his agent tweeting rhetoric
(–) Minnesota might be apt to run the ball this year in order to keep Favre fresh/healthy
(–) Doesn’t get a ton of targets and is still somewhat unproven after being a stud for just one year

Percy Harvin

(+) Didn’t take him long to become Brett Favre’s short-yardage outlet
(+) Plays the game “bigger” than his stature might dictate and is just stupid-fast in pads
(+) Harvin also brings the added bonus of extra fantasy points through his special teams abilities
(+) Like DeSean Jackson, he seems to be untouchable on the football field
(+) With Chester Taylor gone, Harvin is more suited to the 3rd-down back role than rookie Toby Gerhart
(–) A migraine headache can occur at any time and ruin your fantasy week
(–) Favre has lots of mouths the feed in that offense and Harvin doesn’t have a clear-cut role as of yet

Bernard Berrian

(+) Berrian is 100% recovered from the hamstring injury that drove him to the cusp of Fantasy irrelevance in ‘09
(+) People are quick to forget that this guy was the 18th overall WR in ’08
(+) Good speed and a good deep route-runner with very solid hands
(–) It will be tough to produce big numbers with Rice, Harvin, AP, and Shiancoe competing for targets
(–) A return to the Vikings #1 WR looks VERY unlikely with Sidney Rice on the field… Favre loves him some Rice

TE

Visanthe Shiancoe

(+) Brett Favre’s TE’s traditionally perform real well, and last season was proof that this trend will continue
(+) Solid Pass Protection should allow Visanthe to continue getting downfield to make plays in the passing game rather than staying in to save Favre’s last life
(+) Shiancoe was 6th in the league for Red Zone Targets amongst TE’s
(+) Assuming Favre is coming back, the Vikings will continue to have a well-balanced attack on offense with plenty of opportunities in the Red Zone
(+) As if all this wasn’t enough, the Vikings have the 4th easiest pass schedule this season
(–) In 2008, Visanthe ranked 20th in overall targets (59) and 10th in yards (596).  In 2009, he ranked 13th in overall targets (79) and just 16th in yards (566)
(–) AP is a ridiculous beast around the Red Zone, so if he decides to put up 20+ TDs this season, it could eat into Visanthe’s production

-  The Minnesota Vikings began the season with a new QB at the helm, Brett Favre, who was looking for revenge against his former team the Packers
-  With Favre running the show many had the Vikings picked to be a Superbowl favorite with Favre’s veteran leadership and Petersons explosiveness
-  The team finished 12-4 and lost to the eventual Superbowl champion Saints in the NFC championship game in overtime on a Garrett Hartley field goal
-  The Vikings scored 470 points while allowing 312 points

2009 Total Points Rank:           3rd (132 tot pts)
2009 Average/Game Rank:     3rd (8.3 pts/gm)

FR=Fumbles Recoverd, PA=Points Allowed, FP Rank=Fantasy Points Rank, FP/G=Fantasy Points per Game

2010 Vikings Defensive Outlook... 

The Minnesota Vikings lead the league in Sacks last season with 48 and their turnover numbers were decent at 24 total.  Along with a big time weapon in the return game, Percy Harvin, these numbers help explain why Minnesota was the 6^th overall Defense last year in Fantasy points scored. 

It all starts and ends up front for the Purple People Eaters part 2.  If you like to watch your Fantasy Defense, and get rewarded for sacks, this is a great Defense to have.  We cannot get enough of watching DE Jared Allen and DT Kevin Williams abuse opposing QB’s.  With Pat Williams and Ray Edwards to boot, that’s exactly what Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler, and Matt Stafford will be getting all year long.

-  Chad Greenway led the team with 99 tackles, E.J. Henderson had 83
-  The Vikings had 48 sacks last season
-  Leading sacker was Jared Allen with 14.5
-  How can the Vikings make their defense into a Superbowl winning one?
-  Cedric Griffin led the team with 4 INTs
-  Team forced 23 fumbles
-  Team forced a total of 34 turnovers

Team PYRO is hyper about Offensive Lines!  Understanding who will be blocking for the players on your roster is vital to your teams Fantasy success.  We take many factors into account when we rank these units, including weight, height, starts together as a unit, starts per year played, rushing average, sacks allowed, draft position, contract situation, pro bowl/all pro honors, Adjusted Line Yardage (ALY) and Adjusted Sack Rate (stats found at the link below).  O-Line Rank is one more piece of the puzzle that directs us towards delivering you a Fantasy Football Championship. 

The fantasy lifeblood of the players sitting on your roster boils down to one EXTREMELY important stat.  Drum Roll please……………………………  ATTEMPTS!!!!  Ahhhh, there, we said it.  Before you can make a play, you gotta have the pill in your hands.  It’s pretty simple really, in the immortal words of the maligned Keyshawn Johnson… “Just give me the damn ball”.  There is no “I” in the word “team”, but don’t fool yourself, it’s in the word rotisserie twice. 

For the QB, it’s Pass Attempts, for the RB, it’s Carries, and for the WR and TE, it’s Targets.  If you look at the players in the league who are amassing large quantities of points, they are the ones who are seeing the rock come their way the most often.  Sure, you have to be good enough to do something with the p-skin when you get it, but never forget, you can’t make a play until you have the pill in your hands. 

The PYRO Offensive scheme charts aim to deliver you perhaps the most important information you could attain before and after draft day; Will my player get the chances they need to put out or will they be shut out?  It really boils down to what the offensive game plan on Sunday is.  These charts should provide some perspective on which teams are going to live by land and which are going to live by air. 

By Air

-  Favre had a bounceback season from the one he had with the Jets
-  As a team the Vikings ranked 8th in the league with 4,156 yards passing
-  The primary target for Favre with the Vikings was Sidney Rice who set career highs in every major receiving category
-  Percy Harvin had a productive rookie season and Benard Berrian had a solid season
-  The TE position is led by Visanthe Shiancoe
-  The RBs also caught their fair share of passes from Favre, Peterson finally began to become more two-dimensional

By Land

-  The Vikings  ranked 13h in the league with 1,918 yards rushing
-  Adrian Peterson was the teams leading rusher with over 1,300 yards
-  Peterson took 67 percent of the carries for the team
-  Percy Harvin also got carries from the wildcat and in special situations, with 150 carries for 135 yards
-  Toby Gerhart was drafted to help take some of the carries off of Peterson

RZ Touches (Position Rank) = The first number you see is Red Zone Touches (a pass attempt, a carry, or a target inside the 20 yard line).  The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.

% of Teams RZ Touches (Position Rank) = The first number is the players percentage of touches cut out against the total number of the Teams Red Zone plays called.  The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.  So, if Thomas Jones received a touch in 45 percent of the Jets Red Zone calls last year, and Knowshon Moreno received a touch in 38 percent of all the Broncos plays last year, Jones would be ranked higher at his position than Moreno would be.

RZ TD Success Rate (Position Rank) = The first number is the percentage of which an individual player was able to score a TD against his total number of touches.   The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.

Why Should I look at this Chart?

We couldn’t possibly take up a whole minute of your valuable fantasy football research time babbling about the importance of Attempts for your team and then leave out Red Zone Tendencies.

Yep, same drill with these charts, only a lot more important if scoring TD’s is what you’re leagues about.  The PYRO Red Zone Tendencies chart delivers a touchdown focused microcosm of the Offensive Scheme section.

To score a TD, your player needs a touch (pass att, carry, or target), and when they get a touch inside the 20, great things can happen for your Fantasy teams total points line.

It’s really easy, touches are King and converting a touch in the red is Fantasy Gold.

PYRO 2010 Viking Leaders in the Red Zone...

1. AP
2. Sidney Rice
3. Toby Gerhart
4. Visanthe Shiancoe
5. Percy Harvin

Grade* = Team PYRO took this number directly from NFL.COM - not a number devised here by us, you know, your friends who don’t sleep?  In other words, proceed with caution knowing the source, but we thought it was at least a worthy effort and could help you gauge just how solid the teams draft was.  We hope it helps, we think it will.

Draft Bits...

The Vikings cut Chester Taylor loose and drafted Toby Gerhart to provide some needed depth at the position.  We like AP to take on a heavier work load rather than see Gerhart pickup the carries left behind by Taylor.  On top of this, RB Albert Young has the early inside track on the #2 position.

Team PYRO considers our Strength of Schedule data an essential part of building you a Fantasy Championship.  This data is integral in helping us rank our players each year.  So far, so good.  We go to GREAT lengths to deliver you this PYRO nugget and we know nobody else in the industry is putting forth this type of effort, which puts you at a great advantage if you have been using us as your fantasy football research outlet.  Our SoS considers three factors when determining rankings for schedules for the upcoming year:

1) 75% weight is applied to the strength of defense from the previous season.  This is determined by fantasy points given up (run and pass).  Easy right? Here's where Team Pyro goes deep: before we get to that number, we factor in the quality of teams that these defenses had to face (essentially, a strength-of-schedule for the prior season).

 
2) 20% weight is applied to Free-Agent, Trade, and Injury Returns that will help or hurt the team for the current year.  We rank each players impact to their former team (2008), sum it all up, and then rank each team accordingly.

3) 5% weight is applied to the NFL Drafts incoming rookie impact.  It's a challenge to successfully gauge a rookie's effectiveness (too many Jamarcus Russells out there) which is why we valued it so low.  Some teams not only drafted highly touted defensemen this year, but will be immediately filling deficient positions from '09 with rookies, and usually, anything is an upgrade when you are starting a rookie.

Chart Key =

Ranking:  1=easiest  32=toughest

QB's, WR's, and TE's

(INDY) Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark have the EASIEST passing schedule in 2010

(BALT) Joe Flacco, Anquan Boldin, and Todd Heap have the HARDEST passing schedule in 2010

RB's

(SF) Frank Gore has the EASIEST rushing schedule in 2010

(MIA) Ronnie Brown has the HARDEST rushing schedule in 2010

June 29, 2010

Waived QB R.J. Archer.

June 28, 2010

Claimed WR Marko Mitchell off waivers from Detroit. Waived C Tommy Hernandez and DE Cedric McKinley.

June 15, 2010

Signed RB Ryan Moats.

June 14, 2010

Signed DE Ray Edwards to a one-year contract and LB Nate Triplett. Waived C Eddie Adamski, OT Matt Hanson, RB James Johnson, WR Aaron Rhea, CB Angelo Williams and OT Marlon Winn.

May 17, 2010

Signed LB Ryan D'Imperio.

April 21, 2010

Signed CB Lito Sheppard.

April 19, 2010

Re-signed QB Tarvaris Jackson.

April 15, 2010

Waived WR Vinny Perretta.

April 12, 2010

Re-signed OL Ryan Cook, DT Fred Evans and S Eric Frampton.

March 30, 2010

Signed DE Mike Montgomery.

March 17, 2010

Agreed to terms with DT Jimmy Kennedy.

March 15, 2010

Named Matt Sheldon assistant defensive backs coach.

March 9, 2010

Signed K Rhys Lloyd. Agreed to terms with CB Benny Sapp.