Team news: Minnesota Vikings | Page 23

Matt LaFleur calls Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon running backs “1A and 1A.”

“They’re two of the premier backs in our league, in my opinion. They can do anything.”

Many are predicting this is the year of Dillon and it's possible this is more of a 50-50 split this season. Both backs are more than capable in the passing game as well. For what it's worth, we rank Jones as RB8 and Dillon as RB21. With the loss of Devante Adams, we think Jones gets the edge in the receiving game and we don't think it would be a big surprise for Jones to approach 70 receptions.

Trade! The Raiders are sending QB Nick Mullens to the Vikings for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2024, per sources.

Related players: Sean Mannion, Kellen Mond

Mullens will likely make the roster meaning the possible end for Mannion or Mond. Neither has been impressive in the preseason according to reports, so it's possible Mullens slides in as Cousins backup this season. This is a battle to watch for those owning Cousins in superflex dynasty leagues.

Panthers officially announced Baker Mayfield as their opening-day starting quarterback vs. the Cleveland Browns.

Related players: Sam Darnold, D.J. Moore, Christian McCaffrey

Mayfield gets a fresh start in Carolina. We expect him to post serviceable numbers for the Panthers. He was the QB18 in 2020 prior to a QB23 finish last season, though he dealt with some injuries. The weapons in Carolina are pretty solid. Moore is a solid WR1 and McCaffrey is arguably the best receiving back in the league.

Smith underwent surgery on his thumb earlier this offseason, but head coach Kevin O'Connell told reporters today that he may avoid missing any time during the regular season.

Related Players: Johnny Mundt, K.J. Osborn

This comes as a relief for fantasy players who miss out on the top-tier of tight ends. All we need is one less option at our disposal in the double-digit rounds. If Irv Smith Jr. is healthy from the start, he makes for an interesting post-hype breakout candidate after he was forced to miss most of the 2021 season due to a torn meniscus. Former Viking Tyler Conklin was able to turn in a TE16 finish on what we presume was a much more run-heavy offense than what the 2022 Minnesota Vikings offense will look like.

The soft-tissue injury for Rams RB Cam Akers is not considered serious, I’m told. Rams taking preventative measures by holding him out of preseason practices but that’s the extent of it.

Related players: Darrell Henderson

We reported Henderson is also dealing with a soft tissue injury and that both weren't considered serious. While Fowler mentioned nothing about Henderson, it's good news to reaffirm Akers' injury isn't considered anything that would cause him to miss games.

Panthers QB Baker Mayfield received most of the work with the first-team offense.

Related players: Sam Darnold

The Panthers are having joint practices with the Patriots this week. Kyed went on to say in his tweet he wouldn’t say Mayfield or Darnold stood out today. Both QBs made some good throws near the end of practice while Darnold was picked late. We're expecting Mayfield to win this job and would have some talent around him. He was the QB18 in 2020 and QB23 in 2021.

Both Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson are dealing with what Sean McVay describes as “soft tissue” injuries.

Related players: Kyren Williams, Jake Funk

Both are being held out of practice until both are at full speed in a team setting, according to the rest of the tweet. Williams and Funk practiced and took the main workload, the tweet went on to say. The good news here, according to other reports, the injuries don't appear to be serious. However these are the type of injuries that can linger so it's worth monitoring.

The Packers got a number of important players back at practice, including; Christian Watson, Elgton Jenkins, and Tonyan.

Related Players: Josiah Deguara

This was the tight end's first time on a practice field since tearing his ACL in Week 8 last season. Tonyan is set to return for the beginning of the regular season and remains an interesting late-round target at a week position. He was tied for the lead league with his 10 touchdowns in 2020.

Unsurprisingly after Sam Darnold's lackluster 2021 and the trade for Mayfield, it looks like the latter is in the driver seat as the team's QB1.

Related Players: D.J. Moore, Robbie Anderson

Per the article, “He’s definitely improving,” Panthers coach Matt Rhule said of Mayfield. “He gets more and more of a feel of what he can do at the line of scrimmage. What he’s done in 10 days is pretty impressive — or 10, 11 practices. He’s making really good jumps.” Mayfield would add stability to the skill position group like Darnold would not. This is good news for the WR group.

McVay also lumped Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson together when answering a random question yesterday about players John Wolford has to work with.

Point is, he's lately not mentioning one without the other. Feels like he sees them as a duo.

McVay barely mentioned Akers, and when he did he lumped in Darrell Henderson with him ("Feel really good about those guys"), according to other tweets. But like we said in Akers' profile, in his last 10 games, including the playoffs, Akers averaged 20.5 touches per game, and cleared 18 touches in seven of those 10 games. It’s pretty clear that the Rams want Akers to be their bell cow.