Minnesota Vikings - Fantasy News

Saints at Vikings Start 'Em / Sit 'Em

by Aaron Bowers

1/11/18

NFL

Minnesota Vikings

Case Keenum

After handling Carolina in the Wild Card round, the New Orleans Saints travel to Minnesota to take on the Vikings. These teams played on Monday Night Football in Week 1, when the Vikings beat the Saints 29-19.

After that season-opening loss to Minnesota, New Orleans fell to New England before ripping off eight straight wins. The Saints cooled off significantly over the last six weeks of the season, going 3-3 over that stretch with losses to the Rams, Falcons and Buccaneers.

Meanwhile, the Vikings are trying to do something that has never been done in the history of the league: play all their postseason games—including the Super Bowl—at home. To do that they’ll first need to deal with a New Orleans offense that showed against Carolina that it is as dangerous through the air as it is on the ground.

This is a great strength-on-strength matchup that should be entertaining to watch.

New Orleans Saints Divisional Round Projected Fantasy Points
Alvin Kamara: 17.5 PFP
Drew Brees: 17.0 PFP
Mark Ingram: 14.5 PFP
Michael Thomas: 13.5 PFP
Ted Ginn: 9.0 PFP
Will Lutz: 8.5 PFP

Minnesota Vikings Divisional Round Projected Fantasy Points
Case Keenum: 17.5 PFP
Adam Thielen: 13.5 PFP
Stefon Diggs: 11.5 PFP
Latavius Murray: 11.5 PFP
Jerick McKinnon: 10.0 PFP
Kyle Rudolph: 9.5 PFP
Kai Forbath: 8.0 PFP

Start 'Em: Drew Brees (17.0 PFP)
Dober Fantasy Points Per Game: 16.61

The veteran’s performance in the Wild Card round made us wonder if he was playing possum at times this season. With Carolina holding Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara to 66 scrimmage yards on 21 touches, Brees put up a vintage 376-yard, two-touchdown game to give New Orleans the victory. We expect Minnesota to bear down against the run again this week, which should leave Brees opportunities to go downfield as he did in Week 1 when he threw for 291 yards and a touchdown. Start Brees with confidence on Dober Play Cards even in an unfavorable matchup.

Sit 'Em: Mark Ingram (14.5 PFP)
Dober Fantasy Points Per Game: 15.81

For as great as he’s been all season, this just isn’t a good spot for Ingram fantasy-wise. Minnesota has given up the fewest fantasy points to running backs this season at just over 16.0 DFP per game. Only Ameer Abdullah, Isaiah Crowell and Jonathan Stewart have eclipsed 14.5 DFP against this team, and now it is coming off an extra week of rest. Splitting time with Alvin Kamara in a bad matchup as a road underdog, it’s hard to imagine Ingram doing enough to get over 14.5 DFP.

Start 'Em: Latavius Murray (11.5 PFP)
Dober Fantasy Points Per Game: 9.69

Murray is a big reason Minnesota is the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoff field. Since Dalvin Cook went down in Week 4, Murray has 224 touches for 928 yards and eight touchdowns. He’s been especially good over his last 10 games, averaging 13.4 DFP while scoring more than 11.5 DFP six times. He will likely handle 18 to 25 touches in this game as Minnesota tries to exploit a Saints defense that gave up over 1,500 rushing yards to running backs this season. In addition, Murray has served as the goal-line back for this team, giving him a solid chance for an easy six points if and when the Vikings get down near the end zone.  

Sit 'Em: Case Keenum (17.5 PFP)
Dober Fantasy Points Per Game: 17.27

All year we’ve been waiting for Keenum to turn back into a pumpkin, and this may finally be the week. After toiling for years with the Texans and Rams, Keenum has put together the best season of his career. However, as we saw with Jared Goff last week, playing quarterback in the postseason has a much higher degree of difficulty. We expect Mike Zimmer to play conservatively in this game, keep the ball on the ground, minimize mistakes and win this game on defense. Combine that with the fact that Keenum has failed to score more than 17.5 DFP in four of his last five games and we’re fading the Minnesota signal-caller on Dober Play Cards this week.