Last season saw what appears to be the end of a long quest by the Minnesota Vikings for a franchise quarterback. Teddy Bridgewater seems to be ‘the guy’ even if he certainly has more developing to do.
That means good things for the offense, including tight end Kyle Rudolph, right?
Not so fast.
Rudolph has shown in the past he has the potential to be a solid tight end, but there are factors which weigh against having him as more than a fringe TE2.
Too many cooks
The first problem is an external one – Rudolph is just one of many weapons on this offense.
Last season saw a breakout year by Charles Johnson, another solid one by Jarius Wright, and effective play from the players in the backfield.
This year, the Vikings added back an old weapon and signed on a new one in Mike Wallace.
Adrian Peterson coming back is nothing but a good thing for the offense. In the past, defenses have had to be laser-focused on Peterson, but the Vikings were unable to take advantage of it because save for Brett Favre, it’s been a list of poor quarterbacks for the last few years.
Last season, Bridgewater was effective without Peterson to draw defenses closer to the line of scrimmage. With Peterson back, that will change but that’s not going to help Rudolph for two reasons.
First, he’s too far down the pecking order. It might take a little bit but Wallace and Bridgewater will sync up soon enough putting Rudolph behind Wallace, Johnson and likely Wright in order of targets. Some of that is familiarity (both Wright and Johnson proved themselves reliable targets for Bridgewater last season), while some of it is Rudolph’s constant injuries (more on that in a second).
The second reason is that now that they have Peterson back, they will use him and use him a lot. There’s a good chance, as we discussed in the Peterson spotlight, that the team will run him as much as possible, knowing he will likely not finish out his career or contract with the Vikings.
Both of those things cut down on the opportunity Rudolph will have to make plays both on the field and on your fantasy team.
On the trainer’s table again
Over the past two seasons, Rudolph has missed 15 games. That’s a lot of time to be injured and last season it certainly hurt him in getting on the same page as his new quarterback. They had moments (notably Week 15 when they connected seven times) but Bridgewater went elsewhere more often most of the time when the two were on the field together and only sought Rudolph out three times in the red zone.
That could change this year, but it’s troubling if you are of the mind that Rudolph could finally be as productive as it seemed like he could be after the 2012 season.
The simple fact is that Rudolph is hurt too often. And this goes back to his days at Notre Dame, despite trying hard to get his body into shape and stay healthy.
He’s got to play 16 games this year if he’s going to be of any use – it’s just hard to imagine it happening when he’s done it just once in his NFL career so far.
Positives
- Rudolph is an athletic tight end who can make plays after the catch.
- His height and size give Rudolph the potential to be a huge red zone threat for the offense.
- The presence of other weapons like Adrian Peterson, Mike Wallace and Charles Johnson mean Rudolph will line up against linebackers more often, an advantage for a tight end.
Negatives
- All those weapons are going to limit Rudolph’s overall targets and production.
- He’s hurt all the time and could miss time again this season.
- While Rudolph should be a good red zone threat, it seems as though Bridgewater and offensive coordinator Norv Turner look elsewhere first.
Final Thoughts
I’ve liked Rudolph for a long time, but my patience has worn thin. Even if he stays healthy – which isn’t exactly a sure thing – he may not be a huge part of this offense. I don’t feel as though you can trust him to be consistent enough as anything more than a TE2 and even then, I don’t like him much.
Projections
|
Games |
Receptions |
Yards |
Touchdowns |
|
14 |
45 |
500 |
3 |
Other viewpoints
Brian Hall of FoxSports.com reports that Rudolph is working hard to shake that injury prone label.
"I'm a different piece than I was last year," Rudolph said. "Having two good hips and being able to run around like I used to, I feel like I can have a much bigger impact on this offense like I did, say, in last November when I came back after the surgery."
USA Today Sports’ Tom Pelissero tweeted that Bridgewater was very excited to have Rudolph healthy and playing.
Bridgewater told me: "I think the biggest weapon we have right now is a healthy Kyle Rudolph. He’s like a new player out there." #Vikings
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 27, 2015
Bill Hubbell of Bleacher Report thinks that Rudolph is one of the most overlooked starters the Vikings have.
