MINNESOTA: Better offensive design, better quarterback play, and Minnesota’s offense is on the upswing across the board. Norv Turner knows what he’s doing, and he’ll get some production out of this unit. ... Start with Kyle Rudolph. He’s one of the best tight ends in the league, and you have to figure the Vikings knew exactly what they were doing when they gave him a big contract extension a few weeks back. They know Rudolph’s price would only be a lot higher at the end of a big season. Think about how good Jordan Cameron was in Cleveland last year, catching 80 passes and 7 TDs. Rudolph is better than Cameron, and now he’s ...
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... going to be more of a featured guy. He’s caught 5 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown in the two preseason games. He’s come close to adding two other touchdowns (knocked out at the 1 on one play, another ball went off his fingertips on a sort-of drop). He looks like he’ll be a top-5 tight end, and maybe the best “value” of every player at that position. ...Strange to say, but Matt Cassel looks good. He’s had a passer rating over 109 in both exhibitions. He’s driving it downfield, and he’s got a nice crew of pass catchers around him. He also ran 3 times for 30 yards against Arizona. It’s not easy being an above-average quarterback. To do so, you’ve got to outproduce 16 of the other 31 starters. But Cassel’s playing well enough that we have to entertain the possibility that he’ll work his way into that group. The Vikings drafted Teddy Bridgewater, and he’s progressing satisfactorily, but this is Cassel’s offense for now. Each of Norv Turner’s last two offenses have finished with 26 TD passes. ... It looks like Matt Asiata will begin the season as the backup tailback behind Adrian Peterson. If Peterson gets hurt, Asiata should become the starter. And he (Asiata) looks better suited for that role than he did at the end of last year, when he was more of a combination fullback and special teams player. But Asiata doesn’t have special ability, and eventually (later this year or in 2015) the Vikings will want to move Jerick McKinnon into that backup tailback role. McKinnon is raw; he was mostly a quarterback at Georgia Southern, but he has unusual ability (which is why they drafted him in the third round). Right now they have McKinnon returning kickoffs, and he’s been playing on some passing downs with the first-unit offense.