MINNESOTA (at Philadelphia)
The Vikings are 2-point underdogs, but this looks like a decent enough situation for their offense. The Eagles allowed 35 points at Detroit in Week 1. And their defense has long had problems with ...

... the high-level quarterbacks. That's where the Vikings seem to be nowadays, having diced up Green Bay on Sunday. No reason not to roll out your key Vikings. ... Kirk Cousins, most notably. He's a good quarterback, and Philadelphia hasn't made much success against passers of his ilk. Since the start of last year, they been chewed up pretty effectively by all of the good quarterbacks they've seen.

PHILLY VS GOOD QUARTERBACKS
PlayerComAttYds TDInt
Prescott212623830
Mahomes243027851
Brady344229721
Carr313432321
Herbert323835620
Brady293727120

Prescott also had a 5-TD game in Week 18 last year, but we left that one out (with Philly holding out starters). But the point remains the same. When the Eagles have played against the good quarterbacks, they haven't been able to ...


This report is taken from today's Week 2 edition of Fantasy Index Weekly. The newsletter includes our player rankings and 17 pages of matchup previews, plus stat projections and custom rankings for the games being played this weekend.

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... come up with enough pressure or coverage to stop anyone. So Cousins looks like a strong option. Last year he averaged 264 passing yards, with 33 TDs versus only 7 interceptions, and he looks like he might be even better in Kevin O'Connell's offense. Cousins completed 23 of 32 for 277 yards and 2 TDs, with no interceptions, against Green Bay in his opener, and that defense is a lot better than what he'll see on Sunday. ... Justin Jefferson looks like he might be the most productive receiver in the league. With Kevin O'Connell coming from the Rams, he's familiar with the ways the Rams designed plays to help make Cooper Kupp successful, and it looks like those principals will now be used with Jefferson. Green Bay might have a top-10 defense, and Jefferson torched them for 184 yards and 2 TDs on 9 catches. There are some other great receivers in the game right now, but Jefferson looks like a strong candidate to finish with the best numbers in 2022. And the Eagles (glancing back at those previously listed top quarterbacks) tended to get torched by the good wide receivers last year. ... If the Vikings are drawing up plays to feature Jefferson, that might come at the expense of Adam Thielen. Jefferson caught a 5-yard touchdown in the opener, for example, and that's a part of the field where the Vikings have tended to feature Thielen in the past. That's probably changing. In the opener, Thielen wasn't really any more involved than their other wide receiver, K.J. Osborn. Both saw 4 targets, and both caught 3 passes. ... Best to leave tight end Irv Smith out of lineups for the time being. He saw only 2 targets in the opener, and he didn't catch either of them. When Kevin O'Connell was with the Rams, they didn't tend to throw to their tight ends much, and that could be the plan here as well. ... We'll call it on average situation for Dalvin Cook. Philadelphia ranked 10th in run defense last year, but it didn't look like anything special in Week 1, with the Lions running for 181 yards and 3 TDs. D'Andre Swift had a 50-yard run, and 4 other carries over 10 yards. Cook is the same kind of back, and they'll probably use him more in the passing game this year. He caught 3 passes against the Packers. The Vikings in Week 1 worked in Alexander Mattison more than they have in the past, but over half of Mattison's 8 carries came in the fourth quarter, when the game was settled. ... With the Vikings looking like a good team -- a playoff team -- Greg Joseph should be headed for another good season. Only five teams scored more kicking points last year. ... The Vikings Defense looks like it's going to be better this year. It came up with 4 sacks and a pick against Aaron Rodgers. But with the way Eagles rely on a power running game, it's tough to get much off Jalen Hurts. Since they moved to that style of offense, Hurts in 10 games has taken only 15 sacks, and with only 7 turnovers. We're slotting Minnesota as the No. 1 team for kick returns in Week 2. Kene Nwangwu scored 2 TDs on kickoff returns last year, while Jalen Reagor will return punts against his original team. Reagor didn't pan out for the Eagles, but he did score on a punt return while he was there.