Sleeper Watch

Dallas. New Orleans. San Francisco. Those were the only three NFC teams to allow more points than the Minnesota Vikings last year as the Vikes wowed fans and fantasy owners alike with their offense, but often struggled to keep other teams out of their own end zone.

This year, the A+ offense, D- defense approach is no more, at least if things go as planned in Minnesota. The team pulled out all the stops to bolster its Achilles heel. The Vikings added former Packer Darren Sharper at safety and Fred Smoot, formerly of Washington, at cornerback to improve a secondary that at times seemed to leave Antoine Winfield to fend for himself last year. Sam Cowart and Napoleon Harris were brought in at linebacker, where they will join promising sophomore Dontarrious Thomas. Pat Williams was signed away from Buffalo to strengthen a line, which should also see improvement from Kenechi Udeze in his second season.

Just how effective the Vikings defense winds up being this year depends highly on how quickly this group of talented players can gel as a unit. This makes them a somewhat risky pick as your primary defense, but if you can take a wait-and-see approach by adding them to your bench as your backup D, the results could be well worth the roster spot. Don’t expect them to join the league’s elite, but the Vikings could be a very useful option when your regular defense is on a bye or faces a tough opponent.