You don't have to squint to spot the talent on the Vikings roster.

Justin Jefferson is on a Pro Football Hall of Fame track through his first five seasons. Harrison Smith should beat "Jets" there based on his consistently strong performance and longevity as a smart enforcer over the middle. Blake Cashman, Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel played like absolute perfect fits within Brian Flores' defense in their first season together.

The list is long. But we'll stop there – and let Pro Football Focus explain further.

Over the past month, PFF ranked every team by position groups. Minnesota fared well in almost all categories – its secondary was pegged low (No. 27), primarily due to age and roster turnover – and received notable status in several areas: its receiving corps, offensive line and inside linebacker units.

Those Vikings positions were designated as Top 10 across the NFL.

Analyst Trevor Sikkema touted Minnesota’s pass catchers as the sixth-best group, writing the following:

Minnesota claimed the fourth-highest team PFF receiving grade in 2024 (82.1). Jefferson's résumé speaks for itself at this point; he has logged five straight seasons with 88.0-plus PFF receiving grades and 2.40 yards per route run. Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson and Aaron Jones, Sr., recorded PFF receiving grades above 70.0 in 2024, and the Vikings also added Tai Felton, Rondale Moore and Jordan Mason to the mix.

Sikkema's list started with Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia and continued with Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, Detroit and San Francisco. The Dolphins, Rams, Bears and Texans rounded out his Top 10 receiving units.

The Eagles also kicked off Zoltán Buday's ranking of offensive lines. Minnesota's restructured o-line checked in at 7, directly behind Tampa Bay. Denver, Buffalo, Chicago and Indianapolis formed the Top 5.

Buday described edge protectors Christian Darrisaw and Brian O'Neill as a "top-notch tackle duo over the past couple of seasons" and looked to the club's retooling on the inside, featuring former Colts teammates Ryan Kelly and Will Fries and 2025 first-round draft pick Donovan Jackson as a new strength.

Lastly, Dalton Wasserman identified the Vikings middle linebackers as the 10th-best grouping in the NFL.

Wasserman devised that although Minnesota may lack a "household name," the production from that position is undeniable. In his assessment, he underlined Cashman's 80.3 overall PFF grade since 2023, along with Ivan Pace, Jr.'s, elite run-defense and pass-rush marks in 2024 (the former UDFA placed in the Top 10 among LBs in both) and the well-thought-out additions of veteran and former Viking Eric Wilson and rookie Kobe King. Furthermore, Brian Asamoah II has demonstrated great value on special teams.

The top spots in Wasserman's LB leaderboard, FWIW, belong to Philadelphia, Detroit and New England.

You can read up on all of PFF's position rankings ahead of the 2025 slate here.

Admirers of Vikings backfield

There's love to go around for the ground game, as well.

Minnesota's backfield of Aaron Jones, Sr., Jordan Mason and Ty Chandler just missed the Top 10 cut in PFF's article assessing running backs, receiving mention after No. 10 Carolina and ahead of San Francisco.

Ironically, the Vikings are viewed as having great RB depth entering 2025 because of Mason, an ex-49er.

Mason compiled a PFF rushing grade of 90.5 in three seasons on the West Coast. He averaged 5.6 yards per tote in a strictly off-the-bench capacity from 2022-23, then broke out in 2024, spelling injured All-Pro Christian McCaffrey for a chunk of the year. In the seven games Mason played 50 percent or more of the snaps on offense, including at Minnesota, he rushed 132 times for 672 yards (5.1 avg.) and three scores.

On Monday, Mason's downhill style, knack for slipping tackles and fit in Head Coach Kevin O'Connell's zone-scheme run offense was highlighted by NFL writer Chris Trapasso on his SubStack.

To begin his analysis, Trapasso reflected on Mason's emergence out of nowhere. He wrote the following:

During every NFL Draft cycle, my main mission is to watch and evaluate as many prospects as possible — and I've usually been able to churn out around 250-300 scouting reports for each of the past eight draft classes. In 2022, Mason was not one of them. He slipped through the cracks. For me, and the NFL. He went undrafted that year. There were 22 running backs picked. Mason signed with the 49ers during the priority free-agent firestorm that officially begins the second Mr. Irrelevant is announced.

Eventually, Mason caught Trapasso's eye. Specifically, the 5-foot-11, 223-pounder slashed through the Seahawks defense, churning out 55 yards on a third-and-2 in the final 1:15 that iced a 21-13 49ers win.

That happened in mid-December of Mason's rookie campaign, when he was still a relative unknown.

But it motivated Trapasso to plug the UDFA into his customized predictive NFL Draft algorithm, coined RESIN (Reverse Engineered Scouting Index Number), which uses college data and pre-draft athleticism to attach a figure to a prospect. He inputted Mason's metrics … and was so floored he triple-checked them.

According to Trapasso, Mason registered a 21.74 RB RESIN. At the time, it represented the third-highest output in his five-year database, only topped by first- and second-rounders Travis Etienne and Javonte Williams. It led Trapasso to continually pound the table (or in his case, he said, Tweet and write about) for Mason, and explains, at least in part, why he's so fond of Minnesota's offseason acquisition of him.

In conclusion, Trapasso applauded Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and his staff for tapping into what he labeled an overlooked market – acquiring a young, proven, low-mileage runner for a late-round pick.

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