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RB Jerick McKinnon, KC (1 Viewer)

packersfan said:
All comes down to how good you believe Cook is. I think he's an elite-level talent. I don't believe McKinnon is anywhere close to him in terms of talent. But as we know in fantasy, talent is only part of the equation. Opportunity is vital too. McKinnon clearly has an opportunity now but I'd caution against viewing him as a 20+ per game RB like Cook was. 
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I'm undecided. Lots of guys can look good for 3 games with good blocking and a positive game flow. If you look at his splits, he had 27 carries @ 6.0 ypc while leading big and added another 7 carries @ 8.9 ypc while trailing big. Everything in the middle (40 carries) was ho-hum. Granted, looking at splits for a 3 game sample is about as meaningless as looking at a 3 game sample for a rookie... but I'm just saying, things broke right for him in those 3 games so I'm not crowning him an elite-level talent yet. It would not surprise me at all if he was actually more of an Eddie Lacy or Thomas Rawls type of talent - both guys who have put up some elite looking 3 game stretches. Again, I'm not predicting that outcome, just saying it isn't outside the realm of realistic outcomes.

Something to consider - he played 78% and 73% of the snaps in weeks 1 and 3, games in which they were leading for the vast majority of the time. He was only at 56% in week 2 and his utilization was cut in half compared to weeks 1 and 3 (so he wasn't actually guaranteed a massive workload like some are implying). McKinnon will probably be the opposite of this. I expect they'll use Murray to run out the clock and McKinnon when they're in come from behind mode. So I agree McKinnon isn't going to inherit Cook's role, but in PPR leagues he should hold quite a bit of value (he was barely behind Cook in targets through 3 weeks despite the snap difference). 

 
FF Ninja said:
I'm undecided. Lots of guys can look good for 3 games with good blocking and a positive game flow. If you look at his splits, he had 27 carries @ 6.0 ypc while leading big and added another 7 carries @ 8.9 ypc while trailing big. Everything in the middle (40 carries) was ho-hum. Granted, looking at splits for a 3 game sample is about as meaningless as looking at a 3 game sample for a rookie... but I'm just saying, things broke right for him in those 3 games so I'm not crowning him an elite-level talent yet. It would not surprise me at all if he was actually more of an Eddie Lacy or Thomas Rawls type of talent - both guys who have put up some elite looking 3 game stretches. Again, I'm not predicting that outcome, just saying it isn't outside the realm of realistic outcomes.

Something to consider - he played 78% and 73% of the snaps in weeks 1 and 3, games in which they were leading for the vast majority of the time. He was only at 56% in week 2 and his utilization was cut in half compared to weeks 1 and 3 (so he wasn't actually guaranteed a massive workload like some are implying). McKinnon will probably be the opposite of this. I expect they'll use Murray to run out the clock and McKinnon when they're in come from behind mode. So I agree McKinnon isn't going to inherit Cook's role, but in PPR leagues he should hold quite a bit of value (he was barely behind Cook in targets through 3 weeks despite the snap difference). 
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Fair enough. I think Cook's talent and production speaks for itself. The fact he was Top 10 in PPR despite missing half a game and losing a TD is pretty damn impressive in my opinion. I like McKinnon a lot but I don't think he's near as talented as Cook. There's a reason why McKinnon's best role so far in his career has been as a primary passing down RB. That's where he excels. He obviously was terrific on all downs last night but I don't think that game will be anything other than an outlier. As much as I like him, I just don't see him being a weekly 20+ touch per game RB. I don't think he's built for that type of role. 

 
packersfan said:
Fair enough. I think Cook's talent and production speaks for itself. The fact he was Top 10 in PPR despite missing half a game and losing a TD is pretty damn impressive in my opinion. I like McKinnon a lot but I don't think he's near as talented as Cook. There's a reason why McKinnon's best role so far in his career has been as a primary passing down RB. That's where he excels. He obviously was terrific on all downs last night but I don't think that game will be anything other than an outlier. As much as I like him, I just don't see him being a weekly 20+ touch per game RB. I don't think he's built for that type of role. 
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I don't think Minny has any choice but to give McKinnon almost 20 touches/game.  Murray looked horrible. 

 
packersfan said:
Fair enough. I think Cook's talent and production speaks for itself. The fact he was Top 10 in PPR despite missing half a game and losing a TD is pretty damn impressive in my opinion. I like McKinnon a lot but I don't think he's near as talented as Cook. There's a reason why McKinnon's best role so far in his career has been as a primary passing down RB. That's where he excels. He obviously was terrific on all downs last night but I don't think that game will be anything other than an outlier. As much as I like him, I just don't see him being a weekly 20+ touch per game RB. I don't think he's built for that type of role. 
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He might not be a 20+ touch guy but he can be 15-20 touch guy.  Carries and catches.

 
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I wonder if MIN took a sniff at AP knowing they had Murray and McKinnon? Wonder if the Murray injury tweak prompted further discussions?

Losing Cook hurts, but now there is hope in McKinnon.

 
packersfan said:
Fair enough. I think Cook's talent and production speaks for itself. The fact he was Top 10 in PPR despite missing half a game and losing a TD is pretty damn impressive in my opinion. I like McKinnon a lot but I don't think he's near as talented as Cook. There's a reason why McKinnon's best role so far in his career has been as a primary passing down RB. That's where he excels. He obviously was terrific on all downs last night but I don't think that game will be anything other than an outlier. As much as I like him, I just don't see him being a weekly 20+ touch per game RB. I don't think he's built for that type of role. 
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Well, given his production is just 3.5 games, I'd argue it does not speak for itself as it is too small of a sample to do that. Being top 10 in PPR is more about volume and situation than talent. But on the topic of talent, his bottom of the barrel agility score still gives me a bit of pause while McKinnon's off the chart scores make me anxious to see what he can do in an expanded role this season. I know he had a shot last year, but that OL was bad and the offense as a whole was uninspiring... Didn't Norv Turner retire halfway through the season? Either way, I think it would be jumping to conclusions to imply Cook is much better than McKinnon. I think most RBs would've struggled in that mess last year, including Cook. The previous two years McKinnon averaged 4.8 and 5.2 ypc, granted on lighter volume. If I was a Vikings fan (or a Cook owner with a McKinnon handcuff), I wouldn't lose hope yet. 

 
FF Ninja said:
Well, given his production is just 3.5 games, I'd argue it does not speak for itself as it is too small of a sample to do that. Being top 10 in PPR is more about volume and situation than talent. But on the topic of talent, his bottom of the barrel agility score still gives me a bit of pause while McKinnon's off the chart scores make me anxious to see what he can do in an expanded role this season. I know he had a shot last year, but that OL was bad and the offense as a whole was uninspiring... Didn't Norv Turner retire halfway through the season? Either way, I think it would be jumping to conclusions to imply Cook is much better than McKinnon. I think most RBs would've struggled in that mess last year, including Cook. The previous two years McKinnon averaged 4.8 and 5.2 ypc, granted on lighter volume. If I was a Vikings fan (or a Cook owner with a McKinnon handcuff), I wouldn't lose hope yet. 
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I agree with this. Cook is a good RB but there are a lot of people anointing him on a very small sample size and favourable situation. I think in that Saints game Cook didn't do much between the tackles for most of the game then if I recall correctly pumped up his stats with a couple of 30 yard runs where he just beat the defender to the edge and took off, against a tired defense. I'm pretty sure McKinnon could have done that too if given the opportunity. 

There seems to be this narrative with McKinnon that he's just an average RB because he's had multiple opportunities and never capitalised. I would argue that he's produced pretty well on a few occasions and on others he's looked average running behind an awful offensive line and the team (for whatever reason) has had an infatuation with Asiata which has limited what McKinnon can show. 

The one concern I have with him is durability. He's regularly nicked up, has tried to play through ankle injuries (which has also made him look worse), and to me looks smaller than his listed size on the field. People will say that means he's "not built to carry the load" - I don't know that that's necessarily the case as he has decent size for a RB and others of his size have been 3 down feature backs, but I am half expecting him to get injured every other carry!

 
Dalvin Cook is a better RB than Jerrick McKinnon because of his vision and insticts running the ball. He sees the defense better than McKinnon does and has better timing with his blocking than McKinnon has.

While I can appreciate playing devils advocate about that perspective, from watching both players extensively I think this is very apparent. If it wasn't then McKinnon would have been more successful with Peterson out than he has been. McKinnon has had opportunity to be the man and he has had some big games at times, but he hasn't been able to put it all together in a sustainable way yet over 3 seasons the way that Cook did right away.

I do not mean this as a knock against McKinnon but rather a compliment to Dalvin Cook, I wish McKinnon was as good as Cook, but he isn't. There is a reason why Mike ZImmer says he thinks Cook can be a special player and why Cook won the starting job during training camp. I assure you that McKinnon was trying to win that job, he just isn't as good as Cook.

Some of you have talked about Cooks performance in the NFL being a small sample size and that is true, he only was healthy for 3 games, but what we saw in those games were the same traits that Cook demonstrated for two seasons at the college level. It all completely translated to the NFL level and right away. So I am not buying that argument at all. There is also no way to refute this argument as Cook only played for 3 games. No way of getting around that. The argument is full proof, does not mean it is correct however.

What I would say about Cook is that he made mistakes and I think what he did in those 3 games was only scratching the surface of what he is capable of becoming in the NFL. He slipped several times on runs during games that likely would have led to big plays had he not made those mistakes, he also dropped some passes which would have led to big plays as well. This is a rookie playing their first 3 games at the NFL level. Very likely Cook improves as he gains experience as most rookies do. Not that Cook looked like a rookie at this level, he played very well right away, but there were some mistakes that I think he will correct/improve on over time.

McKinnon looked promising as a rookie as well, but he was not as impressive as Cook if you consider his first 3 games at the NFL level to make a fair apples to apples comparison.

McKinnon has made incremental improvement in his game each season and I am very excited about what he can do moving forward, but even now his fourth season in the league he was not playing better than Cook. That is why Cook won the starting job over him.

As far as McKinnon's career so far I do think it is hard to evaluate him based on the 2016 season where the run blocking of the Vikings was very bad. McKinnon also had some minor injuries that held him back partially at times as well. McKinnon barely had any opportunity in 2015 because of Adrian Peterson getting almost all of the work. So not much to evaluate about him from that season. I am not saying to doubt what McKinnon can do because of those circumstances, I would disagree with that point of view without context, the fact remains however that McKinnon was not good enough to rise above the poor blocking of 2016 and his performance objectivly regressed from what was more promising in 2014 when he was a rookie.

Dalvin Cooks sample size in the NFL is too small to draw objective conclusions from, but the fact is that Cook performed better at a receiver than McKinnon has over his career thus far, despite Cook making some mistakes, Cook has also looked better as a runner than McKinnon which is why he was starting over him. If you are going to split up games to whittle away what Cook did in those 3 games then it would be only fair to apply the same type of scrutiny to McKinnon who would not be looking as good as a runner objectively if not for that 58 yard run where the Bears were missing starting LB and got caught out of position because of a quick snap that caught them by surprise. It works both ways although I have never really liked these take away the players best play and they were not all that good arguments.

I am hoping McKinnon can continue to play well and I don't really see good reasons for why he won't. He is clearly a much better RB than Murray in my opinion and thats all that really matters right now and for the rest of the season.

 
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Starting guard, Nick Easton, DNP all week in practice. He'd been the worst rated starter on the Minnesota OL (per PFF) the first four weeks of the year, but played a pretty good game on Monday night, helping McKinnon bust a few big runs with some really solid blocks.

Just something to keep an eye on, when considering start/sit decisions for McKinnon.

 
Sirles replaced Easton when he got injured, not sure how big a drop off this is as Easton was been the weakest link of the offensive line so far. It's probably not too much of a drop but certainly some form of downgrade.

 
Vikings rookie wide receiver Stacy Coley returned kickoffs after running back Jerick McKinnon had handled the duties for the first five games.

Zimmer said one reason for the change was McKinnon taking on a more important role following running back Dalvin Cook being lost for the season with a torn ACL Oct. 1 against Detroit.

“Jerick is getting a lot more plays with the offense, so that was just part of it,’’ Zimmer said
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McKinnon played on 44 offensive snaps (57%) he had 16 rushing attempts 69 yards (4.3 ypc) 1 TD 6 targets 5 receptions 30 yards 1 TD and one fumble.

Murray played on 33 offensive snaps (43%) he had 15 rushing attempts 28 yards (1.9 ypc) 1 target 1 reception 9 yards.

McKinnon continues to be the more effective RB for the Vikings and if anything his role should increase. Murray had two decent plays but was otherwise stuffed and it would make sense for his role to be reduced.

 
I didn't pay enough attention to what was going in in Minnesota until I watched the game against Chicago. McKinnon is a pretty damn amazing player... Wish he were a Seahawk.

At 5'9", 205lbs he's got a BMI of 30.3 which is slightly higher than Adrian Peterson (29.4). He plays with a little .

McKinnon has crazy draft measurables: 4.41 speed, 40.5" vertical, 11' broad jump (insane at 5'9"), 6.83s 3 cone, 4.12s short shuttle, and 32(!!!) reps on BP; he's a top 5 positional performer in every tested category. His SPARQ z-score of +2.5 places him in the top 0.6% of NFL athletes. Or to put it another way, only 1 in 167 NFL players have his level of athleticism or around (53*32/167 = ) 10 players in the entire NFL. Or to put it even another... he's more of a freak than Tyreek (z-score +2.0).

In college, his position was WR/SS/KR/ATH.

He's had 2 very good performances, back to back, against the Bears and the Packers, totaling 245 yards from scrimmage, 11 receptions, 3 TD, and 1 fumble.

After fumbling on an inside run on the prior drive, the first time Zimmer gave the rock to McKinnon was on 3rd and goal at the 3, and McKinnon scored by barreling through the safety waiting in the B gap.

Murray's usage felt like it was to keep McKinnon fresh, moreso than a committee. The contrast in explosiveness is shocking, with McKinnon frequently looking like he might break a big one. Murray...has never looked explosive, and when it looked like he had some good space, the space just kind of disappeared before Murray had gotten very far.  Plus, Murray rarely runs with the power one would expect from his frame (a slower version of Brandon Jacobs, maybe).

McKinnon's behind a good OL, a middling to slightly above average passing game that has legitimate deep threat ability keeping safeties deep, and maybe a defense that will keep the run game relevant. He's been a 3rd down specialist for years and knows the blocking assignments. He's got + hands. He's got decent vision and awareness, and when those aren't enough, he has the quickness to make up for it. On the check-down, if the defender isn't in McKinnon's lap by the time the ball arrives, it's trouble. In the open field, the first defender misses. I'm buying (already bought) and keeping. He has talent, opportunity, and quality of opportunity. He's gonna win a lot of his owners a championship this year.

 
Biabreakable said:
McKinnon played on 44 offensive snaps (57%) he had 16 rushing attempts 69 yards (4.3 ypc) 1 TD 6 targets 5 receptions 30 yards 1 TD and one fumble.

Murray played on 33 offensive snaps (43%) he had 15 rushing attempts 28 yards (1.9 ypc) 1 target 1 reception 9 yards.

McKinnon continues to be the more effective RB for the Vikings and if anything his role should increase. Murray had two decent plays but was otherwise stuffed and it would make sense for his role to be reduced.
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Didn't we call this mkinnon taking over for cook if cook got injured thing like one week into the season?

 
need2know said:
Didn't we call this mkinnon taking over for cook if cook got injured thing like one week into the season?
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From my perspective McKinnon has been ahead of Murray throughout the offseason.and into the regular season. McKinnon was still getting some playing time with Cook healthy.

Neither were ahead of Cook though. So there wasn't much reason to talk about it until Cook was injured.

 
I believe the Vikings signed Murray with the intent of him being their feature back this season. If they had missed out on Cook or another top RB, they were planning to go with Murray as their starter & keep McKinnon as the 3rd down/CoP. That much is pretty clear just by Murray's contract.

That said, plans can change quickly in the NFL. Seems like they still wanted Murray to be their feature back after Cook got hurt (he did get the start), but either way, it doesn't really matter because McKinnon has outplayed him. It's not close right now.

I was fairly high on McKinnon coming out. Dynamic RB who plays bigger than his size would indicate, but I'm wondering if his overall game is good enough to be a long-term feature back. At least we'll have the rest of this season to make that determination.

 
Biabreakable said:
From my perspective McKinnon has been ahead of Murray throughout the offseason.and into the regular season. McKinnon was still getting some playing time with Cook healthy.

Neither were ahead of Cook though. So there wasn't much reason to talk about it until Cook was injured.
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I reached for Cook (3.03) & couldn’t have been happier - think he was 4th in YPG when he went down. Wiffed on his replacement - took Murray & got outbid on McKinnon. Having seen Jerrick fail to seize the job twice before I didn’t feel bad. Got that one wrong.

I guess with Bell, Dougie, Mixon, Smallwood, & Collins I’ll survive. But really regret missing posts by @Biabreakable and some other frequent poster (SSnD?) before the Wk 5 TNF game. At least I didn’t have the plodder in my lineup that night.

 
BobbyLayne said:
I reached for Cook (3.03) & couldn’t have been happier - think he was 4th in YPG when he went down. Wiffed on his replacement - took Murray & got outbid on McKinnon. Having seen Jerrick fail to seize the job twice before I didn’t feel bad. Got that one wrong.

I guess with Bell, Dougie, Mixon, Smallwood, & Collins I’ll survive. But really regret missing posts by @Biabreakable and some other frequent poster (SSnD?) before the Wk 5 TNF game. At least I didn’t have the plodder in my lineup that night.
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Thats partly my fault as I think I didn't really talk about it much except for in the Sam Bradford thread, which wasn't the most useful place for such a discussion.

Sorry about that. It took me awhile after Cook was injured to recover from being stunned by that, so it wasn't something I felt like talking about right away either.

There was reason to doubt McKinnon because he didn't do well last season. He was injured and not playing well through that injury as one reason for that. After Norv left the team McKinnon got healthy and did finish the season well in the last 4 games or so. The offensive line was so bad last year, that it was difficult to judge any Vikings RB fairly, although McKinnon and Asiata not playing well certainly contributed to how bad they were running the ball. It wasn't irrational to doubt him, I wasn't necessarily bullish about McKinnon either, I just thought he was quite a bit better than Murray.

eta - I was listening to Arif Hasan's podcast yesterday and he brought up an interesting point about RB success rate, that Dalvin Cook was leading the league in this metric (which looks at the number of yards gained with the context of down and distance) while McKinnon and Muray have been below average in this same metric this season. He does say McKinnon has been used in more difficult situations than Muray has, as far as achieving success rate, but that McKinnon isn't outplaying Murray as much as you might think when looking at this metric. I found that interesting.

 
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tricky92 said:
This is an interesting article, but says nothing at all about his receiving skills, which might be the most impactful part of his game.
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I agree. There are some problems with small sample sizes in the numbers that Arif presents here as well, for example Aaron Jones being ranked as high as he is, that is mostly based on how he performed against the Cowboys, he wasn't nearly as successful against the Vikings..Jones best run against the Vikings was on 2nd and 10 where he gained 9 yards, which is a successful run in that situation, but also a situation where the Vikings were likely in a pass defense. Arif does mention that, still interesting to consider different aspects such as success rate and yards over expectation.

McKinnon has improved as a receiver and contributes a lot for fantasy because of that.

 
Last season was a disaster for McKinnon but it was really a disaster for the Vikings in general.  That offensive line was terrible.

The offensive line is about average now, perhaps better I don't have the PFF data, and McKinnon looks like good, he also looked good his first two seasons.  He's only 25 and a lot of people thought he was the heir apparent to Peterson when he was drafted. Would it be crazy to suggest that a 25 year old with measurables the length of my arm could break out in his fourth season and become a legitimate feature back?

 
Chaka said:
Last season was a disaster for McKinnon but it was really a disaster for the Vikings in general.  That offensive line was terrible.

The offensive line is about average now, perhaps better I don't have the PFF data, and McKinnon looks like good, he also looked good his first two seasons.  He's only 25 and a lot of people thought he was the heir apparent to Peterson when he was drafted. Would it be crazy to suggest that a 25 year old with measurables the length of my arm could break out in his fourth season and become a legitimate feature back?
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Yes. Crazy 

 
flapgreen said:
Yes. Crazy 
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Thanks but I find that, in my experience you are one who makes definitive statements with little supporting arguments.  I find you to be similar to someone lik @lod001 who seems to say things like "He's terrible" and leave it at that. I have no problem with believing someone is terrible but I would sincerely love to hear you expand on the why of your position, doubt it will happen but would love to hear it.  It's the opinions of people who feel strongly about something that I really want to hear.

Thanks again.

 
Jerick McKinnon caught 6-of-10 targets for 72 yards and rushed 14 times for 50 yards and a touchdown in the Vikings' Week 8 win over the Browns in London.

McKinnon took a clear backseat to Latavius Murray early in this one, ceding the first four carries and seven of the first eight, but he established himself with some long runs in the second quarter and had a couple long gains in the passing game to set up a field goal just before halftime. He continued to look much better than Murray in the second half, and he scored from one-yard out on what amounted to a jet sweep late in the third quarter, adding the two-point conversion for good measure. Minnesota's offense simply looks better with McKinnon getting work, something the Vikings hopefully decide to act on during the bye week. Even if Murray stays involved, McKinnon will be an upside RB2 against Washington following the off week.
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Didn't watch the game, so what happened?  Was it game play or was Murray the better back of the two .... sounds like it's going to be a frustrating remainder of the season.

 
djjosee said:
Didn't watch the game, so what happened?  Was it game play or was Murray the better back of the two .... sounds like it's going to be a frustrating remainder of the season.
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To me it was mostly game flow, but you should also realize that this scenario is not new. Murray had a couple nice runs in the first quarter and was on the field when they got down near the goal line and they somewhat hurried to the line and pounded it in. He got the chance to pound another in later in the game, but failed and they ended up scoring on a passing play.

In the last five games Murray has had 12, 15, 18, 19, 17 carries. Mckinnon has had 16, 15, 14, 14, 10.  Although it ended up feeling closer than it actually was, Vikings controlled the scoreboard for most of the game. Murray is looking healthier and better as a runner as the season goes on, but I still see a split between these two guys going forward, where gameflow or in-game results dictate who scores more from a fantasy perspective.

 
djjosee said:
Didn't watch the game, so what happened?  Was it game play or was Murray the better back of the two .... sounds like it's going to be a frustrating remainder of the season.
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Both are going to get carries.  And both are being used in the red zone.  McKinnon is game script proof.  Nothing new.  Just the way the game flowed.

 
Not worried at all with McKinnon in ppr. He had an opportunity for a TD if I remember right and was tackled on the one. I expect better numbers going forward. 

 
This was the best Murray has looked all year.  Maybe he is fully healthy from the ankle surgery.  My guess is that the splits continue to be even with McKinnon the receiving back.  If one or the other is churning up yards then they may get the better of the split for that game.  Today it was Murray that looked better early.  McKinnon didn't look much different than he has for the last handful of games.  He just didn't get the TD opportunities.

 
Yeah this feels like a 50:50 time share RoS but that isn't such a bad thing because the Vikings look very well balanced as a team.

Over the last four games McKinnon has 69 touches (17.25/game) and Murray has 71 (17.75/game). McKinnon has 3 TDs and Murray has 2 over that time frame.

That's a really nice amount of touches from what amounts to a couple very late draft picks or WW pickups.

 
In PPR, McKinnon is fine as an RB2 and terrific as a flex. He does see goal line action as well. It was odd he didn't see many targets in the passing game though. I think once Teddy takes over, McKinnon gets even more of a bump.

 
McKinnon 31 offensive snaps 51% 10 rushing attempts 32 yards 2 targets 2 receptions 15 yards

Murray 30 offensive snaps 49% 17 rushing attempts 68 yards 1 TD

McKinnon had two runs that were tackles for loss as Washington defender in the backfield as he was getting the hand off.

For the most part the Vikings were running the ball well, especially early on in the game which set up play action passing. When the Vikings were able to build a big lead Washington started selling out to stop the run more and this is when McKinnon was in there for the tackles for loss.

The two interceptions by Keenum allowed Washington to run 75 offensive plays while the Vikings only had 61. If not for the turnovers I think the Vikings would have ended up with more total plays and more runs, but as I said Washington was focused on stopping the run more when the Vikings broke out with a big lead in the 3rd quarter, so running the ball in that situation was more difficult. So makes sense that they were using the pass to move the chains, thats what had been working for them all game.

If not for the interceptions allowing Washington to get back in the game things may have been different. Teddy may have got in the game and the Vikings trying to run out the clock more.

Credit to Washington for half time adjustment that did seem to take the running game away after they had gashed the defense for some good runs in the first half. Murray was in on most of those plays although McKinnon had one big run with the great blocking as well.

 
As to what happened in this game, both backs looked solid -- both were hitting the LOS with burst and speed and getting into the midfield for good gains. I didn't see a specific area where one back really looked or performed better than the other, and both backs' success can also be attributed to the fact that WAS was having tons of trouble stopping the run -- they were routinely getting gashed and didn't adjust to make plays to stop both backs.

Going forward, agree with the consensus in that this looks to be a 50/50 timeshare, likely with Murray taking a little more of the inside the tackles and inside the 10 calls given that he has 6 inches and 15 pounds on McKinnon -- not necessarily a great fantasy situation, but a great situation for the Vikes to keep both backs fresh and useful.

 
Slightly annoying that Murray has began to look better, but look at NO - pretty much two RB1s on the same team. No reason MIN can't be a miniature version of that with both continuing to do well. 

 
Not worried. Has some high-scoring matchups coming and I doubt the Vikes run away in any of them. Expecting more McKinnon and less Murray. 

 
Elevencents said:
Similar touches McKinnon just getting hit in the backfield on almost every carry. 
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Murray got 61% of RB carries and McKinnon had only one catch. Murray also gets the goal line looks.

It's been trending this way for a few weeks and Murray looks strong.

McKinnon is still nice to roster but he's becoming a CoP/passing down back.

 
Played him again tonight as my flex, as my Lions have been awful against pass catching RBS and  RBs in general. 

Really thought I had my RB2 locked up, the way he started after Cook got injured. Instead he's regressed back into the pile alongside Martin/Morris/Collins/Anderson/Ekeler, in trying to work out who to start in the coming weeks. 

 
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Chaka said:
Murray got 61% of RB carries and McKinnon had only one catch. Murray also gets the goal line looks.

It's been trending this way for a few weeks and Murray looks strong.

McKinnon is still nice to roster but he's becoming a CoP/passing down back.
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61% of carries and 3 targets to 1 is still very similar opportunity. But Murray has just been making more of it, I agree. 

 
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