Surprisingly, Brock Purdy has been one of the best quarterbacks in the league against the blitz, which is exactly what Brian Flores is known for on the Vikings. Last season Purdy posted a league-leading 9.3 yards per attempt against the Blitz, a defensive coverage he’s going to be seeing more than anything else.

Their base coverage will be a majority of Cover 2 looks, which Purdy has also had plenty of success against ranking top 5 in EPA per play and success rate against Cover 2 defences. Purdy is simply the wrong quarterback to throw all these zone blitzes at, with Kittle and Deebo Samuel being known as absolute zone-busters.

We don’t know if Christian McCaffery is going to suit up for this one, but without him Purdy would obviously have to lean more on his receivers, leading to some more downfield shots.

If CMC does suit up then we can budget in a safe 30+ receiving yards simply from the check-downs, which is always nice. In Week 1, Purdy posted 231 passing yards facing the most dominant secondary in the league against the Jets. He walks into a much easier matchup against a Minnesota team lacking talent in the secondary.

Deebo Samuel is one of the most versatile weapons on the planet, making him an extremely intriguing red zone play every time he steps on the field. Not only can he get it done traditionally through the air, but they have plenty of these designed runs and trick plays to get him involved on the ground.

In Week 1 he posted a 31% target share through the air, posting 79 total yards along with a touchdown. After facing Sauce Gardner and DJ Reed, any cornerback matchup is going to feel like a walk in the park and the Vikings are nothing to be scared of.

They will have GIllmore on the outside for Aiyuk, leaving Deebo with some inexperienced slot corners to take advantage of those holes in the zone.

Christian McCaffery being injured or in a limited capacity is also huge. He notoriously scored in 12 of 17 regular season games absolutely dominating the Red Zone last year.

Deebo Samuel is one of the most explosive players in the league and has a rare ability to break off a huge play, which is always good when a guy is not just relying on goal-line fades.

Aaron Jones has been one of the best receiving backs in the NFL since his days with Green Bay. He’s moved over to his divisional rival Vikings, uniting with play-caller Kevin O’Connell, who is one of the sharpest offensive minds in the league.

O’Connell showed off in Week 1 with a dominant performance against the Giants, who looked like they had nothing for Sam Darnold, who wasn’t even expected to be the starter until a JJ McCarthy injury.

With TJ Hockenson injured, Justin Jefferson is the clear number-one weapon on this offense, but he faces a very challenging matchup in Ward on the outside. I think O’Connell and the Vikings offense will be forced to look elsewhere for production, and I think Jones could be that guy.

While receiving backs normally post much better numbers in trailing gamescripts, where there quarterbacks are forced to throw, Jones still did post 2 catches for 15 yards in his debut despite leading all game. The 49ers are a much better matchup for the pass catcher though because they funnel short/intermediate targets over the middle.

Since they are so good at eliminating explosive plays down the field you are naturally going to allow more underneath check-downs, and that’s exactly where we expect Jones to prosper.

While George Kittle didn’t quite have the debut we expected, we think the Vikings present a great bounce back spot for the receiver. Last year George Kittle lead all tight ends by a wide margin in yards per catch, averaging 15.7.

He is one of the most dominant yards-after-catch receivers in the league and will need to help find holes in this spotty Vikings zone defence. Just like his teammate Deebo Samuel, his big play ability gives him the chance to cash these plays on a simple screen pass.

Against Cover 2 defences Kittle possesses the third-highest target share (16%), just two percent behind Brandon Aiyuk who still doesn’t look 100% coming back from a delayed training camp due to offseason negotiations.

Kittle is expected to once again post another dominant snap share, considering even when he’s not catching passes his role as a blocker is too important to take him out. This creates additional pass-catching opportunities on broken plays, can’t catch the ball if you’re not playing!

Additionally Kittle is only six receptions away from passing Rob Gronkowski for the fourth-most receptions by a tight end in their first 100 games. We expect him to do so in a dominant fashion against Minnesota this weekend.