He's Back: Brett Favre Joins the Minnesota Vikings

Go ahead and block out Monday evening, Oct. 5, on your schedule. That night, the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers tangle for the first of two scheduled meetings this season.

The small side story involved will be Vikings quarterback Brett Favre taking on his former team for the first time.

That’s right. The end to the summer soap opera has come with a very predictable outcome. Favre, the former Packers and New York Jets quarterback, has reached a deal with the Vikings. The contract reportedly will pay Favre $12 million this year with an option for next season.

Favre, 39, is expected to immediately take over as the team’s No. 1 quarterback, bringing an end to the competition between quarterbacks Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels (ankle), an offseason addition.

These two will now duke it out for the top backup duties, and Minnesota could ultimately look to part ways with one of them. Neither has stood out in training camp or the preseason, and Minnesota reportedly began actively recruiting Favre Wednesday, Aug. 12, after a rough practice for both. Rosenfels looked better in the team’s preseason game, but it came against the Indianapolis Colts, who held out their four starting defensive backs.

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Better get used to this

Favre had offseason surgery on his throwing shoulder, and his health was the key issue holding back his potential of joining the Vikings. He still has a slight tear in the rotator cuff of his right shoulder, but he has let the Vikings know about it.

It is safe to assume Favre—and Minnesota’s medical team—believe his arm is where it needs to be health-wise for him to have a productive season on the gridiron.

He joked earlier this summer that he knows Minnesota’s offense so well that he would be able to coach it; Vikes’ offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell was quarterbacks coach and offensive assistant with the Packers for six years of Favre’s Green Bay tenure. Learning the system and terminology shouldn’t take Favre much, if any, time. On the other hand, he’ll still have to build up a rapport with receivers Bernard Berrian, Sidney Rice and rookie Percy Harvin.

In an ideal world, Favre would be a game manager for Minnesota and be allowed to pick and choose his spots with the football. However, we all know Favre won’t be that for the Vikings, who many thought were a “Favre away” from being the Super Bowl favorite in the NFC. While he has all-star running back Adrian Peterson behind him, Favre is likely to still go to the air often in this modified West Coast offense.

While fantasy football league participants may be worn out with the Favre soap opera, he still needs to be considered as a fantasy option this year in deeper leagues or as a backup. Favre should be considered as a midrange No. 2 fantasy option in typical 12-team leagues.

In the Jets’ first eight games (through Week 9) of last season before his shoulder became a factor, Favre posted decent numbers and was the 13th best fantasy quarterback in KFFL.com’s combination scoring format.

In that window Favre averaged 226.5 passing yards and 1.88 touchdowns per game, which is serviceable. However, he also averaged 1.5 interceptions, tied for the second most in the league in that time period; if your league deducts points for interceptions, Favre’s value obviously drops.