Minnesota Vikings: Why Kyle Rudolph Is Vikings' Most Overlooked 2015 Starter

The offseason storylines have been plentiful for the Minnesota Vikings.

Almost every Vikings conversation on sports talk radio, on comment boards or even in your own living room seems to end up being about superstar running back Adrian Peterson. Will he be back in purple, or won't he?

Right now your guess is as good as that of any of the "experts" and probably better than anyone else in your living room. Nobody knows.

After Peterson, the discussions move from the upcoming draft to how high the ceiling might be for second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Should the Vikings draft a wide receiver or a shutdown cornerback?

The receiver conversations are good ones as well. How much of an upgrade will Mike Wallace be over Greg Jennings? Can Charles Johnson prove he's a legitimate NFL starter? What can anyone expect out of third-year wideout Cordarrelle Patterson?

Those are all legitimate questions that probably can't be answered until this fall. 

Lost among all of that talk is one of the most important players on the roster for Minnesota in 2015 and the most overlooked starter on the team: tight end Kyle Rudolph.

We'll get the bad out of the way early. Through four years of his career, Rudolph has been saddled with two words no football player wants associated with his name: injury prone.

Tim Sharp/Associated Press

Still just 25 years old, the 6'6", 258-pound Rudolph has every attribute you'd want on paper in a potential superstar tight end. The problem has been getting those attributes from paper onto the field.

After he played in 31 of 32 games during his first two seasons, much was expected from Rudolph after a breakout second season where he caught 53 passes for 493 yards and nine touchdowns. He put a cherry on the end of his second season by winning the MVP at the Pro Bowl.

He's only played in 17 games over the past two seasons, catching 54 passes for 544 yards and five touchdowns. Fair or not, at this point in his career Rudolph has to be considered a disappointment, especially when compared to two tight ends who were taken the year before him in Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham.

The New England Patriots picked Gronkowski 42nd overall choice in 2010, and Graham followed in the third round, when the New Orleans Saints got him with the 95th overall choice. Both players are superstars in the league. That's what the Vikings thought they were getting when they used the 43rd overall choice in the 2011 draft on Rudolph.

Missing half of the last two seasons now has Rudolph lagging behind two tight ends who were drafted in the fourth round in 2011—Jordan Cameron, whom the Cleveland Browns got with the 102nd pick, and Julius Thomas, whom the Denver Broncos tabbed with the 129th choice.

Player	Team	Draft #	Rec	Yds	TDs
Kyle Rudolph	Vikings	2011/43	133	1,286	17
Jordan Cameron	Browns	2011/102	130	1,600	10
Julius Thomas	Broncos	2011/129	109	1,282	24
Rob Gronkowski	Patriots	2010/42	308	4,379	54
Jimmy Graham	Saints	2010/95	386	4,752	51

While Rudolph will never be in the class of Gronkowski and Graham, who are both on their way to the Hall of Fame, he should at least be piling up much bigger numbers than the two fourth-rounders from his draft class.

The hope for Rudolph and the Vikings is that he has taken his turn with the injury bug and can now string together several productive seasons in row for Minnesota.

Rudolph was a USA Today All-American as a senior in high school in Cincinnati and became the first tight end to start every game as a freshman at Notre Dame. In what might have been a harbinger for the future, he missed parts of both his sophomore and junior seasons with the Irish due to injuries.

One can make the argument that Rudolph's numbers for his first three seasons with the Vikings were due to poor quarterback play. When your team isn't completing many passes, it's tough to pile up impressive numbers.

Rudolph missed the second half of 2013 after breaking his foot, and then, after signing a five-year, $36.5 million contract extension last July, he missed seven games in 2014 after having surgery to repair a sports hernia in September.

The good news for Rudolph and the Vikings is that he is currently 100 percent healthy and looking to lose the "injury-prone" label, according to Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press:

"

I'd like to think no one in the league works harder than I do to stay healthy and take care of my body, but the bottom line is I haven't been, and the only way to get rid of those questions is to play 16 games.

The only thing I know how to do is to keep fighting to put the injuries behind me and be healthy every Sunday. I know when that happens, all those questions will be put to bed and I can continue working toward being one of the best tight ends in the game.

"

For a team like the Vikings, who have more questions than answers at wide receiver, a healthy and productive Rudolph will go a long way toward easing the burden on Bridgewater, who's still just 22 years old.

It's easy to understand why Rudolph might be overlooked heading toward the 2015 season. He simply hasn't been on the field enough over the last two years to fashion a lasting imprint as a key part of the Vikings offense.

For Minnesota to take a step forward under Bridgewater, Rudolph has to become a player of production rather than promise.

Rudolph will never be a great run-and-catch tight end (he averages two yards per catch less than the other four in the table above), but there's no reason he can't become a guy who catches 75 passes for 750 yards and double-digit touchdowns.

Richard Lipski/Associated Press

One of the things Rudolph has proved in his four seasons is that he's a nightmare red-zone matchup for defenders. His combination of size and huge, soft hands makes him a go-to threat at the end of Vikings drives.

We're now four years into a career of a guy who was considered to be a steal as a second-round pick in 2011. He's clearly been derailed by a list of injuries that are headlined by the fractured foot and the abdominal tear that led to the sports hernia surgery.

That's all behind him now. He'll enter the 2015 season as healthy as he's been in a long while and should immediately be Bridgewater's default target when his first option isn't open.

"

It's been a great offseason! Thanks @jtwright82 & @proactivesp for getting me ready for a healthy & successful 2015! pic.twitter.com/R6tOz0IiG8

— Kyle Rudolph (@KyleRudolph82) April 14, 2015"

The Vikings still have plenty of questions about their offense as the 2015 draft approaches. Will Peterson be in the backfield? Who will start at left guard? Will they draft a wide receiver good enough to have an impact as a rookie? Will Patterson begin living up to his potential?

Beyond all of those questions, which are completely legitimate, sits Rudolph. The tight need needs to stay on the field in 2015, plain and simple. If he can do that, he'll be one of the Vikings' most important players on offense.

He's surely the most overlooked player on the roster heading toward to the 2015 season.