Kyle Rudolph projected to be a fantasy bust in 2019

After simulating the 2019 NFL season 10,000 times, SportsLine believes that the veteran Minnesota Vikings tight end is headed for a decrease in production.

Consistent would be the easiest way to describe Kyle Rudolph’s tenure in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings. Rudolph has never really been a player to just completely explode for a monster game, but he’s always managed to put up some above average numbers during his career.

The Vikings tight end has only finished a matchup with 100 receiving yards or more three times since entering the league in 2011. Rudolph has also only had three games in his career in which he caught more than one touchdown.

Heading into his ninth season with Minnesota, it’s hard to determine what sort of numbers the veteran tight end will put up in 2019.

It’s possible that Rudolph could end up with more opportunities than ever before due to the new offensive scheme that the Vikings will be running. This scheme, that is heavily influenced by new Minnesota offensive advisor Gary Kubiak, is expected to feature more packages with multiple tight ends.

However, Rudolph could also see a dip in his production next season with the Vikings adding rookie tight end Irv Smith Jr. to the offense during this year’s NFL Draft.

In terms of how valuable of a player Rudolph will be in 2019 for those who play fantasy football, SportsLine is one outlet that isn’t feeling too great about the Minnesota tight end this year.

SportsLine recently simulated the upcoming NFL season 10,000 times and then used their results to come up with their latest fantasy rankings. For Rudolph, they believe he is going to be among the biggest fantasy busts in 2019.

"“(Rudolph) was the eighth-most productive Fantasy tight end last season, making him a clear-cut TE1.But SportsLine’s 2019 Fantasy football rankings have a much different outlook for him this year, ranking him barely inside the top 20 at his position due to concerns about a Vikings offense that struggled overall last year. Rudolph’s numbers also fell down the stretch and he was only targeted more than five times once in the final five games.”"

While there are a bunch of factors that could result in Rudolph not being as productive in 2019 as he was last year, the Vikings’ struggles on offense last season should not be one of them. Especially since Minnesota is switching to what is expected to be a more tight end-friendly offense.

So while SportsLine’s projection for Rudolph could turn out to be true, it likely won’t be due to anything related to the Vikings struggling under a completely different offensive coordinator in 2018.

Despite their reasoning, SportsLine’s projection is still something that should cause those who play fantasy football to consider other options before drafting the veteran Minnesota tight end this year.