5 fastest players on the Minnesota Vikings current roster
By Dustin Baker
Who are the fastest players on the Minnesota Vikings current roster?
In the 2006 film Talladega Nights, actor Will Ferrell’s character, Ricky Bobby, declares, “America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, badass speed.”
Mr. Bobby is on the right track in this thinking and it also applies to professional football, to an extent. Several other in-game factors affect a player’s speed such as agility, explosion, and elusiveness.
The 2020 Minnesota Vikings have about a dozen players on their roster who have below-4.5 speed (using 40-yard dash as the metric). Not all of them will make the team’s final depth chart this year, but this will be hashed out in the next two months.
Left out of this analysis are players that will “probably” not make the Vikings 53-man roster for the 2020 season including Dan Chisena (4.32), Mark Fields (4.37), Dillon Mitchell (4.46), and Tony Brooks-James (4.49). This is not intended to disrespect their prospect of making the team, but instead, it serves as a nod to those on the depth chart that occupy relatively safe spots.
Three honorable mentions will not formally make this list as well.
Dalvin Cook ran a 4.49-second 40-yard dash at the 2017 NFL Scouting Combine. He is on the outside looking in for the top five. Holton Hill ran the same 40-time at the 2018 Combine and he deserves a mention.
And lastly, Adam Thielen is said to have run a 4.45-second 40-yard dash at his Pro Day in 2014, which is phenomenal. Yet, he misses the cut for this particular top five because of age–he turns 30 this summer.
Although neither of these three men are slow (at all), they narrowly are bested by the five following players, in ascending order.