The success or failure of the Minnesota Vikings offense during the 2025 season was going to rest with one man, who surely doesn't have to be named. We know how that went for the most part, amid his injuries and struggles.
Going into the season, even with an unknown quantity under center, it was easy to have optimism about the Vikings' key skill position pieces in the fantasy football realm.
Justin Jefferson had shown himself to be "quarterback proof," while others seemed to fit J.J. McCarthy's skill set or have a good rapport with him, and the running back tandem seemed likely to be good individual fantasy assets in the proper context/scoring system.
In large part, that did not come to fruition at all. Jefferson's production was fleeting and outright awful at times. Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson had dismal seasons.
Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason had stretches of usefulness, but it never really stuck. And McCarthy became a fantasy asset for a couple weeks when it was probably too late for it to matter.
Yahoo's list of 2025 fantasy football busts is littered with Minnesota Vikings
With the end of the season in most fantasy football leagues taking place in Week 17, Matt Okada of Yahoo took a look at the worst picks from rounds 1-10 based on ADP in Yahoo! drafts. That's a nice way to label 10 players who were busts, and not one, not two, but three Vikings made the cut.
Okada's first-round bust was, of course, easily Jefferson, who was the second wide receiver off the board with an overall ADP of 5.9 overall (let's just say No. 6) and finished as WR39 by points per game in Yahoo! scoring (0.5-point PPR).
"Halfway through the season, it looked like Justin Jefferson was merely a mild bust, sitting at WR12 with only two touchdowns through Week 9. Perhaps his preseason hamstring injury had slowed him to start the year, or perhaps he just needed to find chemistry with J.J. McCarthy (who was injured for some of that stretch).
But then the floor fell out completely, and Jefferson went on a truly inexplicable stretch in which he scored single-digit fantasy points in all but one game the rest of the year, including five points or fewer in four of his last five."
Jefferson seemed to have chance after chance to make things right for his fantasy managers late in the season. He failed each time outside of Week 16 against the New York Giants, and even that wasn't outstanding (14.5 full PPR points).
Moving to Okada's sixth-round bust, with an overall ADP of 58.6 as the fifth player off the board at his position, we have Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson.
"If you drafted T.J. Hockenson here in the sixth round, here’s hoping you found someone on waivers after Week 1 or 2. The Vikings tight end made Justin Jefferson’s bust look like a Pro Bowl season.
Hockenson managed double-digit fantasy points just once all year — 13.4 in Week 3 against the Bengals (who turned out to be the softest matchup in the league) — scoring just three touchdowns and finishing with 51 catches for 438 yards.
He averaged a career-low 8.6 yards per reception and 29.2 yards per game and was outscored by names like AJ Barner and Colby Parkinson in fantasy points per game.
Somehow, Hock finished the season rostered in 62 percent of Yahoo leagues, but I can’t imagine anyone was starting him over the second half of the season.
As with Jefferson, maybe he’ll get a QB upgrade in 2026, but barring a miracle, Hockenson should not be drafted as a TE1 next season."
Looking to 2026 fantasy drafts, "as a TE1" can probably be removed from Okada's sentiment about Hockenson. A different quarterback may not make a big difference, but on the other hand, there could be upside in drafting him as a second tight end for those who are so inclined.
Down to the ninth round on Okada's list of busts, with a final ADP of 88.9 and RB30, is Mason.
"Jordan Mason was probably one of the quieter “busts” of the 2025 fantasy season, as his ADP did trickle all the way down here to the ninth round.
But, back in the summer, a lot of fantasy analysts saw him as a breakout candidate with a chance to supplant Aaron Jones Sr. as the RB1 in Minnesota.
Instead, Mason managed just 159 touches for 715 yards and six touchdowns, and really only had one great fantasy performance, in Week 3 against the Bengals with Jones out.
Over the four games Jones missed — Weeks 3-7, with the bye in the middle — Mason was the RB16, which might have raised some hopes and even instigated a trade acquisition or two.
But from Week 8 on, he was the clear backup and averaged just 4.96 points per game (RB59 over that span). Considering you could have had Jaylen Warren at the same ADP, Mason ended up being a major miss here in 2025."
From Week 10 to Week 15, before he was injured early in Week 16 and missed Week 17, Mason averaged 5.3 yards per carry. But he got double-digit carries in just two of those six games, with six carries or fewer three times.
So his downturn late in the season was more about a greatly reduced role than anything, despite being as efficient a runner as he was.
While his ADP was surely impacted by a three-game suspension to start the season, Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison can earn an honorable mention as a 2025 fantasy bust.
He was WR44 by points per game in Yahoo! scoring, and it would've been worse without some big plays. And for what it's worth, Jones wasn't great either (RB34 by fantasy points per game).
If there's a silver lining to be pulled from all the bad fantasy production the Vikings had this year, it's clearly this. In next year's drafts, some real value could be unearthed if the quarterback situation is better.