With as much as the Vikings plan on running the football fullback will be a very important position in their offense.  Tony Richardson will be the starter and he’s one of the best all-around fullbacks in the NFL.  Richardson is a good blocker, runner and receiver out of the backfield.  He played in 9 games (7 starts) last season and he carried the ball 2 times for 4 yards (2.0 ypc) and he also caught 13 passes for 111 yards (8.5 avg).  Richardson missed half of last season due to a few broken bones but he’s looking to make up for lost time this season.  He has now played in 172 games (103 starts) in his NFL career and he has carried the ball 400 times for 1,588 yards (4.0 ypc) with 15 TD runs.  He also has caught 190 passes for 1,409 yards (7.4 avg) with 9 TD grabs.  Jeff Dugan stepped in when Richardson was hurt and he did a decent job of blocking and he was a decent receiver out of the backfield.  Dugan played in 7 games (all starts) last season and he caught 8 passes for 40 yards (5.0 avg) with 1 TD grab.  He has now played in 22 games (7 starts) in his NFL career and he has caught 8 passes for 40 yards (5.0 avg) with 1 TD grab.  Naufahu Tahi did not play as a rookie last season but the Vikings like his potential.

With the Vikings going with a run oriented offense they will likely need to attempt a lot of long field goals so they will need Ryan Longwell to improve on that this season.  Longwell hit 84% of his field goal attempts and he connected on 27 of 28 extra points to finish with 90 points on the year.  Longwell hit all 17 of his field goal attempts of 39 yards and under but he was only 4 for 8 on 40+ yard attempts and that will need to get better this season.

Longwell has now played in 160 career NFL games and he has scored 1,144 points for an average of 7.2 points per game.  Longwell has connected on 247 of 302 field goals (81.8%) and 403 of 408 extra points in his career.

It’s possible that the Vikings will run the football 60% of the time or more on offense this season as they have an awesome stable of running backs.  Chester Taylor will likely get the most carries this season but Adrian Peterson will be really close behind.  Taylor played in 15 games (all starts) last season for the Vikings and he carried the ball 303 times for 1,216 yards (4.0 ypc) with 6 TD runs and he also caught 42 passes for 288 yards (6.9 avg) with 0 TD grabs.  Taylor probably isn’t too happy that the Vikings drafted Adrian Peterson because he had been a backup his whole career and he came to Minnesota to start.  Taylor has now played in 77 games (23 starts) in his NFL career and he has carried the ball 676 times for 2,815 yards (4.2 ypc) with 10 TD runs and he has caught 147 passes for 1,025 yards (7.0 avg) with 3 TD grabs.

Adrian Peterson is quite simply the best running back to come into the NFL in a long, long time.  He has speed, power and he has all the moves needed to make defenders look foolish in the open field.  The only thing that could hold Peterson back from stardom is that he’s a tad injury prone.  Still, he won’t have to carry the load for the Vikings in his rookie season as he will split carries with Chester Taylor.  Don’t look for that set up to last too long as Peterson has much more upside than Taylor does.

Mewelde Moore is one of the best backup running backs in the NFL but he likely will do most of his damage on special teams this season.  He played in 16 games (0 starts) last season for the Vikings and he carried the ball 24 times for 131 yards (5.5 ypc) and he caught 46 passes for 468 yards (10.2 avg) with 1 TD grab.  Moore also returned 1 kickoff for 25 yards and 36 punts for 365 yards (10.1 avg) with 1 TD return.  Moore has a lot of tread left on his tires as he hasn’t been overworked at all in his career.  He has played in 42 games (11 starts) for the Vikings and he has carried the ball 242 times for 1,172 yards (4.8 ypc) with 1 TD run and he has caught 110 passes for 1,045 yards (9.5 avg) with 3 TD grabs.  He also has returned 25 kickoffs for 483 yards (19.3 avg) and 61 punts for 638 yards (10.5 avg) with 2 TD returns.

Artose Pinner was a surprise for the Vikings last season as he played in 12 games (1 start) for them and he carried the ball 43 times for 190 yards (4.4 ypc) with 3 TD runs and he caught 2 passes for 15 yards (7.5 avg).  He also returned 4 kickoffs for 76 yards (19.0 avg) for the Vikings.  Pinner hasn’t had too much luck in his NFL career as he often is way down on the depth chart.  He has played in 40 games (7 starts) in his NFL career and he has carried the ball 245 times for 812 yards (3.3 ypc) with 8 TD runs and he has caught 39 passes for 308 yards (7.9 avg) with 0 TD grabs.  He also has returned 4 kickoffs for 76 yards (19.0 avg) in his career.

Ciatrick Fason finds himself buried on the Vikings depth chart for the 2007 season.  Fason played in 5 games (0 starts) last season for the Vikings and he carried the ball 18 times for 99 yards (5.5 ypc) with 1 TD run and he caught 3 passes for 19 yards (6.3 avg).  Fason has now played in 18 games (0 starts) in his NFL career and he has carried the ball 50 times for 161 yards (3.2 ypc) with 5 TD runs and he has caught 3 passes for 19 yards (6.3 avg).