Fantasy Fallout: Bridgewater's injury caps potential of Vikings offense

Here are the fantasy repercussions following Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater's knee injury:

Bridgewater led Minnesota to a 11-5 record last season, racking up 3,231 passing yards with 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Those numbers are nothing special, but his presence under center will surely be missed.

With a first-round pick used on WR Laquon Treadwell, the Vikings were expected to boast a more complete offense this season. This would have been Bridegwater's third season as a starter (and his third in Norv Turner's offense) and the first season playing at the team's brand new domed stadium, which is expected to make the offense more fantasy-friendly.

Veteran QB Shaun Hill is behind Bridgewater on the depth chart, and is expected to be the club's signal caller for the foreseeable future. The 36-year-old has been a solid backup QB for numerous teams, posting a career QB rating of 85.2. But there's a reason he has never started more than 10 games in a season over his career.

Overall, Hill's presence will hurt the offense from a fantasy perspective.

The Running Game

With a strong defense and Adrian Peterson at running back, you can expect the Vikings will rely even more on the ground game.

Peterson has taken handoffs from many subpar QBs in his career and has still produced gaudy numbers. He can still be drafted at his ADP in the middle-to-end of the first round.

With Mike Zimmer's defensive unit expected to be formidable, it is hard to believe the Vikings will be playing from behind with frequency. This will lead to less garbage time than some may think, keeping Peterson on the field.

The only concern regarding Peterson and these new developments are whether or not his end-of-season workload could be limited if Minnesota falls out of the playoff picture.

RB Jerick McKinnon still makes for a great late-round pick as a handcuff. He is expected to see the bulk of the work in passing down situations.

The Passing Game

WRs Stefon Diggs and Treadwell were both expected to be fantasy relevant at points in time during the season. Diggs developed quite a rapport with Bridgewater last season. A consistent trend in Turner's past offenses has been his willingness to go deep. Bridgewater isn't exactly a gunslinger by any stretch, but going deep will be much tougher to do with Hill at QB.

It's best to stay away from both Diggs and Treadwell at this point. Fantasy players are better off targeting late-round WRs in offenses that either have a legitimate QB throwing them the ball, or are on a team so bad that garbage time will lead to fantasy production.

Other than his second year in the NFL when he caught nine touchdowns, TE Kyle Rudolph has never been much of a fantasy weapon. He has never cracked 500 receiving yards, and probably won't this season.

Other Notes

• There is no guarantee Hill will start all season long, but you can expect him to start Week 1. Hill's backup is undrafted rookie Joel Stave.

• Expect the Vikings to scour free agency and bring in an experienced QB. Veteran passers like Tarvaris Jackson, Mike Vick, Josh Freeman and Charlie Whitehurst are all available, but none of these players would necessarily be a significant upgrade over Hill.

• Drafting the Vikings defense becomes a little more risky now, considering it will probably be on the field for much longer periods of time as the offense struggles to move the ball in Bridgewater's absence.