5 players the Vikings need to play well to beat the Bengals in Week 1

2. TE Tyler Conklin

The season-ending knee injury for Irv Smith Jr. exposed the Vikings’ lack of tight end depth, which they moved to address by acquiring Chris Herndon from the New York Jets. But while Herndon acclimates to a new offense at a late stage heading into the season, Conklin is the clear TE1 until further notice.

The Vikings got a glimpse of what Conklin can do in a bigger role late last season. With the now-departed Kyle Rudolph out due to a foot injury over the final four games, he had the same number of receptions as Smith (15) with one more target than Smith on nearly the same number of snaps. Zimmer praised Conklin this offseason, which dampened some of the breakout buzz around Smith when it probably shouldn’t have.

The Vikings may not have multiple-tight ends on the field quite as much (a little more than 42 percent of the time in 2020, according to Sharp Football) without Smith. They have acknowledged that as a possibility, in favor of having three wide receivers on the field more (that idea deserves a seperate conversation). But Conklin will now have to step up even more this year than he would have if Smith were healthy, and it starts in Week 1 against the Bengals.