The Facts:
Before the Vikings had their first team meeting with new HC Mike Zimmer and his staff in April, Greg Jennings found Patterson to deliver an updated version of the message he'd sent to receiver throughout his rookie season. Jennings, who had already been in town and had sat down with Zimmer and offensive coordinator Norv Turner, quickly got a sense of how prominently Patterson would be featured in the Vikings' offense. He wanted to make sure the electric receiver knew what that required of him. "I wanted him to know that, coming in, the expectation of you is no longer 'rookie.' It's, 'You gotta go. We saw what you can do. We're gonna showcase this,'" Jennings recalled last week.
Reported by ESPN.com
Fantasy Football Diehards Line:
Jennings was asked to mentor Patterson last season, as the Vikings signed him to a five-year deal in March 2013 and spent a first-round pick on Patterson a month later. That relationship will continue in 2014, but a year after Patterson put a spark into the Vikings' offense despite a role that even Jennings believed needed to be bigger, there seems to be little doubt about how much the Vikings will use Patterson this season. That might make Patterson, not Jennings, the featured receiver in the Vikings' passing game. Based on current ADP (Patterson's is 13; Jennings sits at 63 among all wideouts), fantasy football owners are buying into the Patterson hype.
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