The Greatest Minnesota Vikings Players of All Time
You get the vote on the greatest Minnesota Vikings players of all time, a group that reaches back to the franchise's first season in 1961. Every player here is named on at least 5 of the 11 Vikings honor rolls and all-time rankings counted for this list: the team's own Ring of Honor, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the team's 50 Greatest Vikings (2010), and eight press rankings. Players left off no more than two of the sources that could have named them start in the top group; everyone else who clears the door starts below them, and your votes set the order from there.
Fran Tarkenton is #1 on “The Greatest Minnesota Vikings Players of All Time”.
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Fran Tarkenton
The franchise's first regular-season game, in September 1961, went to a rookie who came off the bench, threw for 250 yards and 4 touchdowns, ran for another and beat the Bears 37-13. He gave Minnesota 13 seasons, 1961 to 1966 and 1972 to 1978. The second stint took the Vikings to 3 Super Bowls, VIII, IX and XI, all of them losses. The 1975 club went 12-2, tied with the Rams for the NFC's best record, and that year brought him the league MVP, the top offensive player honor and the Bert Bell Award. He's on 11 of the 11 sources counted here. He retired with the NFL career marks for pass attempts, completions, passing yards and touchdown passes, 47,003 yards and 342 touchdowns, totals that take in the 5 Giants seasons between his 2 Minnesota stints.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran_Tarkenton - 2
Adrian Peterson
He won NFL rushing titles in 2008, 2012 and 2015, all in purple. His Vikings years ran from 2007, when Minnesota drafted him 7th overall, through 2016, and as a rookie he went for 296 yards on 30 carries against San Diego on November 4, 2007, an NFL single-game record. Late in 2011 he tore the ACL and MCL in his knee. The next season he ran for 2,097 yards, 8 shy of Eric Dickerson's single-season record of 2,105, and was the league MVP; that year he also passed Robert Smith for the most rushing yards in franchise history. He's on 9 of the 10 sources that could have named him, the exception being the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which hasn't yet voted on a class he could join.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Peterson - 3
Alan Page
Before 1971 no defensive player had been named the NFL's MVP; that year the award went to a Minnesota defensive tackle. He was a Viking from 1967 until he joined the Bears in 1978, a Pro Bowler 9 years running from 1968 to 1976, and in his MVP season the AP also named him the league's top defender. In his Minnesota years the Vikings won 4 conference titles and 1 league championship, and he was in uniform for every one of the franchise's Super Bowls. Every counted source has him, 11 of 11. Years after football he sat on the Minnesota Supreme Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Page - 4
Cris Carter
Philadelphia released him, and on September 4, 1990, the Vikings claimed him off waivers for $100. He stayed through 2001 and went out holding the club record for receptions, 1,004, with 12,383 yards and 110 touchdown catches beside it. In 1994 he caught 122 passes, a new NFL single-season record that Detroit's Herman Moore broke the following year. Carter matched the 122 in 1995, added a career-high 1,371 yards and led the league with 17 touchdown catches. He made 8 consecutive Pro Bowls in Minnesota, 1993 through 2000. You'll find him on 9 of the 11 rolls and rankings. The Vikings retired number 80 for him, and Canton voted him in on February 2, 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cris_Carter - 5
Randy Moss
Teams wary of his legal history let him slide to 21st in the 1998 draft, where Minnesota took him, and he answered with a rookie-record 17 touchdown catches, the most in the league that year, and the NFL's offensive rookie award. On Thanksgiving 1998 against Dallas he caught 3 passes for 163 yards, and all 3 went for touchdowns of 50 yards or more in a 46-36 win. He played in Minnesota from 1998 to 2004 and again for part of 2010, collected 5 Pro Bowl invitations there, and was All-Pro in 1998, 2000 and 2003 before a March 2005 trade to Oakland. Count 10 of 11 sources that put him in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Moss - 6
Randall McDaniel
For 10 straight seasons, 1990 through 1999, he started every Vikings regular-season game at guard. Minnesota had taken him 19th in 1988, and over those years he made 7 All-Pro first teams, every one of them in purple: 1990, 1992 through 1996, and 1998. That last one arrived in the season the Vikings scored 556 points, an NFL record at the time. Before the draft he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds, quick for a man built to play guard. He turns up on 10 of the 11 sources. Minnesota released him in a salary-cap move on February 10, 2000, and the Ring of Honor added him in 2006.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_McDaniel - 7
Carl Eller
The NEA's George Halas Trophy for 1971, given to the best defender in the league, was awarded to a Minnesota defensive end. Drafted 6th overall in 1964, he held that end of the Vikings line until 1978, with All-NFL first-team selections from 1968 to 1971 and again in 1973, along with 6 Pro Bowl berths. With Alan Page, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen he formed the Purple People Eaters. He's included by 10 of the 11 honor rolls and rankings. In 1969 that line helped the Vikings win the NFL Championship and reach Super Bowl IV, where Kansas City beat them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Eller - 8
Paul Krause
His 81 career interceptions are the NFL record, and 4 seasons in Washington count toward that total. A 1968 trade brought him to Minnesota for linebacker Marlin McKeever plus a 7th-round choice, and he was the Vikings' safety from then until he retired after 1979. On December 2, 1979, facing the Los Angeles Rams, he picked off his 80th pass in the second quarter and moved past Emlen Tunnell's record of 79. In 1975 he intercepted 10 passes and made All-Pro; his Minnesota years account for 6 of his Pro Bowl selections, and he picked off a pass in Super Bowl IV. His name is on 9 of the 11 sources. Later he served 20 years as a Dakota County commissioner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Krause - 9
John Randle
Nobody drafted him in 1990, and the Vikings told him to come back weighing over 250 pounds before they would sign him. He made the weight, and he was a Vikings defensive tackle from 1990 to 2000. From 1993 through 1998 every season ended with him in the Pro Bowl and on the first team of the All-Pro voting, and 1997 added a league-leading 15.5 sacks; counted across his career, Seattle included, he had 9 seasons of double-digit sacks and 137.5 sacks in all. He painted his face and talked trash the whole way, and Brett Favre called him unblockable on turf. 8 of the 11 rolls and rankings carry his name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Randle - 10
Mick Tingelhoff
Undrafted in 1962, he signed with Minnesota as a free agent and became the starting center during his rookie season. He kept the job until he retired in 1978 and never missed a game along the way: 240 regular-season starts in a row, plus 19 playoff games. He snapped the ball in Super Bowls IV, VIII, IX and XI, and the 1960s brought him 5 All-Pro first-team selections. 8 of the 11 sources have him. Minnesota took number 53 out of circulation; his Hall of Fame call came in 2015, 6 years before his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Tingelhoff - 11
Ron Yary
First overall in 1968, he was the first offensive lineman ever taken with the top pick. Minnesota owned that pick because it had traded its quarterback to the Giants the year before, and the Vikings kept him at tackle from 1968 to 1981, 14 seasons that produced 11 division titles and 4 Super Bowl trips. He went to 7 straight Pro Bowls, and the All-Pro selectors had him at tackle on their first team for 6 straight years, 1971 through 1976, and on the second in 1970 and 1977. Military duty cost him the first 3 games of his second season; a broken ankle cost him 2 more in 1980. He appears on 7 of the 11 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Yary - 12
Chris Doleman
His 21 sacks in 1989 led the NFL and stood as the Vikings' season record until 2011. Minnesota had drafted him 4th overall in 1985 as an outside linebacker for its 3-4 defense, moved him up to defensive end, and kept him through 1993; he came back for 1999. The All-Pro selectors made him a first-team pick in 1987, 1989 and 1992 and a second-team pick in 1990 and 1993, and his career total, Atlanta and San Francisco included, was 150.5 sacks. Look for him on 7 of the 11 lists and honor rolls. Canton enshrined him in 2012, and he died on January 28, 2020, at 58.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Doleman - 13
Jared Allen
Kansas City traded him to Minnesota on April 22, 2008, for a first-round pick and 2 thirds, and the Vikings gave him a 6-year contract that, at the time, was the richest ever given to a defensive player, and he played end for them from 2008 through 2013. His first Vikings season brought 2 safeties and an All-Pro year, and 2009 was another. In 2011 he finished with 22 sacks, a franchise record, after sacking Josh McCown 3.5 times in the Week 17 game against Chicago; it left him half a sack short of Michael Strahan's NFL record. Canton inducted him with the class of 2025. His name appears on 6 of the 11 rolls and rankings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Allen - 14
Jim Marshall
When he retired after 1979 he had played in every game in Vikings history, the last man left from the 1961 expansion roster. The Browns had traded him to the new team before that first season, and his 270 consecutive starts at defensive end are a league career mark for a defensive player. On October 25, 1964, against San Francisco, he picked up a fumble and ran 66 yards the wrong way into his own end zone, then flung it away in celebration; it landed out of bounds, and the 49ers got a safety. Minnesota held on, 27-22, helped by a fumble he forced, which Carl Eller returned for a touchdown. He made 2 Pro Bowls and had number 70 retired. 5 of the 11 sources count him in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Marshall_(defensive_end) - 15
Chuck Foreman
The league's top offensive rookie of 1973 went on to make the Pro Bowl in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977, every one of his first 5 seasons. Minnesota had taken him 12th overall, and he ran for the Vikings from 1973 to 1979, played in 3 Super Bowls, and borrowed his spin move from watching Earl Monroe play basketball. His 1975 season had 1,070 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns, and as a running back he led the NFL with 73 receptions. The finale that year was in Buffalo, where a Bills fan hit him in the eye with a snowball and he scored 4 touchdowns anyway, pulling level with Gale Sayers's season touchdown record on the day O.J. Simpson broke it. His count is 5 of the 11 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Foreman - 16
Kevin Williams
A rookie defensive tackle led the 2003 Vikings with 10.5 sacks. He wore purple for 11 seasons, through 2013, and with nose tackle Pat Williams beside him the pair were known as the Williams Wall; the Vikings had the league's best rushing defense from 2006 to 2008. An All-Pro in 2004 and again in each of 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, he collected 6 Pro Bowl nods plus membership on the NFL's 2000s All-Decade Team. In 2007 he scored twice on interceptions: a 54-yard return of a Joey Harrington pass against Atlanta and a return against San Francisco's Trent Dilfer in Week 14. He shows up on 5 of the 11 rolls and rankings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Williams_(defensive_tackle) - 17
Gary Zimmerman
In 1987, his second season with Minnesota, he reached his first Pro Bowl and earned first-team All-Pro honors, and 1988 brought both again. He had spent 1984 and 1985 with the USFL's Los Angeles Express; after that league collapsed in August 1986, the Vikings got his NFL rights from the Giants and kept him at tackle through 1992, a stretch that added Pro Bowl trips in 1989 and 1992. His NFL seasons in the 1980s were all Vikings seasons, and the league's 1980s All-Decade Team includes him. He's counted on 5 of the 11 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Zimmerman - 18
Joey Browner
In 1987 the Vikings reached the NFC Championship Game and lost 17-10 to Washington, and their safety that year opened a 4-season run, ending in 1990, as a first-teamer on All-Pro ballots. Minnesota had drafted him 19th overall in 1983, and he stayed through 1991, with Pro Bowl trips in each season from 1985 through 1990. He made the NFL's 1980s All-Decade Team, and the Vikings inducted him into their Ring of Honor in October 2013, during a Sunday night game against Green Bay, as the 21st member and the 17th player. Put him down for 5 of the 11 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Browner - 19
Steve Hutchinson
Seattle had him under a transition tag in March 2006 when Minnesota handed him a 7-year, $49 million offer sheet with a poison pill: his whole salary became guaranteed if he wasn't the highest-paid lineman on his team. Matching it would have wrecked Seattle's salary cap, so the Seahawks let him go for nothing, and he played guard for Minnesota from 2006 to 2011; the NFL later banned the tactic. He started 59 straight games for the Vikings before injuries caught up with him, and his Minnesota years brought 4 consecutive Pro Bowl trips, 2006 to 2009, with All-Pro honors at guard in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The sources give him 5 of 11.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hutchinson_(American_football) - 20
Ahmad Rashad
In December 1980, with the Central Division on the line against Cleveland, Tommy Kramer threw a Hail Mary, he caught it, and the Vikings came from behind to win 28-23 and clinch the division. That came late in his Minnesota years, 1976 to 1982, which began when Seattle traded him there days before the 1976 season opened. His 4 Pro Bowl selections came in 1978 through 1981, with 1,156 receiving yards in 1979 and 1,095 in 1980. 5 of the 11 counted sources list him. After football he went into television.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Rashad - 21
Matt Blair
Speed and timing made him a kick blocker, and he finished with 20 blocked kicks. Minnesota spent the 51st pick of 1974 on him and kept him at linebacker for 12 seasons, through 1985; Pro Bowl selections came 6 years in a row, 1977 to 1982, and 1980 brought him All-Pro recognition. During Super Bowl IX he blocked Bobby Walden's punt and Terry Brown recovered it for a touchdown, Minnesota's 6 points in a 16-6 loss to Pittsburgh. In 1976 he recovered 5 fumbles and intercepted 2 passes, then recovered 2 more fumbles in the NFC Championship Game that sent Minnesota to Super Bowl XI. On the source count he has 5 of the 11.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Blair - 22
Bill Brown
In 1961 he played against the Vikings in their very first game, as a Chicago Bear. Minnesota gave Chicago a 4th-round pick for him before 1962, and he was its fullback from 1962 to 1974, 13 seasons. Norm Van Brocklin named him Boom Boom for the way he ran. One of his biggest days came on December 13, 1964, against the Bears: 128 receiving yards and 226 yards from scrimmage. His Pro Bowl years were 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1968, and he played on the 1969 NFL champions and in 3 Super Bowls. He holds the Vikings record for regular-season games by a running back, 180. 5 of the 11 sources name him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Brown_(American_football) - 23
Scott Studwell
His 1,981 tackles made him the Vikings' career leader when he retired. He had played linebacker for them for 14 seasons, 1977 to 1990, after Minnesota found him in the 9th round of the 1977 draft, 250th overall, and he holds the team's single-season mark of 230, set in 1981. The single-game record is his too, 24 tackles against Detroit in 1985, and his 2 Pro Bowls came for the 1987 and 1988 seasons. After playing he stayed with the organization, as director of college scouting from 2002, until he retired in April 2019. The door count for him is 5 of the 11 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Studwell - 24
Steve Jordan
On November 2, 1986, against Washington, he had 6 catches, a touchdown among them, for 179 yards. That came in the 5th of his 13 Minnesota seasons, 1982 to 1994; the Vikings had drafted him 179th overall in 1982, a 7th-round pick, the year he took an engineering degree from Brown University, and every year from 1986 through 1991 he was voted to the Pro Bowl. He finished with 498 receptions for 6,307 yards and 28 touchdowns. After he retired he worked as a civil engineer for the Minneapolis firm Mortenson. Of the honor rolls and rankings, 5 of the 11 carry him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jordan_(tight_end)
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