Vikings fantasy football: Don't panic on Kyle Rudolph

Just breathe Chicken Little; the sky isn't falling.

But it may feel like it.

Through three weeks, Kyle Rudolph has caught just eight passes for 75 yards with one touchdown on 11 targets (2.7 catches, 25 yards, .33 touchdowns and 3.7 targets per game), putting the Vikings tight end on pace for about 42 receptions for 400 yards, five touchdowns and 59 targets.

Those would all be career-lows for any season the Notre Dame product has played 16 games.

At his position in fantasy, he's tied for 18th in receptions, 22nd in receiving yards and tied for ninth in touchdown catches.

Yet, Rudolph, drafted as a top-10 tight end in fantasy, remains one.

That it is so definitive says enough about the state of the position in our crazy little game.

He had a similar stretch to this one last season – when he caught a career-high 83 passes for a career-high 840 yards and seven touchdowns on 132 targets (the targets bested his career high by 39).

Weeks 7-10 in 2016 he totaled 20 targets with 113 receiving yards on 13 catches and two touchdowns. That's five targets and about 28 receiving yards, four receptions and .5 touchdowns per game.

He came out of that just fine.

That is because at 6-6, 265 pounds and with his 10 ¾-inch hands, he is a physical specimen in the prime of his career who has too much history of productivity when healthy – injuries have cost him 16 games over his seven-year career – to maintain a pedestrian pace.

Don't worry about what Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs are doing, either. They are second and third, respectively, in the ENTIRE NFL in receiving yards – a strong indicator of this passing game's prospects for the rest of this season.

As defenses wise up to the talent of Diggs and Thielen, they'll put more emphasis on slowing them down, creating more room for Rudolph to operate.

FantasyPros pegs Rudolph as the No. 6 tight end in standard and No. 8 in PPR this week and No. 5 the rest of the season in standard and No. 3 in PPR.

Here's how I compare him to the rest of FantasyPros' top 10 tight ends in standard scoring for the rest of the season (evaluations also apply to PPR):

Verdict: Don't abandon ship on Rudolph; sit tight. Look to buy low if an owner in your league is panicking and you're in need at tight end.