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Vikings TE Kyle Rudolph has become a good blocker, though not by choice

MINNEAPOLIS — For Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph, the first six games of the season haven’t gone as planned.

In his ninth year with the Vikings, the 2011 second-round draft pick is on pace for career lows in targets, receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns. Numbers that are only rivaled by 2014, when injuries limited him to nine games and 24 receptions. In six games this season, he has just nine catches on 11 targets for 72 yards and no touchdowns.

It’s a dramatic shift from where Rudolph was a year ago heading into Week 7, when he had caught 21 passes for 266 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and even from the final three games of last season after Kevin Stefanski took over as offensive coordinator, when Rudolph was targeted 17 times and caught 16 of them.

It’s a puzzling situation considering the Vikings added Gary Kubiak, who had a lengthy track record of productive tight ends in his system, to the coaching staff in the offseason. Yet, through six games that hasn’t translated to Rudolph.

“I think I was with the majority in expecting more opportunities for the tight end room,” Rudolph said. “But that’s out of my control. That’s on Kevin (Stefanski).”

Rudolph’s target share has dropped off precipitously, from 5.67 targets per game in 2018 to 1.83 this season. The addition of rookie tight end Irv Smith Jr. hasn’t had much effect either. He has averaged only 1.33 targets a game.

All nine of Kirk Cousins passing touchdowns have gone to Stefon Diggs or Adam Thielen, while Rudolph and Smith have been thrown to a combined 19 times on 155 attempts by Kirk Cousins, accounting for just over 12 percent of the targets.

As a result, Rudolph said he has had to shift his mindset as he becomes more of a block-first tight end, a stark contrast from the first nine years of his career.

“I know that’s pretty much my only job, and if I want to be a good football player, which I take a lot of pride in, then I have to be a good blocker,” he said. “It’s just a change in mentality.”

Zimmer noted that Rudolph’s blocking has improved tremendously this year, saying it has been “his best year, by far,” adding that he has done a nice job blocking on the perimeter and in pass protection.

“I think everybody has to evolve a little bit in this league,” Zimmer said. “As you continue to get better, you always try to continue to improve your game, and that will help his longevity as well. We all know he catches the ball great, but it’s just another added dimension to the game.”

Now the question becomes: Will the rest of the season continue the way it has started? Or will Rudolph re-insert himself in the passing game?

“I think sample size is hard, and you’ve seen in the last two ball games how things start to even out,” Stefanski said. “I hate to keep going back, but we had two ball games where we were ahead and we just kept running it, so I think the pendulum will swing a little bit on that stuff.”

If history is any indication, that pendulum could swing as soon as Sunday’s game against the Lions in Detroit. Rudolph has enjoyed success throughout his career against the NFC North division rival.

In 14 games against the Lions, Rudolph has found the end zone eight times, including four times in the Vikings’ past two trips to Ford Field. A week 15 win at Detroit last season was Rudolph’s best game of the year. He put up season highs in receptions (9), yards (122) and touchdowns (2). One of those touchdowns came on a Hail Mary play at the end of the first half that gave the Vikings a 14-9 lead that changed the momentum for good.

“I’ve had some good luck there the last couple of years, and if my number is called, I try to make plays when it is,” Rudolph said.

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