The Most Popular NFL Player in Minnesota Isn’t a Viking

With the Vikings playing so well this season, you'd think that the most popular NFL player in Minnesota would play for the team, right? Wrong.

There's no denying it, the Minnesota Vikings are crushing the 2024 NFL season so far. Through week 11, they've only lost twice and have looked impressive in just about every game they've played. Their roster is filled with fan favorites like Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson, former Packer Aaron Jones, and others.

The Vikings also have a deep tradition here in the North Star State, having called Minnesota home since 1961. And over their nearly 65 years in existence, there have been numerous players who have donned the purple and gold over the years that have become favorites of fans around the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

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For instance, if you go back to the 1970s and the Vikings' 'Purple People Eater' era, players like Carl Eller, Alan Page, and Fran Tarkenton were fan favorites. In the 1980s, it was players like Ahmad Rashad and Tommy Kramer. In the 90s, John Randle and Randy Moss were favorites, while Adrian Peterson and Jared Allen are more modern-day favs.

New research from FlashPicks, a betting picks, parlays, predictions, and news brand shows that the current most popular NFL player in Minnesota hasn't even played a single down for the Vikings this season. FlashPicks analyzed Google search volume data in each US state for more than 200 of the most high-profile NFL players in 2024, to find the most popular stars in the league.

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So which NFL player is currently the most popular in Minnesota? That would be former Vikings quarterback, Kirk Cousins-- currently starting under center for the Atlanta Falcons. He still gets over 100,000 searches a month here in the Bold North, FlashPicks said.

Kirk Cousins is the most searched-for player in Minnesota, with 110,000 searches per month in 2024. The quarterback left the Vikings after last season but fans in the North Star State still clamor for him despite their great performances without him this season.

Cousins isn't just popular here in Minnesota, either. Across America, he's the ninth most-searched-for player and receives 804,980 searches per month-- many of those likely coming from Georgia or Michigan, his home state.

FlashPicks said Travis Kelce ranks second in Minnesota with 90,500 searches per month. By the way, Minnesota is the only state where he isn’t *the* most popular player. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end is by far the most searched-for player in the US and receives an enormous 4.75 million Google searches every month.

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To find a current member of the Vikings on the FlashPicks list, you have to go down to #3, where wide receiver Justin Jefferson landed on the list, amassing 675,130 searches across the country each month (with 60,500 of those coming from here in Minnesota.) 

Here are the 10 Most Popular NFL Players in Minnesota in 2024 (and their total Minnesota monthly searches)

1. Kirk Cousins - Atlanta Falcons - (110,000)
2. Travis Kelce - Kansas City Chiefs - (90,500)
3. Justin Jefferson - Minnesota Vikings - (60,500)
4. Aaron Rodgers - New York Jets - (40,500)
5. Patrick Mahomes - Kansas City Chiefs - (33,100)
6. JJ McCarthy - Minnesota Vikings (27,100)
7. Brock Purdy - San Francisco 49ers - (22,200)
8. Joe Burrow - Cincinnati Bengals - (18,100)
9. Jordan Love - Green Bay Packers - (18,100)
10. Caleb Williams - Chicago Bears - (14,800)

Whether or not the former quarterback of the Vikings' quarterback actually IS the most popular player in Minnesota can still be debated, but keep scrolling for something that IS certain: 10 Things People From Wisconsin Secretly Think About Minnesota.

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