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purplefaithful · 03-09-2021, 02:32 PM

Was reading a piece on how poorly the Vikings have been at developing OL in their recent history...

They've thrown draft capital at the group, but outside of O'Neill? The failure to develop exemplary OL is a black mark on Zimmer staff.

Would you agree or disagree?

03-09-2021, 02:41 PM

I'd say it's been a mix of bad luck (Loadholt, Harris), poor development (Samia, Elflein, Clemmings) and bad drafting (Beavers).

This new group of Bradbury, O'Neill and Cleveland is showing a lot of promise. Add one more in the draft and this could be the line that makes us forget all the bad ones.

03-09-2021, 02:57 PM

We should have given Mike Tice a lifetime OL contract. There is one thing that meathead is good at, and that is developing OL

03-09-2021, 04:13 PM

Quote: @Skodin said:
We should have given Mike Tice a lifetime OL contract. There is one thing that meathead is good at, and that is developing OL

He'd probably be better than what we've had. But looking back I now sometimes wonder if he was as good as we all thought. Cory Withrow comes to mind. Tice kept raving about him and so that sort of became one of his success stories....except when it came time to be a starter, he didn't amount to much.

03-09-2021, 04:20 PM

Quote: @MaroonBells said:

@Skodin said:
We should have given Mike Tice a lifetime OL contract. There is one thing that meathead is good at, and that is developing OL
He'd probably be better than what we've had. But looking back I now sometimes wonder if he was as good as we all thought. Cory Withrow comes to mind. Tice kept raving about him and so that sort of became one of his success stories....except when it came time to be a starter, he didn't amount to much.

Wasn't withrow a small school, smallish guy that would have been a john randle type of find? He didn't turn out, but it wasn't like a beavers or elflein.

03-09-2021, 04:21 PM

You can only work with what you are given. I think it's more of a problem with player selection than development.

03-09-2021, 05:28 PM

Quote: @MaroonBells said:
I'd say it's been a mix of bad luck (Loadholt, Harris), poor development (Samia, Elflein, Clemmings) and bad drafting (Beavers).

This new group of Bradbury, O'Neill and Cleveland is showing a lot of promise. Add one more in the draft and this could be the line that makes us forget all the bad ones.

I think it's mostly development issues. Bad luck, meaning injuries - they happen. It's not as if we have lost multiple early-round players before they could play much. Loadholt played 6 good years, Harris came out of nowhere and we were lucky to have a good year from him.

The staff has managed some players badly after injuries. Sullivan and Fusco were released before they had a chance to completely recover and could have played longer here. They also moved Fusco from RG to LG and he couldn't adjust (but started back at RG for the Falcons a year later).

They ruined Clemmings by moving him around. This staff has acted like players (Fusco, Clemmings, Sirles, Elflein) should be able to play multiple positions, and that's nice for career backups like Joe Berger but they ended up with lines full of backup-quality players.

Bad drafting? I'm as critical of Spielman as anyone, but my complaint re OL is that we didn't invest enough early picks, until recently anyway. Were any of these "bad picks" for the round they were chosen: David Yankey (5th), Tyrus Thompson (6th), Austin Shepherd (7th), Danny Isidora (5th), Colby Gossett (6th)? They were all OK for raw development prospects on Day 3. None developed, but has this team done a worse job developing late picks for OL than they have for DL or DBs picked late?

Regarding the "new group", I sure hope you are right. But a year ago, Pat Elflein was part of that group and he failed. Bradbury...man, he looked like a great pick, and I'm not giving up yet, but has he progressed well? Is the staff developing him? Is Cleveland a good OG or just looked good compared to Elflein? There's a lot yet to answer.

03-09-2021, 07:34 PM

I wonder if having so many OCs and developing young lineman has contributed to the issue. Norv and Shumer are the only ones that have lasted more than a year.

03-09-2021, 07:36 PM

Losing Soprano killed the development of the OL. Need to find the Dre equivalent.

03-09-2021, 07:38 PM

Quote: @"BarrNone55" said:
Losing Soprano killed the development of the OL. Need to find the Dre equivalent.

Yeah forgot about his loss, that was big.

Tony Sparano