Oli Udoh has another good dayThe standout on the offensive line through a week of training camp has been Udoh, the third-year player out of Elon. The former right tackle has been splitting reps with Dakota Dozier as the first-team right guard, until moving over to left tackle on Monday out of necessity. He was back at guard on Tuesday and showed why he should have the upper hand on Dozier in the competition for that starting spot.
The Vikings did a lot of goal line work early on during practice, and Udoh held up well. He's been stout in pass protection and has generated some push in the run game. The offensive line vs. defensive line 1-on-1s were fun to watch now that pads are on, and Udoh held his own there too. He was beaten by D.J. Wonnum on one rep I saw, but seemed to win all of the others. Notably, they spent a good amount of time working on stunts, which was a major struggle for the Vikings' OL last year. Udoh handled this stunt quite well:
Udoh spoke on Tuesday about the transition from tackle to guard and why the Vikings think he can be successful on the interior.
“Honestly just because of the physical abilities God gave me," he said. "I’m 6'6", long arms, kind of quick. If you can put that in a compact area, you got a pretty good guard and I guess that’s what they saw in me looking forward."
“The space, everything is a lot tighter (compared to tackle). You’re probably going to want to punch a lot sooner than you think. You’re moving some big guys like Dalvin (Tomlinson) out there, he’s as much as I weigh except he’s compact. So a lot of torquing and physicality that goes into that position."
Udoh mentioned that he's been learning from Ezra Cleveland, the Vikings' starting left guard who moved from left tackle in college to playing right guard last year as a rookie.
Playing on the Vikings' offensive line requires athleticism, and Udoh has that. He ran a 5.05-second 40 at the 2019 combine, which is in the 90th percentile among offensive linemen. Here's a clip of him getting out and driving linebacker Chazz Surratt upfield on Tuesday.
If he keeps playing like this, Udoh might end up as the starting right guard in Week 1.
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