Offensive line play determines Week 1 NFL results: Ross Tucker

[StickyBun]

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/253...ngs-giants

[Guest]

p.s. before we crown this Viking's offensive line, lets play 3 or 4 games first. Very happy to see them play well in Week 1, for sure.

[Guest]

Randy Moss gets a ton of deserved credit and praise, but man was I thinking about Steussie, Dixon, Christy, McDaniel and Big K Monday night at the 1/2 time Ring of Honor ceremony. 

Vikings are 10/11 win team with good OL play. 

[Guest]

Steelers D will be a much tougher draw...good front 7 but their secondary can be exploited... Good early test for the rebuilt OL... 

[Guest]

Good read comparing the OL approaches of the Vikings and Giants:

Giants: 

The same offensive line that was the weakest unit on the team a year ago. As in, the same exact five guys in the same positions as a year ago.

Vikings:
Why should that have been an especially painful watch for Giants fans? Because the Vikings did all that behind an entirely revamped offensive line up front. The Vikings have only one returning starter on the line from last year, and even that guy, Joe Berger, is in a different position, playing right guard after starting at center a year ago.
That means the Vikings have five new guys at each position, and three of them weren't even on the team last year. That's rookie center Pat Elflein, right tackle Mike Remmers and the aforementioned Reiff.


Another tidbit:
The Giants would tell you that it was a weak draft for offensive linemen. They'd also say that, as a result, veteran linemen like Matt Kalil and Riley Reiff got overpaid in free agency and that was simply not something they were willing to do. They opted for continuity and banked on the continued growth of young players like Flowers and Hart.

My comments:
Every analyst and our GM Spelly also said that this was a weak OL draft.  The last preseason game, Spelly was in the booth for the whole 3rd quarter and said that it was a weak line and that they had only deemed about 5 or 6 total lineman as draftable - obviously Elflein was a top target and then Isodora and both were latter rounds.  That means that many of those OL that went in the first two rounds were not even on our draft board vs value.  
Spelly new that with a weak draft class that we needed to "overpay" in free agency and we did for two starting tackles!  The Tackle draft was particularly bad.  That way Spelly went into the draft mainly looking at interior guys and got Elflein.  
Only one week of course, but just like I saw in preseason, Sam had a clean pocket for the first time I have seen in several years.  Last year was the worst I have ever seen for us and the year before Teddy was the most pressured QB that year as well.  
In conclusion, no one thinks our OL problems are 100% solved but it is certainly improved with healthy starting caliber players.  This line will get better as the year goes on but Pitt is a much better test then the Saints.  I expect some mistakes mixed in with some really nice pockets for Sam and running lanes for Cook - two huge changes from the last few years.

[Guest]

we may have overpaid, but at least we overpaid for consistency.  Too long we have paid for talent but lacked consistency.  McKinnie was talented but didn't care and was lazy.  forgetting the CJohnson year of lacking both, Kalil was talented but lacked passion and consistency.  Both were good enough to block their guy 1 on 1, but would get beat way too often.

Now we are young on the interior and will be solid on the edges.  Not spectacular, but solid.

[Guest]

This was supposed to be a 2-3 year rebuilding plan!  No one believed we could replace every single player on our starting OL in 1 year and be a good line.  Everyone but Boone, that is   I'm sure we aren't done retooling, replacing and adding depth.  But strides in the right direction have been seen!  I'll accept that and be happy.  Let's hope it continues!!

[Guest]

@greediron said:
we may have overpaid, but at least we overpaid for consistency.  Too long we have paid for talent but lacked consistency.  McKinnie was talented but didn't care and was lazy.  forgetting the CJohnson year of lacking both, Kalil was talented but lacked passion and consistency.  Both were good enough to block their guy 1 on 1, but would get beat way too often.

Now we are young on the interior and will be solid on the edges.  Not spectacular, but solid.

Consistency requires playing and remaining healthy of course.  So we all appreciated even at the time the signings of Reiff and Remmers because they both had healthy careers to this point.  To your point to be considered consistent you have to be on the field.  Kalil was neither consistent when healthy or every consistently healthy

So Spelly learned from the mistake of "hope" that a host of guys were going to bounce back from injuries and not one of them did...not Sully, not Load, Not Andre Smith, not Kalil, not Jake Long, not Fusco, not Mike Harris and I am probably forgetting someone.  

We had a once-in-a-career tsunami along the whole offense  last year but specifically the OL.  Most people forget that Harris was our starting Guard the year before and was rated well by PFF:


Harris, 28, stepped up for the Vikings in 2015 when their O-Line was ravaged by injuries. In a season in which both John Sullivan and Phil Loadholt went down, Harris started in every game for the team and finished out the year as Pro Football Focus’ No. 23 ranked guard. Although he re-signed with the team prior to the 2016 season, he was unable to suit up due to an undisclosed illness or condition. It’s not immediately clear whether he plans on continuing to play football.