OpEd: Best case scenario for the Vikings’ offensive line this offseason...

[purplefaithful]

While the Minnesota Vikings have plenty of positions to address this offseason, the spotlight will be on the offensive line in both free agency and the NFL draft.
Pro Football Focus ranked the Vikings’ offensive line 27th in pass blocking and 25th in run blocking. Without improvement in 2019, it would be difficult to see the Vikings gaining much traction offensively.

But how much better can they get with the options available? What is the best possible outcome for the Vikings’ O-line? Let’s have a look…
TackleWhat happened
The Vikings went into the season with veteran Riley Reiff and swing tackle Rashod Hill starting on the right side, which proved to be problematic. Hill gave up five sacks and 28 total QB pressures, per Pro Football Focus, in just 342 pass blocking snaps.
Rookie Brian O’Neill took over midway through the year and was a significant improvement, allowing 31 pressures in 531 pass snaps. Still there were struggles for the first-year player, who graded as PFF’s 47th of 62 qualifying tackles.
While Reiff notably struggled in a few games, especially against Buffalo while he was battling a foot injury and Chicago against Khalil Mack, he ultimately had a solid season, ranking 22nd by PFF.
Best case scenario for 2019
While Reiff isn’t going to put on a gold jacket someday, there isn’t anywhere close to a better option than him at left tackle for the Vikings next season. There isn’t an Andrew Whitworth-caliber free agent tackle on the market this offseason. If they wanted to move on, the Vikings could cut Reiff and save $8.8 million on the cap, but without an obvious upgrade, it’s hard to make a case for doing so.
The best free agent options on the right side are Chicago veteran Bobby Massie (34th by PFF), Dolphins starter Ja’Wuan James (31st by PFF) and Washington swing tackle Ty Nsekhe. Neither would be an upgrade over O’Neill, assuming he takes another step forward.

Guard

What happened
The retirement of Joe Berger punched a hole in a solid 2017 offensive line that they tried to fill by moving Mike Remmers to right guard rather than DeForest Buckner and Aaron Donald. It turned out Remmers was a much better tackle. He allowed the third most QB pressures of any guard in the NFL and graded 35th out of 54 guards with at least 550 snaps.
Tom Compton took over the starting left guard position following a season-ending injury to starter Nick Easton. Like Remmers, he was in a unique spot having never started a full season before in his career. Compton rated 33rd by PFF’s grading system and gave up 35 pressures.
Best case scenario for 2019
With Easton’s status unclear, it’s hard to say whether they can count on him coming back to full strength at the left guard spot next season. Cap space may be tight, but the Vikings should be in the running for starting Los Angeles Rams guard Roger Saffold, the eighth ranked guard by PFF. He and veteran Steelers guard Ramon Foster (14th) are the two unrestricted free agents who would be clear-cut upgrades.
Center

What happened
Pat Elflein’s sophomore season started out by missing all of training camp and the first three weeks of the season. When he returned, the former Ohio State start was forced to match up with Aaron Donald and Fletcher Cox in consecutive weeks. He never appeared to get fully back to his 2017 form during the season and finished as the worst graded center by PFF in the NFL.
Best case scenario for 2019
Getting him a full offseason to get his strength back will be enormous for the talented young center. 
Another aspect of Elflein’s struggles was the team’s schematic changes. Pat Shurmur used both Elflein and Easton’s athleticism to the Vikings’ advantage, but we rarely saw that in 2018. He wasn’t running out to the second level on screens or reach blocking on outside zone runs very often. Both of those things may have impacted his final grade.
http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2019/0...offseason/

[Guest]

look at moving one of the CBs for a guard

Rhodes or Waynes for a starting quality G
draft OG amongst the first two picks
draft OT in the 3rd

Reiff-Traded OG-Elf-Rookie/Easton/Collins-ONeill

Isodora, Rookie T, Jones

i believe this would have been a different season with Easton and Collins (Whom I think the team is high on due to size, strength, and speed).  With a NfL average middle of the OL, I believe we get two-three more wins which puts us in the thick of the NFC race

[Guest]

Wow, Compton was better than Remmers.  B)

As noted, Reiff was solid other than when he had a foot injury.  Didn't realize Hill was that bad, but glad O'Neill developed quickly.  Hopefully that baptism by fire gives him the base to build on this offseason.  Elflein will be back and much stronger next year.
Easton and a FA at guards and we should have a good line again.

[Guest]

@greediron said:

Wow, Compton was better than Remmers.  B)

As noted, Reiff was solid other than when he had a foot injury.  Didn't realize Hill was that bad, but glad O'Neill developed quickly.  Hopefully that baptism by fire gives him the base to build on this offseason.  Elflein will be back and much stronger next year.
Easton and a FA at guards and we should have a good line again.

Wow, I guess this grading system they use to evaluate these linemen must have a swimsuit component 'cause the talent portion sure sucked for Remmers and Compton in '18.  I didn't realize Elf graded that badly.
But the cap guru's certainly have to get their pencils sharpened to turn this sow's ear of an offensive line into a silk purse.

[Guest]

Well, this was PFF grading which is pretty well known to grade out at about 29 out of 32 in the offensive linemen ranking tools.
I particularly love the line about how losing Joe "best rated run blocking center" Berger left a gaping hole in our line.  Unless that was a reference to his pass blocking prowess the last few years.

[Guest]

This is what has me concerned. You think Saffold and Foster are only on the Vikings radar?

Half the League will want these guys. Gonna have to back up the Brinks Truck and pray their wives don't know Whitworh's wife and don't care about the weather.

Trusting FA alone ain't gonna get et done, folks. Too much demand, nowhere near enough supply.

[Guest]

I think it’s more like the opposite.  Trusting the Draft alone will bite us in the
ass.  FA comes before the draft, so if
you swing and miss in FA, you still have a chance to adjust your draft
strategy, but if you swing and miss in the draft theres not much left you can
do.  I think what’s really hampered us in
the past is that we’d bring in temporary stop gap type guys in FA for the OLine,
thinking that it gives us draft flexibility, but these guys weren’t good enough
to be starters and then we have this false sense of security so we draft OLine
lower than we should.  I think we just
have to have the mindset that we are going to overpower this problem and bring
in an abundance of talent on the OLine. 
I really think we need to plan on getting at least 1 legit starter in FA
and 2 starting caliber prospects in the draft figuring that we should be able
to get at least 2 starters out of 3 candidates and then have a great backup to
deal with the inevitable injuries we seem to have.

[Guest]

@FSUVike said:


Trusting FA alone ain't gonna get et done, folks. Too much demand, nowhere near enough supply.

100% agree with this. Its going to take more than one year to turn around the O-line. But incremental improvement can happen for sure done correctly. 

[Guest]

@medaille said:
I think it’s more like the opposite.  Trusting the Draft alone will bite us in the
ass.  FA comes before the draft, so if
you swing and miss in FA, you still have a chance to adjust your draft
strategy, but if you swing and miss in the draft theres not much left you can
do.  I think what’s really hampered us in
the past is that we’d bring in temporary stop gap type guys in FA for the OLine,
thinking that it gives us draft flexibility, but these guys weren’t good enough
to be starters and then we have this false sense of security so we draft OLine
lower than we should.  I think we just
have to have the mindset that we are going to overpower this problem and bring
in an abundance of talent on the OLine. 
I really think we need to plan on getting at least 1 legit starter in FA
and 2 starting caliber prospects in the draft figuring that we should be able
to get at least 2 starters out of 3 candidates and then have a great backup to
deal with the inevitable injuries we seem to have.

Agree, I think we need to land 1 starter via FA.  Not some Compton BS, a real legit starter.  We then need to draft 1-2 in the first 3.  I'd keep in mind that slick rick is going to trade down a few times to get some more bodies.  I hope we don't trade down from a surefire OL starter in the draft to pick up 11x 7th round picks

[Guest]

this^^^^^^

hate the “we need ten picks” shit. 
we really dont use 8 guys from the 7th round to make the practice squad.