Will Fries

He's gonzo.

Fries and Kelly were the flip side of the coin to Greenard/AVG...

I dont know where that leaves Hargrave & Allen.

Fries hasn’t been great, but I think Darrisaw and O’Neill have been worse.

Agreed. I was so wrong on Fries. I truly figured he was going to be a mauler he was prior to his broken leg.

Some players just don't ever recover from injuries, whether physical or mental, it may end up being both. Frankly, I don't think Mahomes has been the same since his ankle injury as he cannot trust his body the way he used to. Hock is one who has taken at least two years to recover and even still, may not be back to form prior to the injury. I was high on Fries and very frustrated that he is performing well under his value.

I do like Huber, but we need Jackson back healthy and find the void left by Fries in FA and/or the draft this coming year.

O'Neil is actually having a decent year if you want to believe PFF scores:

• He's ranked 10th (out of 74) overall for RT's in pass blocking and 44th in Run Blocking

• Darrisaw is 38 overall (out of 71) 16th in pass blocking and 59th in rub blocking

So neither is distinguishing themselves in the run game and both are scoring higher in pass pro.

I think the bigger issue is IOL, especially after we lost Jackson for the year.

IceRatz16 wrote:

Agreed. I was so wrong on Fries. I truly figured he was going to be a mauler he was prior to his broken leg.

Some players just don't ever recover from injuries, whether physical or mental, it may end up being both. Frankly, I don't think Mahomes has been the same since his ankle injury as he cannot trust his body the way he used to. Hock is one who has taken at least two years to recover and even still, may not be back to form prior to the injury. I was high on Fries and very frustrated that he is performing well under his value.

I do like Huber, but we need Jackson back healthy and find the void left by Fries in FA and/or the draft this coming year.

@Mb called this out early and I was hoping he was wrong...The outlier for Fries was the one year (or 1/2 year) in Indy b4 getting injured. He's regressed to his play b4 that injury here.

I also was hoping he'd bounce back after a full year removed from the injury.

purplefaithful wrote:

@Mb called this out early and I was hoping he was wrong...The outlier for Fries was the one year (or 1/2 year) in Indy b4 getting injured. He's regressed to his play b4 that injury here.
I also was hoping he'd bounce back after a full year removed from the injury.

He only had a handful of good games before the injury at Indy. He's slow and he's weak. He's not likely to improve with technique. An expensive Kwesi miss. Huber isn't great but has potential to be better. The Vikings could benefit from another average to above average guard.

purplefaithful wrote:

O'Neil is actually having a decent year if you want to believe PFF scores:
He's ranked 10th (out of 74) overall for RT's in pass blocking and 44th in Run Blocking
Darrisaw is 38 overall (out of 71) 16th in pass blocking and 59th in rub blocking
So neither is distinguishing themselves in the run game and both are scoring higher in pass pro.
I think the bigger issue is IOL, especially after we lost Jackson for the year.

This is what copilot gave me as a summary from PFF (which I don't think includes the last game):

I'm not sure how Darrisaw is ranked 76.9 when he has 4 sacks allowed and 3 penalties.

Regardless on who we assign blame, I think we all can agree the OLine as a unit isn't good right now and certainly isn't as good as what they're being paid.

hogjowlsjohnny wrote:

He only had a handful of good games before the injury at Indy. He's slow and he's weak. He's not likely to improve with technique. An expensive Kwesi miss. Huber isn't great but has potential to be better. The Vikings could benefit from another average to above average guard.

Yeah, I think he was really good for half of the one season and then got injured. The previous seasons weren't great.

We can let him go with minimal cap issues after this year. He signed a 2 year deal essentially. Very team friendly.

purplefaithful wrote:

@Mb called this out early and I was hoping he was wrong...The outlier for Fries was the one year (or 1/2 year) in Indy b4 getting injured. He's regressed to his play b4 that injury here.
I also was hoping he'd bounce back after a full year removed from the injury.

Would've preferred to be wrong about that. The good thing is we can get out of that deal easily after this year. Makes me wonder if it's not time to start experimenting with Jurgens and/or Tiernan at RG.

medaille wrote:

Fries hasn’t been great, but I think Darrisaw and O’Neill have been worse.

MaroonBells wrote:

Would've preferred to be wrong about that. The good thing is we can get out of that deal easily after this year. Makes me wonder if it's not time to start experimenting with Jurgens and/or Tiernan at RG.

Yes it is. Give the big Wildcat a shot at RG because I think that’s his position.

purplefaithful wrote:

O'Neil is actually having a decent year if you want to believe PFF scores:
He's ranked 10th (out of 74) overall for RT's in pass blocking and 44th in Run Blocking
Darrisaw is 38 overall (out of 71) 16th in pass blocking and 59th in rub blocking
So neither is distinguishing themselves in the run game and both are scoring higher in pass pro.
I think the bigger issue is IOL, especially after we lost Jackson for the year.

PFF absolutely gutted their staff unfortunately. PFN I think does a better job on player analysis.

BO got destroyed on 2 of those run stops in the first drive.