Will the Vikings move Elflein?
https://www.fantasypros.com/2019/02/free-agent-nfl-draft-needs-for-all-32-teams-2/
Minnesota Vikings (Estimated Cap Space: $5.3 million, 30th-most)
The signing of Kirk Cousins was supposed to be the final piece the Vikings needed to make a Super Bowl run. Instead, they missed out on the playoffs all together, and that’s despite staying relatively healthy all year. They now have both Anthony Barr and Sheldon Richardson hitting free agency, and it makes little sense for them to use a franchise tag on either player. If they lose Barr, it would create a massive need at linebacker. Alongside Richardson, Tom Johnson is also going to be a free agent (as he was last year), so the defensive line suddenly may need a few bodies. If they were able to retain one of Barr or Richardson, it would surely allow them to attack their biggest weakness on offense in the draft, which is their offensive line. Riley Reiff and Brian O’Neill are serviceable at tackle, but the interior is brutal. They desperately need help at guard and it’s time to move on from Pat Elflein at center. The good news is that their secondary is deep, their top wide receivers and running back are locked up for a few more years, and they believe they have their quarterback in place. This is a team who believes their window to win is over the next two years, so expect them to draft that way.
Pre-Free Agency Biggest Needs: OG, C, DT
“A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't." - Tom Waits
That would be about the dumbest thing they could do IMO. He had a great rookie year and never seemed to be back to 100% last year. The two guards on either side of him should be the ones getting replaced. Do that and have him get healthy and strong again and I think we'll see a lot more out of Elflein than we did last year.
I still have high hopes for the young guy. He got some nasty injuries during that CG.
That said, imo he needs to show in 2019 that last year was a fluke...
@"SFVikingFan" said: That would be about the dumbest thing they could do IMO. He had a great rookie year and never seemed to be back to 100% last year. The two guards on either side of him should be the ones getting replaced. Do that and have him get healthy and strong again and I think we'll see a lot more out of Elflein than we did last year."Seemed to be?" A devil's advocate would argue that we don't really know how much health played a factor. I think I read where he graded out as the 2nd to last center in the NFL last year. I would love to believe that it was just a slow recovery, but that's not something I know.
Personally, I think Elflein will be someone whose position in '19 will depend on two things: how he fits into what Kubiak likes in his OL and what we're able to acquire in the offseason.
@"MaroonBells" said:@"SFVikingFan" said: That would be about the dumbest thing they could do IMO. He had a great rookie year and never seemed to be back to 100% last year. The two guards on either side of him should be the ones getting replaced. Do that and have him get healthy and strong again and I think we'll see a lot more out of Elflein than we did last year. "Seemed to be?" A devil's advocate would argue that we don't really know how much health played a factor. I think I read where he graded out as the 2nd to last center in the NFL last year. I would love to believe that it was just a slow recovery, but that's not something I know.Personally, I think Elflein will be someone whose position in '19 will depend on two things: how he fits into what Kubiak likes in his OL and what we're able to acquire in the offseason.
Well considering he had multiple offseason surgeries and missed all of the preseason and the first two games of the regular season, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But you are right, no one outside of his family and the Vikings organization knows for sure. I just thought he played very well as a rookie and would hate for the team to let him go or trade him when his stock is at its lowest.
The short answer is no, they probably should leave him at center. Its a more natural position given his skill set. The longer answer is more of a maybe. You don't want to limit yourself this off-season on what talent you bring in. If you can bring in a high level C/LG and it pushes Elflein to RG you have to at least consider it.
The article was suggesting to move on from Elflein not move
him to G.
The article is a hackpiece written by some fantasy guy who
just looked at PFF grades and didn’t know why the grades are what they are. I also disagree with the premise that we
should be bringing in FA defenders and drafting OLine. That might be the right path, but we have to consider
if stacking multiple rookies on the OLine is what makes the most sense.
@"SFVikingFan" said:@"MaroonBells" said:@"SFVikingFan" said: That would be about the dumbest thing they could do IMO. He had a great rookie year and never seemed to be back to 100% last year. The two guards on either side of him should be the ones getting replaced. Do that and have him get healthy and strong again and I think we'll see a lot more out of Elflein than we did last year. "Seemed to be?" A devil's advocate would argue that we don't really know how much health played a factor. I think I read where he graded out as the 2nd to last center in the NFL last year. I would love to believe that it was just a slow recovery, but that's not something I know.Personally, I think Elflein will be someone whose position in '19 will depend on two things: how he fits into what Kubiak likes in his OL and what we're able to acquire in the offseason.
Well considering he had multiple offseason surgeries and missed all of the preseason and the first two games of the regular season, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But you are right, no one outside of his family and the Vikings organization knows for sure. I just thought he played very well as a rookie and would hate for the team to let him go or trade him when his stock is at its lowest.
I think you misunderstood what the writer was saying. I don't think he was saying the Vikings should move on from Elflein, only that we should move on from Elflein "at center." He was a good center at OSU, but he was an even better guard.
@"Geoff Nichols" said: The short answer is no, they probably should leave him at center. Its a more natural position given his skill set. The longer answer is more of a maybe. You don't want to limit yourself this off-season on what talent you bring in. If you can bring in a high level C/LG and it pushes Elflein to RG you have to at least consider it.It's a nice bit of flexiblity. The best zone IOL in the draft is Bradbury. If they like him enough to draft him at 18, I could easily see them moving Elf to RG.
@"Geoff Nichols" said: The short answer is no, they probably should leave him at center. Its a more natural position given his skill set. The longer answer is more of a maybe. You don't want to limit yourself this off-season on what talent you bring in. If you can bring in a high level C/LG and it pushes Elflein to RG you have to at least consider it.
I have read suggestions that the Vikings could sign Matt Paradis, but I don't know if that's based on any known interest by the team or simply speculation because he was a Bronco and played for both Kubiak and Dennison. Would he understand the new scheme and line calls more quickly, and how much would that help?
Elf appeared to be a bit flabby last year. That's no surprise given the injuries and surgeries he needed to recover from. I can't imagine the Vikings wanting to move on from him at this point in time. If he comes back in shape and stronger, he should be much better. Especially if he can get better players on each side of him.
@"medaille" said: The article was suggesting to move on from Elflein not move him to G.The article is a hackpiece written by some fantasy guy who
just looked at PFF grades and didn’t know why the grades are what they are. I also disagree with the premise that we
should be bringing in FA defenders and drafting OLine. That might be the right path, but we have to consider
if stacking multiple rookies on the OLine is what makes the most sense.
Yup. Wisest move would be to move on without reading this author. Someone that just regurgitates already known tidbits but often exposes their lack of knowledge with a misplaced comment like this. Moving on from a 3rd year guy that had a very good rookie year and struggled to find his strength after multiple late offseason surgeries.
@"MaroonBells" said: I think you misunderstood what the writer was saying. I don't think he was saying the Vikings should move on from Elflein, only that we should move on from Elflein "at center." He was a good center at OSU, but he was an even better guard.He wasn't just a good center at OSU... he won the Rimington Trophy which is given to the best center in ALL of college football. Just wanted to point that out, Maroon. :-D
Also would add that I considered him the offensive MVP in 2017. Our offense really struggled in the game he missed.
@"Wetlander" said:You're not pointing out anything I didn't already know. But he did grade better as a guard and also stated that he thought he was a better guard than center and preferred playing there. I'm not saying he NEEDS to be moved. He was a pretty good center as a rookie. Just that we don't know that health is the reason he played so god awful this year. Maybe it was. I suspect a lot of it was related to him meshing with Flip's flop of an offense.@"MaroonBells" said: I think you misunderstood what the writer was saying. I don't think he was saying the Vikings should move on from Elflein, only that we should move on from Elflein "at center." He was a good center at OSU, but he was an even better guard. He wasn't just a good center at OSU... he won the Rimington Trophy which is given to the best center in ALL of college football. Just wanted to point that out, Maroon. :-DI just know that the key to an effective ZBS is the pivot, and there are some good zone pivots in this draft and Elflein CAN play guard if it makes sense to move him. A team would be foolish for not exploring its flex points before heading into player acquisition season. We'll see what happens....
@"MaroonBells" said:I don't think the Vikings would feel comfortable playing Bradbury next to Elflein. It's nothing against Bradbury who I think is a good center, but you would be playing to both players weaknesses. Elf is at his best pass protecting against power (at least in 2017 he was) and when he can create the first seam out of the backfield. At RG you'd be asking him to pass protect against more speed and be asking him get out further to achieve his reach blocks. He could do it, but it wouldn't match his skill set as much. In my opinion if you are going to move Elf to RG you better make sure you have a strong anchor at C since you probably aren't going to run as much outside zone but be more of a power man group.@"Geoff Nichols" said: The short answer is no, they probably should leave him at center. Its a more natural position given his skill set. The longer answer is more of a maybe. You don't want to limit yourself this off-season on what talent you bring in. If you can bring in a high level C/LG and it pushes Elflein to RG you have to at least consider it. It's a nice bit of flexiblity. The best zone IOL in the draft is Bradbury. If they like him enough to draft him at 18, I could easily see them moving Elf to RG.
@"Geoff Nichols" said:Well, in my opinion, Bradbury is the ideal outside zone center. And in a zone it all starts with the center. But at the end of the day (drink), the biggest unknown is what Kubiak and Dennison are going to want. I'm curious to find out.@"MaroonBells" said:I don't think the Vikings would feel comfortable playing Bradbury next to Elflein. It's nothing against Bradbury who I think is a good center, but you would be playing to both players weaknesses. Elf is at his best pass protecting against power (at least in 2017 he was) and when he can create the first seam out of the backfield. At RG you'd be asking him to pass protect against more speed and be asking him get out further to achieve his reach blocks. He could do it, but it wouldn't match his skill set as much. In my opinion if you are going to move Elf to RG you better make sure you have a strong anchor at C since you probably aren't going to run as much outside zone but be more of a power man group.@"Geoff Nichols" said: The short answer is no, they probably should leave him at center. Its a more natural position given his skill set. The longer answer is more of a maybe. You don't want to limit yourself this off-season on what talent you bring in. If you can bring in a high level C/LG and it pushes Elflein to RG you have to at least consider it. It's a nice bit of flexiblity. The best zone IOL in the draft is Bradbury. If they like him enough to draft him at 18, I could easily see them moving Elf to RG.
@"MaroonBells" said:There is no denying he is the perfect fit in an outside zone scheme. But we all know the sad fact you need 5 O-lineman that work well together. I'm really curious about the scheme too. If you look into what we know know I figure they're going to run outside zone predominantly. But Dennison is known for putting some power concepts into his game plans as well to keep teams off balance. So you would be drafting for your predominant scheme I'd presume.@"Geoff Nichols" said:Well, in my opinion, Bradbury is the ideal outside zone center. And in a zone it all starts with the center. But at the end of the day (drink), the biggest unknown is what Kubiak and Dennison are going to want. I'm curious to find out.@"MaroonBells" said:I don't think the Vikings would feel comfortable playing Bradbury next to Elflein. It's nothing against Bradbury who I think is a good center, but you would be playing to both players weaknesses. Elf is at his best pass protecting against power (at least in 2017 he was) and when he can create the first seam out of the backfield. At RG you'd be asking him to pass protect against more speed and be asking him get out further to achieve his reach blocks. He could do it, but it wouldn't match his skill set as much. In my opinion if you are going to move Elf to RG you better make sure you have a strong anchor at C since you probably aren't going to run as much outside zone but be more of a power man group.@"Geoff Nichols" said: The short answer is no, they probably should leave him at center. Its a more natural position given his skill set. The longer answer is more of a maybe. You don't want to limit yourself this off-season on what talent you bring in. If you can bring in a high level C/LG and it pushes Elflein to RG you have to at least consider it. It's a nice bit of flexiblity. The best zone IOL in the draft is Bradbury. If they like him enough to draft him at 18, I could easily see them moving Elf to RG.
That would be just stupid. He is still in his rookie contract and his replacement unless a rookie would cost more. I think his troubles last year were a combination of not getting back to 100% after the injury and he had 2 aweful guards playing along side him. Get a couple decent guards and a left tackle and the OL will be serviceable and better than last season.
@"Purple Haze" said: That would be just stupid. He is still in his rookie contract and his replacement unless a rookie would cost more. I think his troubles last year were a combination of not getting back to 100% after the injury and he had 2 aweful guards playing along side him. Get a couple decent guards and a left tackle and the OL will be serviceable and better than last season.If we have to replace 3 of 5 starters, the OL ought to be better than "serviceable" - unless we're just going to plug in some Tom Compton-level replacements.
No need to move him, give him another year to get healthy and team him up with two quality guards next to him. Then we will see the return of the guy we saw in 2017.
2019 OL:
OT: ONeill, Collins, 4th Round Pick, Turner
OG: Reiff, 1st Round Pick, Levitre, Easton, Isodora
C: Elf, Jones
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