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The Often Overbearing, But Otherwise Ordinary Offensive Line


SemperFeist

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John Sullivan played exactly 0 snaps in 2008. The Vikings let Birk leave to start Sullivan in 2009. 

Sometimes redshirting is just that.

The Vikings love to rotate players, especially on defense, but areas where they don’t rotate is the offensive line. So, when you get to game day, where roster spots are a premium, they want to maximize those spots. And that’s what they did. The Vikings activated 7 offensive linemen on game day. The five starters, Rashad Hill who can play both tackle spots, and Dakota Dozier who can play all three inferior positions. 

Samia and Udoh being inactive most weeks isn’t an admission of inadequacy. It just shows that the team had solid backups, which allowed the team to execute the plan with their young linemen. 

Edited by SemperFeist
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43 minutes ago, RpMc said:

I almost want an early declaration of Cleveland being the LT, Reiff kicking down to LG and then a competition for the RG with Elflein (who played C/RG in college and is a more natural position for a right handed center) and Samia

Not likely to happen, but given the investment already made in Elflein, I'd want to give him every chance to succeed.

I could agree with this IF there were OTA's, regular training camp and pre-season games.  All of those are in doubt.  I would sit Cleveland for at least half a season if the usual training schedule is truncated.

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LT: Cleveland
LG: Reiff
C: Bradbury
RG: Samia
RT: O'Neill

T: Hill
T: Udoh
IOL: Dozier
IOL: Elflein

Could be an interesting year. Would it be weird if I said that I was most worried about Reiff out of that group?

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10 minutes ago, JDBrocks said:

LT: Cleveland
LG: Reiff
C: Bradbury
RG: Samia
RT: O'Neill

T: Hill
T: Udoh
IOL: Dozier
IOL: Elflein

Could be an interesting year. Would it be weird if I said that I was most worried about Reiff out of that group?

Not weird, but given his interior mates are Samia and Bradbury it is pretty telling.

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40 minutes ago, JDBrocks said:

LT: Cleveland
LG: Reiff
C: Bradbury
RG: Samia
RT: O'Neill

T: Hill
T: Udoh
IOL: Dozier
IOL: Elflein

Could be an interesting year. Would it be weird if I said that I was most worried about Reiff out of that group?

Yeah, I worry about Reiff sliding over to guard.  It's not his natural position physically or experientially in the NFL.  I won't be surprised if his success at guard will be similar to Remmers. Cleveland is a LT and shouldn't be started at guard either.  He shouldn't start initially at LT either without training camp.  I don't want Elflein to start either!  I am unsure about Samia without a complete offseason of work either.   I am also starting to believe that Bradbury really needs competent guards next to him for their to be any great improvement in his game.

I think RT is set with O'Neill and he will continue to grow and will one day be all-pro.  Cleveland will be a competent LT with more athletic potential than Reiff.  I am still concerned about the interior line and the not so great options presently available to the Vikings.

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58 minutes ago, JDBrocks said:

LT: Cleveland
LG: Reiff
C: Bradbury
RG: Samia
RT: O'Neill

T: Hill
T: Udoh
IOL: Dozier
IOL: Elflein

Could be an interesting year. Would it be weird if I said that I was most worried about Reiff out of that group?

Bradbury is just a name at this point. He wasn’t good last year, I’m more worried about him than Reiff.

Also, Cleveland is a rookie. Having him step in day one with what will be a challenge, and who knows what the offseason work will look like. 

Samia is also an unknown. I guess you could say a Reiff is also an unknown at OG. Basically we know nothing except for that O’Neill is a stud.

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It looks like the Chargers starting OGs will be Dan Feeney and Trai Turner.  I wonder if they would be interested in trading Forrest Lamp.  He’s a perfect scheme fit athletically, but has had some bad luck with injuries.

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7 hours ago, JDBrocks said:

LT: Cleveland
LG: Reiff
C: Bradbury
RG: Samia
RT: O'Neill

T: Hill
T: Udoh
IOL: Dozier
IOL: Elflein

Could be an interesting year. Would it be weird if I said that I was most worried about Reiff out of that group?

If that works out we'll only have 1 player to replace next year on the offensive line with Reiff. Vikings could save money though and cut him after June 1st. Toss in Dozier instead and/or hope one of these lineman we drafted is good enough to make it onto the roster.

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10 minutes ago, TENINCH said:

If that works out we'll only have 1 player to replace next year on the offensive line with Reiff. Vikings could save money though and cut him after June 1st. Toss in Dozier instead and/or hope one of these lineman we drafted is good enough to make it onto the roster.

Sure, but I am quite concerned that the conditional I bolded will not evaluate to true. Looking at that lineup, given the four starters that would be question marks I would give vanishingly slim odds of it working out*.

*Assuming what we mean by "work out" is the line looks to be average or above. If you just mean that fill the lineup with warm bodies, well sure, anything can work out then but they would have more than one position on the line to upgrade then too.

Edited by Cearbhall
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Based on his college work, I have high hopes for Samia. Both he and O’Neill play with that edge that our line has seemingly lacked over the years. 
 

It would be nice to have a reliable side of the line again. 

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