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The Often Overbearing, But Otherwise Ordinary Offensive Line


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53 minutes ago, JDBrocks said:

Can Reiff-Easton-Elflein-Remmers-O’Neill win a playoff game on the road with Cook heathy and Cousins under center? And DeFilippo calling plays?

Maybe?

When that IOL has to block Cox, Jernigan and Bennett, or Daniels, Clark and Wilkerson, or Donald, Suh and Brockers, how confident will you be?

Edited by Krauser
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i don't know much about offensive line play. what are the general, physical or technical differences between LT and RT? 

 

i know o'neill's measurables profile well to LT once he bulks up a bit but would he fit at RT over rashod hill or would o'neill go to LT and reiff switch over to RT?

 

i'm just asking because i know traditionally the RE/LT were athletic pass rushers/ pass protectors and the LE/RT were more involved in the run game but there are quite a few dominant pass rushers on the left side now. 

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1 hour ago, whitehops said:

i don't know much about offensive line play. what are the general, physical or technical differences between LT and RT? 

 

i know o'neill's measurables profile well to LT once he bulks up a bit but would he fit at RT over rashod hill or would o'neill go to LT and reiff switch over to RT?

 

i'm just asking because i know traditionally the RE/LT were athletic pass rushers/ pass protectors and the LE/RT were more involved in the run game but there are quite a few dominant pass rushers on the left side now. 

I have been wondering the same thing. Valid question, imo.

O’neil-Easton/Isadora-Elflein-Remmers/Gossett-Reiff 

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On 4/27/2018 at 9:53 AM, Cearbhall said:

Good question. I am not going to do the research to give you numbers but I watch a lot of NFL games and I can tell you that most of the league has better offensive lines than the Vikings. There are certainly teams that were worse, some of them a lot worse, than the Vikings '17 line. Of course, the Vikings current personnel looks worse than the Vikings '17 line too.

I don't know about that. People get too caught up in individual talent on the OL. Everyone thought cutting Boone was going to make our OL dramatically worse last year. It didn't. I'm not saying we're a Top 5 line, but I don't think it's in as bad of shape as everyone thinks.

I'm reminded of this time last year, when people were mad because we passed on OL to take Cook. The guy people wanted, Feeney, finished last year with a PFF grade of 48.5.

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Feeney was drafted after Elflein, not after Cook, and his PFF grade last year was better than Elflein’s (and Easton’s and Isidora’s). 

The 2017 Vikings OL was pretty good at zone run blocking and screens. They were mediocre at power run blocking and pass blocking. Their performance dropped off considerably mid-year, when Remmers went out and they had to play Hill a lot, and then Easton got hurt and they had to play Remmers inside.

Now they’ve lost Joe Berger, who was their best OL by far last year. So far the plan to replace him seems to be Remmers at guard, where he’s never played regularly in the NFL and was pretty mediocre in the playoffs (granted against some tough opposition), with Hill (pretty bad by the end of last year) and O’Neill (lacking play strength) combining to cover RT.

Do you see why some of us are thinking that might not turn out so well?

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On ‎4‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 5:43 PM, vikingsrule said:

I just want competence, consistency and good health along the OL. I don't care to draft the pieces to have an elite unit. The defense needs to be elite for this team to go far. I think there is enough talent in the backfield to compensate for mediocre OL play. Give me a top 15 unit that stays healthy to go with this defense, I think Cousins will be very successful.

Wish I had your confidence.  I think mediocre line play will get the Vikings no further than the NFCC...which they would lose, most likely, again.

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21 hours ago, CriminalMind said:

It means we should not expect an improvement to the OL, unless we lucked out with O'Neil.

They choose the other side of the equation... to try and further reduced the amount of points the opposition scores (Richardson + Hughes).

They are banking on the OL being respectful with the Cousins + Cook additions.

Why "luck out?"  Why not move up in the draft to get him...or Ragnow, or Price?  Why wait for the blue chip IOL's to fall...which was always highly unlikely.  This was a generational first round for IOL, and it's not likely to happen again for many years.  Yet, the Vikings seemed to be caught flatfooted if they wanted to improve the line.  An even worse scenario is that the "brain trust" thought offensive line isn't worth investing in.

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9 hours ago, Krauser said:

Maybe?

When that IOL has to block Cox, Jernigan and Bennett, or Daniels, Clark and Wilkerson, or Donald, Suh and Brockers, how confident will you be?

Things we don’t know: How will the offense change? How much better will Easton/Elflein be after playing together all year? How will Cook’s and Cousins’s presence change what defenses do? 

Im not saying that they are going to make a drastic change for the better, but without knowing the answers to the above, I don’t think it’s fair to say that the OL can’t improve from last year.

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12 minutes ago, Virginia Viking said:

Why "luck out?"  Why not move up in the draft to get him...or Ragnow, or Price?  Why wait for the blue chip IOL's to fall...which was always highly unlikely.  This was a generational first round for IOL, and it's not likely to happen again for many years.  Yet, the Vikings seemed to be caught flatfooted if they wanted to improve the line.  An even worse scenario is that the "brain trust" thought offensive line isn't worth investing in.

Before round 2 of the draft, I was advocating for moving the 2nd & 3rd rounder for around #49 to grab OL as I expected the OL run early in the 2nd.

I wouldn't have moved up in the first round for Price or ragnow.

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28 minutes ago, Virginia Viking said:

Why "luck out?"  Why not move up in the draft to get him...or Ragnow, or Price?  Why wait for the blue chip IOL's to fall...which was always highly unlikely.  This was a generational first round for IOL, and it's not likely to happen again for many years.  Yet, the Vikings seemed to be caught flatfooted if they wanted to improve the line.  An even worse scenario is that the "brain trust" thought offensive line isn't worth investing in.

It takes two teams to make a trade, and if it’s was a “generational” round for the IOL (which we also heard said about the 2013 class), then why would a team in need of IOL themeselves pass on an IOL and trade down?

Would you be willing to give up next year’s first?

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I am so sick of reading the excuses for the Vikings failures under Rick Spielman to properly fix the offensive line. Every year we read about how it is possible that the Vikings line might get better. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Nope.

The offensive lien has been an achilles heel for so long it is deplorable that the team hasn't fixed it by now.

I agree with hoping for the best but defending the Vikings handling of the offensive line takes some serious purple colored shades.

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I don't think anyone is saying that they couldn't or shouldn't have done better. If that's what you are reading I think that you are reading into it too much. I think they made drastic strides last year in changing over every position across the board, and adding three new starters to the roster. Now this year they have added another top 2 pick and more depth.

To say that they aren't addressing the offensive line is just plain not true. Do they have a lot of work to do? Yes. Does that mean it can't or isn't likely to improve at all? No.

 

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11 hours ago, JDBrocks said:

Can Reiff-Easton-Elflein-Remmers-O’Neill win a playoff game on the road with Cook heathy and Cousins under center? And DeFilippo calling plays?

I think, in the end, at least for this year, it'll still end up being Reiff-Easton-Elflein-Remmers-Hill...and yes, I do think they could.  This is only Rashod Hill's 3rd year, and he's already made strides...now O'Neill may pass him up in 2019, but I'm not expecting him to do so this year.  That's just my feeling.  

I understand people's concerns about having to play Hill a lot, but I want to see what they look like in the preseason before I go anointing any draftee as being starter-level or that the "current" starters are not going to make any progress.  It's not really fair to any of them to do so.   

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