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The Often Overbearing, But Otherwise Ordinary Offensive Line


SemperFeist

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5 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

There is more than 1 round in the draft. We're not in a bad situation just yet. 

Actually, I think we are in a bad situation.  The OL needs more than mere NFL starter caliber linemen.  To compete in the NFC, this team needs some star quality on the offensive line.  I would've traded up in the 1st round for Nelson, Wynn or Ragnow.

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6 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

There is more than 1 round in the draft. We're not in a bad situation just yet. 

Au contraire mon ami, even though there is more than one round in the draft the offensive line is in a bad situation. They have already been in a bad situation for years. While I greatly respect your vision for how the draft unfolds it is a bad situation at this point. Perhaps it will not be as bad after tonight but IMO offensive line needed to be addressed in free agency. Not doing that is how we got here.

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9 hours ago, Cearbhall said:

After the first round in the draft and seeing the team only sign Tom Compton while losing Berger I am again/still (still) very concerned about the state of the Vikings offensive line. I fear that the offensive line will once again hold the team back. There is little depth on this offensive line. Worse, there aren't five starting quality players on the line. The Vikings best linemen is just average.

IMO, the team needs at least three more NFL quality linemen two of which should be starting caliber. Not only that but one of those should be someone that is a top five type while the other should be clearly above average. The third can be a solid backup.

In order to meet these needs the team needs to invest serious resources in the offensive line. Through the first round of the draft what they have done for the offensive line is a serious disappointment.

4

Honest question...how many teams have five starting quality players on the line?  In this day and age, I can't imagine that there are many.  I think the expectations that people have of the offensive line are way too high.  This ain't our daddy's NFL offensive lines.  Very few players come up to the NFL ready to play NFL offensive line.  While the Vikings' offensive line certainly needs help, they aren't feeble...nor are they swinging barn doors.  They are average in the NFL.  It's not great, as compared to the offensive lines of the past, but in today's NFL, it certainly is competent enough to get by.

In the NFL of 10 years ago, maybe 1 player on the Vikings' current O-Line would be starting quality.  In today's NFL, I believe there are 3-4 (depending upon how you feel about Easton).  

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Just now, disaacs said:

Honest question...how many teams have five starting quality players on the line?  In this day and age, I can't imagine that there are many.  I think the expectations that people have of the offensive line are way too high.  This ain't our daddy's NFL offensive lines.  Very few players come up to the NFL ready to play NFL offensive line.  While the Vikings' offensive line certainly needs help, they aren't feeble...nor are they swinging barn doors.  They are average in the NFL.  It's not great, as compared to the offensive lines of the past, but in today's NFL, it certainly is competent enough to get by.

In the NFL of 10 years ago, maybe 1 player on the Vikings' current O-Line would be starting quality.  In today's NFL, I believe there are 3-4 (depending upon how you feel about Easton).  

Well said. Which is why I'm not jumping up and down to replace Easton and Remmers all in one offseason. There's a legit hole at one starting spot because I don't think Compton, Hill and Isidora are starting quality, but I don't think the options at 30 were anymore significant than the potential options at 62.

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8 minutes ago, disaacs said:

Honest question...how many teams have five starting quality players on the line?  In this day and age, I can't imagine that there are many.  I think the expectations that people have of the offensive line are way too high.  This ain't our daddy's NFL offensive lines.  Very few players come up to the NFL ready to play NFL offensive line.  While the Vikings' offensive line certainly needs help, they aren't feeble...nor are they swinging barn doors.  They are average in the NFL.  It's not great, as compared to the offensive lines of the past, but in today's NFL, it certainly is competent enough to get by.

In the NFL of 10 years ago, maybe 1 player on the Vikings' current O-Line would be starting quality.  In today's NFL, I believe there are 3-4 (depending upon how you feel about Easton).  

The way the Eagles OL man handled our defensive line and the Patriots in the Super Bowl, having quality players on the offensive line makes a huge difference.  I am thinking that Cousins is going to need a good to very good offensive line for the Vikings to make it over the NFC Championship game and get in the Super Bowl.  OL is the only true weakness on this team.  And, it's a glaring weakness.  I don't trust the current offensive line to play to the level they played last season...not with the schedule they are facing.  OL has to be addressed with quality players now...this off season.  In other words, I feel very different than your post above.

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You win in the trenches. It’s not a cliche, it’s a fundamental of football. 

We saw what a small improvement did for the offense. Building on that improvement is how you get better. 

The offensive line as a unit is average, at best. Realistically, they are just below average. Building up that part of the roster is going to do far more for your team than continuously allocating premium resources to the strongest group on your roster. 

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We entered the offseason with 4 major needs. 1.) Offensive coordinator. 2.) Quarterback. 3.) Right guard. 4.) 3-technique. 

Spielman and Co. had no problems being aggressive with OC, 3T, and the QB. It’s a shame that he doesn’t see the need to be just as aggressive with the OL. Even though the state of our OL has been what’s cost us the most in the last theee year’s. 

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23 minutes ago, disaacs said:

Honest question...how many teams have five starting quality players on the line? 

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.

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18 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

You win in the trenches. It’s not a cliche, it’s a fundamental of football. 

We saw what a small improvement did for the offense. Building on that improvement is how you get better. 

The offensive line as a unit is average, at best. Realistically, they are just below average. Building up that part of the roster is going to do far more for your team than continuously allocating premium resources to the strongest group on your roster. 

I'm not going to dispute the point of its' importance, but for me, the value, really wasn't there this year...and really hasn't been in most years.  While I personally would have preferred Connor Williams being taken over Hughes, once only Williams and Hernandez were left, I'm fine with the decision to pass on them for now and take Hughes.  I can also agree with another comment on taking Alexander over Whitehair was a mistake...but often, the offensive line players just haven't been there when the Vikings are on the clock in the early rounds.  In 2017, Lamp was already gone by the time the Vikings had their first pick...In 2016, Tunsil, Conklin and Decker were all gone, in 2015, Scherff (who was the guy I wanted) was gone and in the 2nd, I would have only considered Ali Marpet then (and I thought even that was a little early, as I viewed him as more of a 3rd round guy).  In 2014, sure they could have draft Lewan or Martin, but at the expense of Barr and they traded their 2nd rd pick to get Teddy.  

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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.

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1 hour ago, 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.

We don’t have a top 15 unit. 

We’ve debated at nauseam how the wide receivers helped, and made Case Keemun look better this past year, but it’s rarelt mentioned how much Keemun helped the offensive line and made them look a lot better with his escapability. Cousins doesn’t really have that skill, and he struggles when pressured. 

This team, as with all teams, only can go as far as their quarterback will take them. Just seems odd to invest $84M in a quarterback, and not aggressively invest in areas that will help mask his weaknesses.  

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4 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

We don’t have a top 15 unit. 

It's certainly not as bad as people think. Do I need to remind people we finished as a top 10 offense despite playing with a 3rd string QB and backup RB? 

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15 hours ago, Virginia Viking said:

The way the Eagles OL man handled our defensive line and the Patriots in the Super Bowl, having quality players on the offensive line makes a huge difference.  I am thinking that Cousins is going to need a good to very good offensive line for the Vikings to make it over the NFC Championship game and get in the Super Bowl.  OL is the only true weakness on this team.  And, it's a glaring weakness.  I don't trust the current offensive line to play to the level they played last season...not with the schedule they are facing.  OL has to be addressed with quality players now...this off season.  In other words, I feel very different than your post above.

So would you rather rather have Mike mcglinchey?  Because yes he could start. Yep he would help the RB.  But O'Neill will end up being an actual better pass protector in the end.  My opinion anyhow. And we get the bonus DB.  And star CBs are rare, love the Hughes pick.  Also to those saying they'd rather have less picks but an xtra 4th?  C'mon man.  Speilman has a plan and probably has many targetted draft picks.  I bet most of them are projects but would anyone complain if he drafts 3 more OL tomorrow? Trust the process, go look where Antonio Brown and Tom Brady were drafted.  Theres some diamond in the rougn pro bowl linemen out there.

SKOL

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18 hours ago, Virginia Viking said:

Actually, I think we are in a bad situation.  The OL needs more than mere NFL starter caliber linemen.  To compete in the NFC, this team needs some star quality on the offensive line.  I would've traded up in the 1st round for Nelson, Wynn or Ragnow.

So then why doesn't everybody in the NFC just draft/overdraft OL then? 

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