The plan to move Brandon Fusco from right guard to left guard has opened up a job at right guard. Who will ultimately start at right guard once the season finally rolls around?
Your guess is as good as mine on that one. Right now the Vikings are early in the process of sorting out who has a real shot at that position and who doesn’t.
Initially it looked like rookie T.J. Clemmings had the inside track on starting between John Sullivan and Phil Loadholt, but an injury sidelined Clemmings for several OTA sessions.
In Clemmings’ stead, the Vikings first tried David Yankey and Carter Bykowski at RG. According to the Star-Trib‘s Matt Vensel, a new player got his chance at the position in Thursday’s media access OTA session:
Rookie Tyrus Thompson got most of the first-team work at right guard today. #Vikings
— Matt Vensel (@mattvensel) June 11, 2015
The 6-5, 324-pound Thompson was taken by the Vikings in the sixth round of this year’s draft as part of their concerted effort to build depth on the offensive line. His scouting report via CBSSports.com mentions his good size but poor footwork.
Thompson may have been hurt in the draft by some injury concerns. His junior season at Oklahoma was ended by a Lisfranc injury and he suffered another foot injury at the end of his senior season that prevented him from running at the combine.
That Thompson is now getting the first team reps at RG instead of Clemmings, Yankey or Bykowski likely means very little. The Vikings are probably using OTAs to try as many guys as possible at that position and get a preliminary read that will help them dole out reps during minicamp and training camp.
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Clearly, there is no real pecking order yet at right guard (Clemmings by the way has returned to practice, but on Thursday he was working at right tackle with the second team). The Vikings have the luxury of trying all their young guys at the position knowing if push comes to shove they can always plug in the veteran Joe Berger.
Ideally, one of these young guys will really pop in training camp and lock down the RG job, allowing the Viking to use Berger as a multi-position backup. Will it be Thompson who impresses the coaches? Clemmings? Yankey? None of the above? It’s a camp storyline to follow, that’s for sure.
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