Jeremiah Sirles pushing Matt Kalil at left tackle?
By Dan Zinski
Jeremiah Sirles got reps with the first team ahead of Matt Kalil in early OTAs practices, but does this really mean anything?
A very interesting item from Wednesday’s Star-Tribune rundown of the action at Wednesday’s first open practice of OTAs.
Via Star-Tribune:
"The starting offensive line for Wednesday’s non-padded workout featured Phil Loadholt at right tackle, Brandon Fusco at right guard, Joe Berger at center, Alex Boone at left guard and Jeremiah Sirles at left tackle.Matt Kalil was in uniform and has started every game at left tackle since 2012. But coaches wanted to see more of Sirles, who backed up right tackle last year."
When asked about the early first-team lineup, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said the coaches are just looking at different combinations.
However, Zimmer did make a point of saying he thought Sirles did a good job during Tuesday’s non-media-attended practice.
Is this just a classic case of Mike Zimmer playing little head-games with Matt Kalil, or is Jeremiah Sirles really in the mix to start at left tackle?
There are about $11.1 million reasons to think Sirles has zero shot at starting ahead of Matt Kalil in 2016.
However, it can’t hurt to remind Kalil that despite his big salary, he is still expected to perform this year.
Head-games aside, getting a look at Sirles early gives Tony Sparano and company more of a chance to evaluate him as a backup. The Vikings have a ton of offensive linemen to sift through after a busy offseason and they will want to look at as many different people in as many different roles as possible.
If Sirles performs well, he at least will guarantee himself a job as a backup. The Vikings also are getting an early look at Phil Loadholt with the first team possibly to determine if he even has anything left after missing all of 2015 with a torn Achilles.
It’s likely that when all is said and done, the Vikes will go with the expected starting five of Matt Kalil, Alex Boone, John Sullivan, Brandon Fusco and Andre Smith.
In other words, it’s probably not a good idea for us to read too much into these early sessions and who gets how many reps. Then again, if we couldn’t read into stuff, what would we have to talk about?