Minnesota Vikings 2016 regular season superlatives

Most likely to send Rick Spielman a thousand texts between now and the draft

Sam Bradford, quarterback

The offensive line was a disaster this year. The Vikings allowed the seventh most quarterback hits in the league this year with 102. Given just how poorly the blocking looked at times, Minnesota is lucky that the number wasn’t far higher.

Thanks to Sam Bradford’s lightning-fast release, the short passing game, and the blocking efforts of the tight ends, the Vikings were often able to scheme around the poor pass protection.

Still, Bradford rarely had more than a couple of seconds to throw and looked like he feared for his life more often than not during games. Given his injury history, Minnesota was very lucky that he made it through the year in one piece.

While injuries played a huge role in the line’s awful performance, the Vikings will clearly need an influx of talent upfront if Bradford is to remain in one piece next year as well.

For that reason, Sam Bradford might feel compelled to send general manager Rick Spielman a text or two (or 1,000) pleading with him to pick a few extra guys upfront during free agency and the draft. Given the dire situation, there is certainly no shame in begging.

– JZ