Dickerson: The NFL ‘will respect the Vikings’ offensive line’ this upcoming season
By Adam Patrick
ESPN’s Jeff Dickerson recently commented on how he believes the newest additions to the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive line will improve the unit’s play from a season ago.
When trying to think of an area of weakness on the Minnesota Vikings’ roster, the play of the offensive line has consistently been mentioned during the past few seasons. Whether it has been injuries or just poor performance, the Vikings’ offensive line has not really been anything to celebrate about recently.
This was especially the case last season. Between tackles Matt Kalil and Andre Smith missing the majority of the year with injuries, guard Brandon Fusco and tackle T.J. Clemmings basically asking opposing defenders to sack Minnesota quarterback Sam Bradford, and the remainder of the offensive line not being able to create any running lanes for the team’s rushing attack, 2016 was definitely a year to forget for this specific Vikings position group.
In an effort to actually improve their offensive line for 2017, Minnesota’s front office went and made some moves this offseason that will hopefully help the unit perform better. The Vikings added experience by signing free-agent tackles Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers and then they added a talented, young center during April’’s draft when they selected Ohio State’s Pat Elflein in the third round.
How much better will these new additions improve Minnesota’s offensive line in 2017? That is something that remains to be seen, but ESPN’s Jeff Dickerson recently attempted to predict how the position group will perform this season.
"“Minnesota’s offensive line is better. Free-agent additions Reiff and Remmers should be upgrades at tackle, and I know a lot of draft analysts gave high marks to third-round pick center Elflein out of Ohio State. Throwing money at a problem doesn’t always fix it in the NFL, but the Vikings had no choice. Their offensive line was such a liability last year, Minnesota had to be aggressive in the offseason. I feel the rest of the league will respect the Vikings’ offensive line in 2017, and you couldn’t say that last season.”"
Dickerson’s response was part of a Q&A article that also featured the opinions of fellow ESPN writers, Rob Demovsky and Michael Rothstein. All three are responsible for covering a team within the NFC North for ESPN, so their familiarity with the Vikings’ offensive line problems is pretty strong.
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Will Dickerson end up being right about Minnesota’s new group of blockers this year? Time will tell, but the unit’s chances of improving definitely seem better than they did a year ago.