Is Sheldon Richardson the missing piece for a historical Vikings defense?

The weakest link?

It’s not easy to find a weakness in the Minnesota Vikings defense. In fact, if you look closely at the 2017 season, you’ll see defensive lapses in about four games; 3 losses (Pittsburgh, Carolina, and Philadelphia) and one win (New Orleans).

Experts and fans alike might point to the strong safety position, where Andrew Sendejo is an adequate if not superlative starter, the outside linebacker position, where rookie Ben Gideon’s name wasn’t often spoken by broadcasters, and the defensive tackle position, where Mike Zimmer has been platooning a list of names (Sharrif Floyd, Shamar Stephen, Tom Johnson) to no great fanfare since he arrived in 2014.

There is no outstanding strong safety, new or old, in training camp this year. Nor is it likely a young outside linebacker will get much press as a great leap forward.

But the defensive tackle position–the ‘3 technique’–will be claimed earnestly by the 27-year-old Richardson. That exceptional improvement will not only increase the effective play of the linebackers and safeties, it will make the Minnesota Vikings a very tough nut to crack at the snap of the ball.

Vikings’ head coach Mike Zimmer sets his interior defensive players at the ‘1 technique’ (right over center) and the ‘3 technique’ in his 4-3 scheme.

A ‘3 technique’ defensive tackle lines up on the outside shoulder of the offensive guard. The ‘3 technique’ player is there to get inside quickly, create havoc, and get to the running back or quarterback.

The ‘3 technique’ prototype: John Randle, Minnesota Viking Madman.

We all know that defensive lineman Linval Joseph is the Vikings’ ‘1 technique’ (the nose-guard, if you’d like), a brute force talent that commands double teams from the center and guard. Joseph’s strength and ability will often give his fellow defensive lineman–Richardson the ‘3’, as well as defensive ends Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter–single linemen to beat on each play.

This is a perfect situation in which the very-talented Richardson can contribute significantly and raise the Vikings’ defense to a completely dominant level.

Minnesota Vikings

An important addition, Sheldon Richardson, and Linval Joseph have been close friends and companions through 2018 OTAs and training camp.

Joseph is only 29 years old, but when he speaks it’s not hard to imagine him as a grandfather, a child on his knee, talking about the way to live your life the right way.  Richardson, only two years his junior, has shown that he enjoys his teammate’s type of company.

Football isn’t a board game. It’s a live game of fast and powerful athletes who are paid to perform at the zenith of their abilities in order to make a living.

Ideally, those athletes are part of a team, a vision, and a family who are responsible for themselves and each other.

If GM Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer have done anything developing a football team, they have done that.

Sheldon Richardson is the right guy in the right place at the right time for the 2018 Minnesota Vikings.