5 prospects the Vikings should hope don’t land in the NFC North

Ed Oliver – DT (Houston)

Ed Oliver has been called the next Aaron Donald. If he lives up to that highest level of praise, the Vikings and their fans should cross their fingers and hope he stays far, far away from the NFC North.

Oliver measures in at 6-foot-2 and 287 pounds and he has arms that go on for days (31 and 3/4 inches). For a man so large, one would think he wouldn’t move well. That person would be dead wrong.

At his Pro Day this year, Oliver ran a faster 20-yard shuttle than current New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley. How impressive is that? That just goes to show the insane short area quickness this man possesses.

Some more stunning numbers from his Pro Day were a 4.73 seconds in the 40-yard dash, 4.13 seconds in the short shuttle, and 7.15 seconds in the 3-cone drill. His athleticism is clearly on an entirely different universe than most defensive lineman.

Oliver is extremely impressive on tape. He is an excellent run defender that stays engaged with his block long enough to know where the run is going. He then throws his man off and closes in quickly on the ball carrier, wrapping him up with his tentacle-like arms and tossing him to the ground with ease.

When it comes to rushing the passer, Oliver uses a mixture of his speed off the snap, a great swim move, and power to blow by his would-be blocker. He can get to the quarterback very quickly and if he doesn’t flat out sack him, he is making the opposing passer rush his throw or scramble out of the pocket.

For a team like the Vikings who have suspect guard play, to face this beast twice a season would be horrible. Oliver would absolutely kill the interior of Minnesota’s offensive line as it stands now.  The Vikings would have to consistently double team him with center Pat Elflein and another guard. Even then though, Oliver could probably win more battles than he’d lose.

It would especially be awful to see Oliver end up in Green Bay with the Packers. Putting this guy next to Mike Daniels would give ulcers to Rick Dennison and the rest of Minnesota’s offensive line staff as they try to figure out how to slow one of them down.

Hopefully for the Vikings, Oliver may have worked his way into becoming one of the top seven picks of the 2019 draft and the team won’t have to worry about him ending up with a division rival like the Lions, or worse yet, the Packers.