Rookie Garrett Bradbury is already the Vikings’ starting center

The first-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings this year has already earned the role as the team’s starting center according to offensive advisor Gary Kubiak.

During Mike Zimmer’s tenure as the team’s head coach, only a small amount of rookies have been able to make a decent contribution in their first season with the Minnesota Vikings. Over the last few years, the majority of the Vikings rookies are typically relegated to the sidelines for a season or two before they are able to make any sort of impact on the team.

If a rookie actually does end up getting a good amount of playing time during his first year with Minnesota, it’s normally a player who was one of the team’s early-round draft picks.

Of all the Vikings rookies to be drafted since 2014, only six have started more than 10 games in their first year with the team. Four of these six players were selected by Minnesota in the second round of the draft or earlier.

For the upcoming season, it appears that the Vikings 2019 first-round pick, Garrett Bradbury, is going to have a good opportunity to make an impact for the team as a rookie.

Minnesota offensive advisor and assistant head coach Gary Kubiak recently spoke with the Star Tribune’s Sid Hartman and he revealed that Bradbury is expected to begin Week 1 as the team’s starting center.

"“Oh yeah, that is where (Bradbury is) going to be, and hopefully he will stay there for a long time.”"

So for the second time in three years, the Vikings will likely open up the regular season with a rookie as their starting center. The last being Pat Elflein in 2017, who Kubiak also said has officially moved over to left guard this year.

This news shouldn’t come as a real surprise to anyone. Bradbury was viewed as a prospect who could come in an start right away as a rookie and Minnesota is doing just that with him.

Naming the rookie as their starter this early in the offseason also allows him to get as many reps as possible with the first-team offense before the regular season. Bradbury doesn’t have to worry about learning any of the other positions along the offensive line and he can now put all of his focus on being the best center he can possibly be for the Vikings in 2019.

Minnesota and their fans will get to find out very quickly if the young offensive lineman ends up being worth the first-round pick the team spent on him this year.