4 potential Vikings offensive line combinations for 2020
By Nik Edlund
The youth movement
- LT – Ezra Cleveland
- LG – Oli Udoh
- C – Garrett Bradbury
- RG – Dru Samia
- RT – Brian O’Neill
This line combination for the Vikings contains a few surprises and it would require some young players impressing early and often in training camp.
The biggest surprise here would be Oli Udoh not just adjusting to the switch inside, but excelling at it. In his lone game in 2019, he played with aggression and a mean streak that resulted in him even being called for a penalty for blocking well after the whistle.
While Minnesota never likes to get penalties like that, they had to love the anger that Udoh played with, as this line could use a bit more of that kind of nastiness.
Another surprise with this combination would be Ezra Cleveland beating out Riley Reiff for the left tackle job. If he can adjust to the NFL game early and look like he’s ready to start from day one, the Vikings could save quite a bit of money by cutting Reiff.
They could use a combination of Udoh or Rashod Hill to be the primary backup, so even the depth behind Cleveland would be sufficient.
While the chances of this line coming into fruition by the end of the preseason are unlikely, this is a group that Minnesota would certainly like to see come to pass in the future.