5 things to know about Vikings rookie Ezra Cleveland

1. For an offensive lineman, Ezra Cleveland is the antithesis of “slow”

We now know that Cleveland is more like a basketball power forward or gridiron tight end that he is a mountainous behemoth. But does that just mean he’s tall and lanky?

Tall, yes. Lanky, no. By lineman standards, Cleveland is slender, but he is by no means a string bean. Interestingly, he’s currently one of the strongest men on the Minnesota Vikings when adjudicated by bench press reps.  At the 2020 NFL combine, Cleveland threw up 30 bench press reps which ranked him as the ninth-strongest player in the 2020 draft class.

And then there’s the speed. At the same combine, Cleveland ran a 40-yard dash time of 4.93 seconds. Last year’s starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, Jacoby Brissett, ran a 4.94 40-yard dash in the 2016 NFL Draft. Cleveland edges him in the metric by a whisker.

This should indicate how quick Cleveland truly is for an offensive lineman. Brissett is not renowned for speed, but he also does not visually appear slow on the field. If Cleveland can hold his own with Brissett in a foot race, the Minnesota Vikings are holding a pretty damn unique specimen.