Minnesota Vikings pre-training camp 53-man roster prediction
By Adam Carlson
Defensive line (5)
- Starters: Harrison Phillips, Dalvin Tomlinson, Armon Watts
- Backups: James Lynch, T.Y. McGill
There is a lot of beef up front on the new three-man front for the Minnesota Vikings defense. Dalvin Tomlinson returns along with big man Armon Watts to work with former Bills defender Harison Phillips to provide the first line of defense that will be hard to move.
Having big men up front to slow down the development of plays and contain blockers is essential to letting the pass rushers work and limiting the time the secondary needs to cover receivers. With these three big men.
Since there are only three spots to fight for on the defensive line, only a couple of backups are needed. James Lynch will definitely be one of them. He can fill in at either end in the event of an injury and play at a solid level.
As far as the nose goes, Minnesota could have Watts slide over to the middle and have another end to fill in or bring another big man on the roster. T.Y. McGill is nearly 300 pounds of mass to force offensive lines to move, and that’s a challenge for anyone.