Month: June 2020

As we progress through the Minnesota Vikings’ roster, we move on to the defense. Since Mike Zimmer came to town, the Vikings have had one of the best defenses in the NFL. In 2013, the Vikings were dead last in the league, allowing 30 points per game. Zimmer got to town in 2014 and immediately the team moved up to 11^th (21.4ppg). Since then, the team hasn’t dropped out of the top ten – 5^th in 2015 (18.9ppg), 6^th in 2016 (19.2ppg), 1^st in 2017 (15.8ppg), 9^th in 2018 (21.3ppg), 5^th last season (18.9ppg). This year will be the biggest challenge of Zimmer’s career, however, as the team will be without a starting defensive end (Everson Griffen), a starting defensive tackle (Linval Joseph) and three starting cornerbacks (Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes, Mackenzie Alexander). To get an idea how Zimmer will overcome these losses, let’s start by looking at the defensive line.

Defensive Ends

Danielle Hunter is the unquestioned leader of the defensive line group. Even though this will be his sixth season in the league, he is only 25 years old and is entering the prime of his career. There is no question he’ll be starting in 2020, the only thing left to decide is if he’ll stay on the left side or move to the right side to replace Griffen.

Ifeadi Odenigbo will get the first shot at the other defensive end starting spot. The third-year player has yet to start a game in his career, but he played in all 16 regular season games last year and racked up 7 sacks.

Anthony Zettel is a free agent the Vikings signed this offseason. Entering his sixth year in the NFL, Zettel has an outside chance of becoming a starter, although he’ll likely be the team’s primary backup.

D.J. Wonnum Jr. was taken in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL draft. In a normal year, I would give him 50/50 odds of grabbing a starting role. However, with the pandemic and no offseason with the team, it’s almost a guarantee he’ll be coming off the bench in 2020.

Kenny Willekes was a seventh-round pick, giving him even longer odds of cracking the starting lineup.

Eddie Yarbrough was signed off the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad and will be competing for a backup role.

Stacy Keely was an undrafted rookie in 2019. He’ll be fighting for the practice squad.

Defensive Tackle

The Vikings had a huge hole to fill at defensive tackle with the departure of Linval Joseph, so they went out and signed one of the biggest players in the league. Michael Pierce is entering his fifth year in the league, after spending his first four years in Baltimore.

Shamar Stephen came back to Minnesota after spending a year in Seattle and proceeded to start 15 games for the Vikings. He will be first in line for the starting spot next to Pierce.

Jaleel Johnson will be battling Stephen for the right to start in 2020. He has appeared in 37 games over his first three seasons, starting four.

Hercules Mata’afa will be in his third season with the Vikings. The undersized DT spent his first year on injured-reserve and played in six games in 2019. He’s a wildcard, as he could land on the practice squad or he could earn a starting role.

Jalyn Holmes is also entering his third year in the NFL. He’s appeared in 11 games over the past two seasons.

James Lynch was taken in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL draft. Many analysts proclaimed him to be a great value in the fourth round, leading many to believe he can push for playing time in his rookie year.

Armon Watts came out of nowhere last season, playing in seven games and even starting one. The sixth-round pick is another tough player to predict.

David Moa is an undrafted rookie out of Boise State. He’ll likely end up on the practice squad.

Do you think the Vikings can overcome the loss of defensive linemen Griffen and Joseph? Reach out to me on Twitter (@JordanWrightNFL) and let me know. Skol!

We are nearing the midway point of our offseason roster breakdown. While the quarterback position makes all the headlines and running backs and pass catchers are well known to most casual observers, today we’ll be talking about the most important part of an NFL team: the offensive line.

Pro Football Focus ranked all the offensive lines across the league after the 2019 regular season concluded, and they had the Vikings ranked 19^th, which is actually quite high. The reason for that slightly below average ranking was because of the team’s success in the running game. If the changes the team made don’t pan out, the offensive line could be in for a regression. In other words, this could be a rough season to be a Vikings fan.

Projected starters:

Riley Reiff – There were some rumblings that the Vikings could cut Reiff this offseason, but the team decided to hang on to him for at least one more season. Reiff is an average left tackle who was affected by the other linemen near him. If the Vikings can get the left guard spot figured out, there is a decent chance Reiff could improve over what we saw last season.

Pat Elflein – Elflein was the starting left guard last season, but he was undoubtedly the worst part of the offensive line last season. There was hope that a move from center to guard would help the young lineman, but his third year was his worst one yet. This year is Elflein’s last chance to stick on the roster.

Garrett Bradbury – Starting as a rookie last season, Bradbury had his ups and downs. It would have been nice to get more consistency from the position, but there is hope he progresses in year two in the NFL.

Dru Samia – Both guard spots are tricky to project, as the team could end up going a variety of different directions, but for now I have Samia penciled in as the starter at right guard. Samia is entering year two after being drafted by the Vikings in 2019. He was a bit of a project, but if he can get ahold of a starting role, the offensive line will be better because he has a nasty demeanor that is lacking right now.

Brian O’Neill – Unquestionably the team’s best offensive lineman last season, O’Neill played well enough that many question if he might be a better fit at left tackle. For now, we’ll keep him at right tackle where he has played since entering the league.

Austin Cutting – Will once again be the team’s long snapper.

Primary backups

Ezra Cleveland – Drafted by the Vikings this year, many are hoping Cleveland can end up being as good (if not better) than O’Neill. I would imagine he will be a backup as a rookie, especially with virtually no offseason program so far. But the hope is he will claim a starting role sooner rather than later.

Rashod Hill – Another player the Vikings really like, Hill will once again be a swing tackle who can play both the left and right side of the line. He’s nothing flashy, but he’s relatively dependable, so he’s definitely an asset.

Brett Jones – Technically the backup center, Jones can play either of the three interior line positions, which makes him a valuable member to have.

On the roster bubble:

Brady Aiello, Blake Brandel, Aviante Collins, Dakota Dosier, Tyler Higby, Kyle Hinton, Jake Lacina, Oli Udoh. These eight players will be battling it out to make the team this offseason.

Do you think the offensive line got better this offseason? Reach out to me on Twitter and let me know (@JordanWrightNFL) SkoL!