PFF Believes the Vikings Still Need to Improve Their O-Line
Josh Frey
|
The Minnesota Vikings could do something that they haven’t accomplished in a decade: complete continuity among their offensive line starters. Christian Darrisaw, Ezra Cleveland, Garrett Bradbury, Ed Ingram, and Brian O’Neill started the majority of games for Minnesota across the o-line, and after the Vikings re-signed Bradbury to a three-year deal, barring any injuries, the team is trending towards maintaining the same five in 2023.
However, Pro Football Focus analyst Brad Spielberger seems to think the Vikings can still make a move to improve their o-line this season. He recently authored an article laying out final offseason moves for each of the 32 teams, and the choice for Minnesota was to make an addition to the offensive line, particularly the guard spot by signing Oday Aboushi. Take a look at what Spielberger has in mind with this addition:
Minnesota was able to secure one of the top wide receivers in the 2023 NFL Draft even while standing pat at No. 23 overall, bringing aboard USC product Jordan Addison, who could be the No. 2 wide receiver on the depth chart as early as Week 1. Question marks remain in their secondary and on the interior of the defensive line, but not due to a lack of recent draft picks and free agent additions, so they probably just need to let things play out on a new-look defense.
At guard, 2020 second-round pick Ezra Cleveland is entering a contract year and 2022 second-round pick Ed Ingram earned a 44.4 pass-blocking grade as a rookie that ranked 66th out of 71 guards with at least 250 pass-blocking snaps. Aboushi has been a reliable depth piece at either guard spot everywhere he goes, most recently with Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell’s former team in the Los Angeles Rams in 2022. Aboushi has three straight seasons earning grades above 65.0, with grades of at least 60.0 as a pass blocker and run blocker each year.
It’s very fair to say that neither Cleveland or Ingram should be considered irreplaceable at the guard spots. The Vikings saw some great improvement from Cleveland in his third season with the team, particularly as a run-blocker. However, there is still much to be desired in his pass-blocking, with PFF giving him a grade of just 54.1 last season. As he enters a contract year, especially with all the extension candidates on the roster, this could very well be his final year in Minnesota.
As for Ingram, he got off to a very rough start in his rookies season. Over the first seven games in 2022, PFF gave the Vikings right guard pass-blocking grades below 40.0 five separate times. While he didn’t turn into a star at the end of the season by any means, the final 10 games saw Ingram be given pass-blocking grades of 50.0 or higher on eight separate occasions, including three games above 70.0.
Growing pains are to be expected for a rookie in the NFL, and Ingram certainly saw his fair share of those. Granted, it would have been nice to see more promise by the end of the year, but perhaps the guard is set to take a leap in year two.
Regardless, it would be very nice to see the Vikings add a little more depth on the offensive line, particularly on the interior. Right now, the only surefire players that should make the 53-man roster behind Bradbury, Cleveland, and Ingram are Chris Reed and Austin Schlottmann. The Vikings saw loads of injuries on the o-line by the end of the 2022 season, so if nothing else, the addition of Aboushi would provide the team with some veteran depth.
Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.