New Viking Gets Tasked with Bringing the “Nasty”
The point, folks, is not to become a dirty team, a squad that breaks the rules without any regard for the other team’s well being. Rather, the point is to improve the team’s ruggedness, physicality, and intimidation (all within the rules, of course).
Will Fries, a new Viking who is stepping into the RG1 opening, is being looked at as a key part of upping the team’s toughness. In fact, Kevin O’Connell has repeatedly made the precise point, doing so yet again in a post-draft press conference where he discusses Mr. Fries offering the Vikings some “nasty” play from 2025 onward.
New Viking Will Fries Offering Some “Nasty”
In hockey terms, we would be talking about someone who can offer grit. Be heavy on the forecheck and be unafraid to mix it up a bit after the whistle. Basically, controlled aggression that helps to tilt the ice in the team’s favor.
Football may use some different vocabulary but the idea is basically the same. Will Fries was the Vikings’ foremost free agency add, at least when it comes to the price to get him over to the Twin Cities: a five-year agreement that’s a touch below $88 million. A major part of the reason why the Vikings were willing to drain the ATM was due to Fries’ ability to improve the meanness along the trenches.
While chatting with Rich Eisen, Kevin O’Connell offered the thoughts about his team’s free-agent signing: “Getting Will Fries at the right guard spot was huge. Him and Ryan Kelly have played a lot of football together. But Will Fries brings a level of nasty to that group, finish, play style. This guy loves the physicality of football.”
Not long afterwards, O’Connell explains that Fries offers “a level of play style and physicality that we’re hunting around here.” Coming off the shellacking from the Rams in the playoffs — which is to say nothing of getting dismantled by the Lions in Week 18 — the desire for increased toughness makes a lot of sense.
Keep in mind, as well, that O’Connell has previously ventured into the topic, praising the guard for the physicality with which he plays the game.
While evoking an image of a ferocious grizzly bear, O’Connell passed along a specific description of Will Fries earlier in the offseason: “I think Will Fries, he’s a mauling, kind of finisher-type player. The saying ‘the echo of the whistle,’ I would imagine there are some defensive players that would challenge me that’s it’s beyond the echo of the whistle. But that’s kind of a play style thing.”
In the world of NFL offensive linemen, being a nasty mauler is a great compliment. Fries, in all likelihood, will be quite keen to live up to the way that he has been described by Minnesota’s top coach.
At 27, Fries still has a lot of football ahead of him. He stands at 6’6″ and weighs 305 pounds, so we’re not talking about a huge guard who wins due to sheer size.
Rather, the No. 248 pick from the 2021 NFL Draft appears to have thrived largely due to an attitude and demeanour, a willingness to do battle with some of the NFL’s most physically-imposing, rugged players — defensive tackles — and still stand as being pretty “nasty.”
If things go according to plan, the Vikings’ starting offensive line will appear as follows: Christian Darrisaw — Donovan Jackson — Ryan Kelly — Will Fries — Brian O’Neill. Gotta assume J.J. McCarthy and Kevin O’Connell are enthused about that fivesome.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and Bluesky (@VikingsGazette). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.