Oli Udoh’s 2022 Role with the Vikings Needs to Change
Oli Udoh is headed into his fourth year with the Minnesota Vikings and it is time for his role to change. Udoh won the starting job at right guard after originally being drafted as a tackle. The 2021 season was not kind to Udoh and his performance steadily declined throughout the season.
Built For the Job
In 2019, the Minnesota Vikings drafted Olisaemeka “Oli” Udoh in the 6th round of the draft. The strapping 6’6” 325 lb offensive tackle came out of Elon College where he was named to the CAA All-Conference Team. The Vikings, under previous coach Zimmer, tended to shy away from starting rookies or even giving them much in the way of playing time. Predictably, the situation was no different with Udoh, and he spent most of his time watching and learning the tackle position on a professional level for his first two years.
Then before the 2021 season, he received a call from offensive line coach Phil Rauscher, asking him if he would like to move from tackle to guard. Udoh jumped at the opportunity and spent training camp proving he deserved the job. He beat out veteran Dakota Dozier (not a huge accomplishment) and earned his spot.
A Tale of Two Guards
What happened next surprised most fans. Udoh started strong; through Week 3 he had a PFF grade of 82.4, which had him ranked 5th on the team at that point. Then things started to change. Perhaps it was just too much of a change for him, or perhaps he had been a bit lucky the first few games. While PFF scores are not the Holy Grail of football, they do give us a benchmark from which to judge players. In the 49rs game in Week 12, he was one of the lowest-rated players with a PFF pass blocking score of 10.5.
Yellow Flags Galore
Udoh had a lot of bumps in the road while learning the guard position. Despite winning the starting position his inexperience showed. He seemed to draw flags during every game. By Week 11, he had committed the 3rd most penalties in the NFL and by the end of the season the one thing he progressed on was moving up this list. He ended with 13 penalties for 114 yards, which had him in 2nd place. He had a total of 16 flags as 3 were declined. This voluminous yellow laundry included 12 for offensive holding, 3 false starts, and 1 for unnecessary roughness.
So What Do the Vikings Do With Udoh in 2022?
Udoh is still under a relatively inexpensive contract. The best course of action is to keep him on the team. His trade value after such a tumultuous season is low. However, to put him back at right guard makes no sense. During the 2021 draft, the Vikings selected a guard out of Ohio State, Wyatt Davis. Davis did not see any real action during the 2021 season (again largely due to Zimmer’s hesitancy in playing rookies). In a best-case scenario, Davis is pro-level ready for the 2022 season. If he is still not then the Vikings need to seriously consider how they bolster that OL.
Udoh can either be re-evaluated to play tackle like he was drafted to or he can stay as inexpensive depth. Oli Udoh has shown some flashes of brilliance on the field but he has also shown he is not the Vikings answer at right guard. For 2022, they need to move him off the starting position and keep him as inexpensive backup.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”956398″ player=”26281″ title=”WATCH%206%20Los%20Angeles%20Rams%20head%20coach%20candidates%20to%20replace%20Sean%20McVay%20if%20he%20steps%20down” duration=”164″ description=”Coming off the biggest victory of his young career, could we see Sean McVay actually resign from his post as the Los Angeles Rams head coach? According to the youngest Super Bowl-winning head coach himself, it’s a possibility.” uploaddate=”2022-02-15″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/snapshot/956368.png” contentUrl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/streaming/956368/956368.m3u8″]