Dalton Risner says he's ready and waiting to play for the Vikings
Dalton Risner remains a free agent and the Minnesota Vikings still have problems on the interior of the offense line. Is it a match meant to be? Risner was active on Twitter Sunday and repeatedly responded to tweets encouraging the Vikings to sign him with comments like, "I'm ready."
Risner made a free-agent visit to Minnesota during the summer but never signed despite being a quality guard who has started every game he's played in the NFL (62 games) over the last four seasons after being drafted in the second round (41st overall) by the Broncos in 2019.
The 28-year-old allowed 29 pressures in 2022, according to Pro Football Focus. Ezra Cleveland and Ed Ingram, Minnesota's current starting left and right guards, respectively, allowed 55 and 63 pressures, respectively.
Risner's pass blocking grade, according to PFF, was 18.5 points higher than Cleveland's and 30 points higher than Ingram's in 2022. Cleveland and Ingram both had better run blocking grades than Risner.
"We really just wanted to bring him in and get to know him a little bit better," said Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell when Risner made his visit to Minnesota. "Use the process of a visit to do that and see if we can possibly take what we think is a strong group and make it even better. It's going to be a process that starts with that visit and I think it's gone really well so far. We'll just continue to see if that's something that makes sense for both ourselves and Dalton."
The PFF grades for Cleveland and Ingram from Sunday's 20-17 loss to the Buccaneers haven't been released quite yet, but it's apparent that both guards struggled. Was it enough for the Vikings to make the call to Risner?
