Vikings' O-line injuries won't be easy to paint over
While the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive line has had its issues this season, the two things they had going for them were good health and excellent tackle play.
Until their trip to Green Bay, the only injuries the Vikings faced up front all year were left tackle Christian Darrisaw’s three-game absence due to a concussion and Garrett Bradbury’s last few weeks with a back injury.
But they returned from Lambeau Field with center Austin Schlottmann fracturing his fibula on the opening possession and Pro Bowl right tackle Brian O’Neill suffering a calf injury that is, “pretty significant,” according to head coach Kevin O’Connell. The Vikings’ head coach could not yet say whether there is a chance O’Neill will be ready for the playoffs in two weeks
Bradbury’s status for the playoffs is also up in the air.
“With Garrett, I know he is progressing and feeling better and better,” O’Connell said. “My hope is at some point we can get him some real practice reps and really see how that thing responds. There’s only so much from a rehab standpoint they can do before we have to actually test what it feels like for him to play football. The hope is we’ll have him back – can’t really put a timetable on that as far as this week or next, but there is hope there.”
Bradbury has not practiced since getting into a car accident on December 20.
The slew of injuries leaves the Vikings reaching deep into their depth chart, with backup guard Chris Reed taking over at center. He had more than 2,200 snaps in his NFL career before Sunday afternoon’s game but none of them came at center.
“We’ve got to get Chris [Reed] as much repetition as we can, just when you look at already having played your No. 2 center and wanting to get him up to speed, Chris was able to step in there and respond in that moment and do the best job he could, considering the fact he really hadn’t had a lot of center reps,” O’Connell said. “He’s a veteran player, smart, tough. He knows our system. He knows with a week of preparation that I think he’ll be confident that he can go out and perform at a winning level.”
Reed struggled with the snap and cadence, racking up four pre-snap penalties. The Vikings also failed to run the ball effectively and Reed graded as the fourth lowest run blocking lineman in the NFL this week by PFF.
“We’ve got to find a way to get our running game going regardless of who’s in there, regardless of who’s blocking on the edge,” O’Connell said. “The scheme just needs to be sound, and we’ve got to be able to have hats on hats, have movement and try to give Dalvin [Cook] and Alexander [Mattison] some space to get going early on in football games.”
There is reason to think that Reed can improve quickly. In 522 snaps with the Colts last season he did not allow a sack and he has scored by PFF as a top-30 run blocking guard each of the last two seasons. However, it will be difficult to match Bradbury’s improved play in 2022. He jumped from being the lowest rated pass blocker in 2021 to 14th this year and 10th in overall grade.
The Vikings have already been dealing with interior weaknesses this season. After giving up four pressures to the Packers, starting right guard Ed Ingram leads all guards in pressures allowed with 58 and left guard Ezra Cleveland ranks third with 43 allowed.
Now Ingram may have to play with a new partner at right tackle in Oli Udoh, who took O’Neill’s spot. Udoh lost the swing tackle job in training camp to Blake Brandel, who played in five games replacing Darrisaw and gave up seven sacks, per PFF. He got suffered a torn MCL versus Detroit but O’Connell said it’s possible he could be healthy “at some point.”
Udoh does not have much experience at tackle. In 2019 he played a meaningless Week 17 game against the Bears at right tackle and then last season he filled in for Darrisaw for two games. He gave up eight pressures, one sack and produced the second lowest PFF grade over that two-week span of all starting tackles.
O’Neill would be a difficult player to replace even if the Vikings had the league’s best swing tackle behind him. He currently ranks 16th in pass blocking grade among all tackles and 10th in pass blocking efficiency.
When Schlottmann and O’Neill went down, the only remaining active linemen on the roster was Kyle Hinton, recently elevated from the practice squad. They have UDFA center Josh Sokol and no other linemen, which means the Vikings will likely add someone in the coming days.
“We’re going to take a look at that, just working through things with Kwesi [Adofo-Mensah], as far as the numbers we’ll need to possibly add an interior player on the outside, depending on how the final medical and timelines shake out,” O’Connell said.
The Vikings are hoping the injuries up front do not have a domino effect on the rest of the offense. So far this year Kirk Cousins has been under pressure on 36.4% of drop-backs (per PFF), which ranks fifth among all quarterbacks. He ranks third behind only Justin Fields and Russell Wilson in terms of total times sacked with a career high 46.
The most likely opponent that the Vikings could face in the opening round of the playoffs is the New York Giants, who lead the NFL in blitz percentage (per Pro-Football Reference) and rank third in pressure percentage.
If the Vikings beat the Bears and 49ers lose against Arizona, they would match up against one of three less daunting pass rushing teams in either Seattle, Detroit or Green Bay.
With their goals set on a deep playoff run, they will either need Bradbury and O’Neill to get healthy quickly, get huge performances out of their backups or find quick answers schematically to improve their ground game and reduce pressure on the quarterback.
“We felt their loss yesterday and we’re going to have do everything we can to have those players stepping into those roles ready to play good football for us and contribute on the offensive side,” O’Connell said.
