5 Ways to Fix the Vikings Offensive Line! (Without Trades)

5 Ways to Fix the Vikings Offensive Line! (Without Trades)

[Music] What’s going on, Jeromes? So, the Minnesota Vikings offensive line supposed to be a a point of strength for the Vikings this year, but JJ McCarthy has been quarterback on the run. Same thing with Carson Wentz. 18 sacks allowed, 52.7% pressure rate, which is not it’s not good. It’s no bueno, right? Sorry if I’m a little fired up. been listening to a lot of Bad Bunny lately. Getting fired up for the Super Halftime show. I I don’t know why people are so upset. So Bad Bunny, his music is good. It’s gonna be a high energy show as as well as he’s a funny actor and he’s hosting SN when he’s host SNL. He’s funny with Happy Gilmore 2. He’s funny. So I think he’s good, right? Oh, but it’s not in English. When Springsteen did the Super Bowl halftime show, like he’s he’s old. Like uh my father-in-law and I went and saw Springsteen a couple years ago when he was at the X. I’m I’m never going to call Grand Casinos Arena, wherever the hell it is. But I mean, he barely speaks English now, too. Springsteen’s like, you know, I’m from this town full of losers and uh the mill shut down. A lot of people out of work. Two, three, four. Little Steven. I don’t know, man. What are we talking? Oh, yeah. Bad offensive line. So, Kelly hurt, Jackson hurt, O’Neal, MCL. Aya Aya, man. Just so many damn moving pieces, but we have five solutions cuz we sometimes we piss and moan, but we always come with solutions. We’re solutions oriented, right? So, here are five ways to fix the damn offensive line. Number one, number one’s the easiest. I mean, everyone gets healthy. And what’s good about these injuries, if there can be some good things about injuries, is that Jackson should be back week seven against the Eagles. As well as Ryan Kelly, you have to consider things about these concussions. He’s had two and three weeks now. He could return week seven for the Eagles. I think he’s going to be out this week against the Browns. As well as Brian, the real deal O’Neal MCL sprain. Now, depends if it’s grade 1 or grade two. He may return, you know, week seven, eight, nine, somewhere in there. So, you know, the Vikings offensive line, the five amigos who have not taken a single freaking snap together, Darasaw Jackson, Kelly, Fries, and O’Neal could finally be together, right? Right in the the midst of the Vikings, the the meaty part of the schedule. And, you know, get they get together. They have some good chemistry. They build upon things. and the Vikings finally have a damn good offensive line moving into the the latter part of the season and the playoffs should be good. So yeah, uh as simple as as it seems, AAB’s Razer like this is what the Vikings need to do. Get healthy and knock on would stay healthy. Have a little bit of puck luck in that regard. Number two, Justin School should not start. Now, God bless. I’m sure that Justin School is a nice dude, but he’s not a starting NFL caliber tackle. And when school starts, that’s when Hawinson has to chip every single play. And I know you look at the stats, well, uh, Hawinson only has X number of pass blocking reps. That’s because PFF does not count when a when a player chips a defensive player and still runs a route. It does not count as a pass blocking rep. So, school when he filled in for Darasaw at left tackle was not good. Gave up uh gave up um nine pressures and no, excuse me, seven pressures, three sacks. And then we filled in for O’Neal at right tackle, gave up three pressures and a sack, which all those are not good. So yeah, I’m not a fan of moving parts. You know, Brandle filled in for Diamond Jackson at left guard. But if you’re not going to start Walter Rouse at right tackle, which I think you should move Brle to right tackle and then put Rouse, Huber, or Henry Bird at left guard, right? find some combination that is going to give you some semblance of decency along the offensive line, especially Miles Garrett and that Browns defensive front. It’s going to be big. All right, so Justin School should not start. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they cut him, right? And I I I don’t see the Vikings making a trade or making a signing uh to for depth because again, it comes down to this. The Vikings could have a fully healthy offensive line as soon as week seven, which should be good. Next up, number three, Josh Oliver, six offensive lineman. So, thinking outside the box, like Oliver basically is an offensive lineman. You know, he’s one of the best blocking tight ends in the game, if not the best. So, when you’re lining up, just have a Josh Oliver helping out chipping, right? So, running a lot of 12 personnel, you know, two tight ends, two receivers, one running back, and in in that regard, help out whatever side Darasaw is not on, right? And that includes once Brian O’Neal comes back as well where, you know, sometimes you have to get creative outside the box and using Josh Oliver in in that in that role as a six offensive lineman could certainly free things up. Certainly could uh help out in the running game as well as even though you’re only going to have four receivers out in the route, I still think that certainly beats your quarterback flat on his ass. As well as if you’re going to run the quick game, which we’ll get to, you don’t need that many reads, right? And also, uh, if you have Oliver as a sex offensive lineman, that definitely frees up Hawinson to be more of the receiving tight end, which he is, which is one of the one of the better receiving tight ends in the game. Next, run the damn ball. So, despite the terribleness and injuries and reshuffleling of the offensive line, Jordan Mason is still making. He’s still averaging 4.83 yards per carry. And this is what frustrates me. The Vikings against the Bears didn’t really get going until Jordan Mason started running the ball and then JJ McCarthy took over. The Vikings got away from the run in the Falcons game even though it was a one-sore game into the fourth quarter. The Vikings again they’re down 14-6 and Jordan Mason was absolutely tearing up the Steelers defense and then all of a sudden like hey let’s stop doing this and then Carson Wentz threw the pick to TJ Watt. It was a one-sore game. And Kevin McConnell, he’s even admitted that he gets away from the run game. He can’t do that anymore because this has to be a running team, especially with his patchwork offensive line. They’ve shown they can run the ball and that’s going to take the starch out of a pass rush. And then all of a sudden, maybe your quarterback, especially off a play action, especially if you get him out of the perimeter, is going to have a little bit more time as opposed to just dropping back when the defense knows you’re going to drop back and there’s zero threat at all to be uh run the ball. Plus, they got full stamina, baby. Uh because you’re not punching them in their mouth with a running game. That’s what you need to do. Uh next up, number five. Quick game. Quick game. So, what frustrates me to no end is like we’re watching the Broncos right now and you know, Bo Knicks, I mean, you know, Bo Knicks most of his game at Oregon was just, you know, quick game, quick throws, round the line of scrimmage, screens, all that stuff. And the Vikings did that early on with Justin Jefferson. Just quick three-step drops, ball is out and Justin Jefferson getting the ball, you know, four or five yards down the field, turn it up, doing something right. And also the other side of the ball, I hate to give credit to Arthur Smith and Bird Bones, but getting the ball out of Rogers hands definitely slow down the Vikings pass rush because one, two out, one, two out, you know, the ball was out and Johnny on the spot, right? So Kevin McConnell proved the first half of the Steelers game that hey this is part of the offense. This is in the playbook and then of course he got away with it got back to the five and seven step drops. It’s just frustrating. So two-part run the damn ball quick game no matter who’s a quarterback but especially when Jay McCarthy’s back in because the fact honestly you know Kevin McConnell gets all the this credit for being the quarterback whisperer. He did not put JJ McCarthy in good spots the first two games. play calling was shoddy. The offensive line could not protect, but he was still calling plays as if the offensive line was good to go and pristine. Uh, as well as, you know, training wheels, just making sure that he was in good spots put him actually in terrible spots. So, got to change that up. Also, bonus number six, leadership change. the fact that Ed Ingram came into the league in 2022, same year as Chris Cooper and Kevin McConnell and that regime, and he was one of the worst guards in the National Football League for four years. And the fact that he went to the Texans and their offensive line is bad, by the way, but he’s PFF’s highest graded guard. I feel like Chris Cooper should be fired just because of that. And, you know, we talked about how they brought in, you know, uh, Keith Carter as the assistant. I don’t see it that way. I feel like if the Vikings offensive line looks like poop again this week, I I think that Chris Cooper is going to be fired over the buy, right? And maybe maybe that’s what’s needed. And you know, Chris Cooper is regarded as a players coach. The offensive linemen love him. And Keith Carter has a reputation a little bit more abrasive leadership. And maybe that’s something that the Vikings need. Maybe they do need a kick in the pants to be able to get going, get mean up front and and get something done. But no. Uh but if this continues, especially you look around the league where other teams have offensive line injuries and they’re still still able to protect the quarterback and may maybe it does come down to coaching. Help. Bonus number seven. Use McCarthy’s mobility. And here’s what I was got me. Ronnie Stanley is not a good tackle. Straight up. Like Ronnie Stanley, Notre Dame, Baltimore, he’s not a good left tackle. But he got paid like a good left tackle and he’s he was regarded as a good left tackle. You know why? Because it’s really easy to block for Lamar Jackson, right? And a quarterback with mobility covers up a lot of stink when it comes to an offensive line. It’s the quarter uh quarterback being able to run is the draconor of Colog. And also you look at Josh Allen like the Bills offensive line but all of a sudden there’s zero pressure, zero sacks because Josh Allen can move and Kevin Olly needs to utilize that and smart you don’t bring back McCarthy until he has 100% mobility which likely looking at week seven against the Eagles after the buy and utilize his mobility design quarterback runs and also oh the RPO looks that use of Carson Wentz where was that with JJ McCarthy h getting him out on the perimeter away from the pass rush so they can’t tee off on him and give him a very simple decision. Give him a high low read for a couple receivers or tuck and run, right? And you can say, “Well, that’s rudimentary high school college football. Do not care. Do not care at this point.” Hey, stress the defense every single blade of grass. Make them defend it. And guess what? All of a sudden, like, hey, oh, he gets out on the edge. Oh, JJ McCarthy, you know, we’re playing, we send a zero blitz on third down. All of a sudden, he beats the blitz. He takes off for 35 yards because, you know, we’re playing man on the back end. Just utilize number nine’s mobility. And guess what? McCarthy running, that’s going to give him some confidence. That’s going to give the offensive line some confidence as well. That’s going to wear out the defense and everything else is going to be more viable. And plus, guess what? some of those uh RPO looks or some of those uh read option looks with a running back that’s going to open up massive gaping holes for Jordan Mason, Xavier Scott and company, right? Because when defenses have to be concerned about a running quarterback, it completely changes everything. And guess what? You may see a quarterback spy or two on JJ McCarthy. He does have that level of mobility. Maybe it’s not Lamar when Lamar’s not quitting, but he’s more like Josh Allen. All right. So, I honestly think that that’s a major part of it and that’s why you do have to wait until JJ McCarthy gets fully healthy. Uh, but also again, maybe everything is coming up Milhouse because once JJ McCarthy gets back, ideally week seven, that means Jackson could be back. That means Kelly could be back. That means that Brian O’Neal may possibly be back. So, the band may be back together week seven just in time for the Vikings, the tough part of the schedule. Well, every game is tough, right? So, don’t lose out hope yet. Feels like things actually could get fixed, but it’s really testing you like um really testing the faith. If you’re like Job sometimes, the biblical job, not like Job Bluth, but maybe Joe Bluth, too. I made a terrible mistake. Anyways, that’s it. F well, seven ways to fix the damn offensive line. Let us know your thoughts. our thoughts comment section. You guys are the best. You know what to do. Skull production value.

5 Ways to Fix the Vikings Offensive Line! (Without Trades)

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