All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and the Tennessee Titans broke into TCO Performance Center in broad daylight, robbed the place blind, and howled in laughter on the way out as the Minnesota Vikings’ interior offensive line hid helplessly behind the shower curtain. At least that’s how I interpreted the Star Tribune‘s Andrew Krammer’s reporting on the events of Wednesday’s opening day of joint practices between the Vikings’ Week 2 preseason opponent.
An all too familiar sight for this franchise reared its annually recurring head this week, courtesy of one of the game’s single greatest game-wreckers in Simmons. The glass-half-full approach to this latest installment of Minnesota’s ineptitude up front is that Simmons terrorizes anybody and everybody across the National Football League. The new recipient of a four-year, $94 million contract extension recorded the sixth-most pressures by an interior defensive lineman last year and has been a second-team All-Pro in each of the past two seasons. The glass-half-empty point of view is that it must be a day that ends in “y,” because Minnesota’s interior big uglies were getting whooped up and down the field on Wednesday.
Granted, Minnesota’s troubling triplets — Ezra Cleveland, Garrett Bradbury, and Ed Ingram — reportedly responded in a favorable way to Wednesday’s beatdown during Thursday’s practice against Tennessee. Aside from this laugher of a rep courtesy of Teair Tart completely embarrassing starting center Garrett Bradbury.
Thursday’s practice was certainly a step in the right direction for the interior offensive line. But did it give general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell the necessary confidence to run it back with this unit in 2023? The noise surrounding free-agent Dalton Risner, the former Denver Broncos guard, has only gotten louder lately. The Vikings hosted the four-year starter with the Broncos on a free-agent visit on August 1, but he ultimately left TCO Performance Center without a contract. After O’Connell decided to play Ingram during the first two series in last week’s preseason opener at Seattle, the former LSU Tiger didn’t necessarily invoke much optimism about a Year 2 jump.
Risner’s status as a free agent in mid-August is puzzling, to say the least. He’s missed just two games throughout his career and has an impressive 4.6% pressure rate allowed, per Pro Football Focus. The Broncos put Risner on injured reserve after he suffered a strained UCL in his left elbow in Week 17 against the Kansas City Chiefs. The likeliest culprit behind Risner still being on the open market is that front offices are concerned about his elbow’s recovery.
But what happens if Ingram disappoints — yet again — in Saturday night’s preseason game against Tennessee’s backup front? (Titans head coach Mike Vrabel seldom plays his starters in the preseason.) Considering how bad the Vikings defense will be, despite the universal excitement over Brian Flores as defensive coordinator, can Minnesota afford to cross their fingers and hope that Cleveland, Bradbury, and Ingram suddenly figure it out in pass protection with the regular season only three weeks away? With a defense that figures to be near the bottom of the league, the Vikings have to win on the back of the offense in 2023.
If O’Connell deems it necessary to give Ingram another look in Saturday’s preseason game and he flops, do the Vikings even have a choice when it comes to getting Risner to sign on the dotted line? Maybe Risner wants assurances that he’ll be brought in as a Day 1 starter, but the Vikings’ brass aren’t quite ready yet to throw in the towel on Ingram and/or Cleveland?
Ideally, O’Connell puts his preseason paranoia in the backseat — just for one night — on Saturday and sends all of Minnesota’s starting interior offensive line out there for multiple series to get another evaluation. If they pass the eval, it’s all systems go with the competitive rebuild and hopes that they’ll improve during Year 2 in O’Connell’s scheme. If they don’t pass the test, it’s time to waive the white flag and get Risner in camp with enough time to get acclimated to the offense before September 10’s opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Although it’s obviously wishful thinking to ask O’Connell to play three of his starting offensive linemen in a meaningless preseason game, the fact remains that all three could stand to benefit from any and all opportunities to demonstrate that they can be impactful NFL starters at their respective positions. By all accounts so far in training camp, 2022 first-round pick Lewis Cine is operating as a backup safety behind Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, and Josh Metellus. Yet this regime is exercising an overwhelming abundance of patience with Ingram after he was arguably the worst starting guard in all of football last season. While there’s something to be said about wanting to see Ingram’s development through, why aren’t they awarding Cine with the same baptism by fire so far this year?
After what transpired this week against the Titans, Ingram can’t afford another stinker against Tennessee’s backups on Saturday night. If Ingram can’t demonstrate tangible progress on Saturday, it could signify that his days are numbered as a starting guard for this team in 2023. And judging by the fact that Ingram was the only starter up front who played in last week’s preseason game, he appears to be the player that the front office and coaching staff still have the most questions about for their offensive line.
