Tag: Brian O’Neill

The Vikings finally have their bookend tackles

The Vikings finally have two studs on the outside

The Minnesota Vikings have been struggling to find a quality offensive line since the days of Brad Childress.

When he took over the Vikings in 2006, he correctly identified that the trenches needed a massive upgrade and then spent his first four years doing just that. His mission ended up leading the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game against Sunday’s opponent New Orleans Saints in 2009.

The Vikings have struggled to fix the line ever since the departure of Steve Hutchinson in 2011. In his parting gift to the current rendition of the Vikings, former general manager Rick Spielman selected Christian Darrisaw. His results this season, along with his running mate Brian O’Neill have been nothing short of impressive.

ESPN has two offensive line metrics: run block win rate and pass block win rate. Both players have a great score on one of them.

With the Vikings offensive line showing improvement this season, a lot of that credit goes to Darrisaw and O’Neill.

Vikings PFF Grades: Best and worst performers in week 1 win vs Packers

The best and worst of the PFF grades from Sunday’s game

The Minnesota Vikings dominated the Green Bay Packers by a score of 23-7 in a game that never really felt close.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell became the fifth head coach in Minnesota Vikings history to win his debut for the franchise.

When the grades came in, they looked really good but there were some disappointing performances.

Here are the best and worst of Sunday’s PFF grades.

Head Coach Kevin O’Connell names Vikings 2022 captains

Led by QB1, the Minnesota Vikings named their captains on Monday

Each year, the players vote on the captains for the team and on Monday, head coach Kevin O’Connell announced who the Vikings captains will be for 2022.

Of the eight captains, four of them are from the offense, three on defense and one on special teams. The cast remains mostly unchanged with Eric Kendricks getting named a defensive captain for the first time, replacing Anthony Barr. The other captains are the same from last season.

Offense

  • Kirk Cousins
  • Dalvin Cook
  • Adam Thielen
  • Brian O’Neill

Defense

  • Patrick Peterson
  • Harrison Smith
  • Eric Kendricks

Special Teams

  • C.J. Ham

The Vikings having a consistent leadership presence in the locker room is incredibly valuable and will be a massive benefit for the beginning of the new regime.

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2022 Minnesota Vikings season previews: Offensive Tackles

We continue our 2022 season previews with the offensive tackles

The 2022 season is less than a month away and it’s time to get excited Vikings fans.

In a similar vein to how fans felt when Mike Zimmer took over for Leslie Frazier, the excitement is palpable for the beginning of the Kevin O’Connell era.

While the team prepares for the season, we are doing the same at the Vikings Wire. We will be producing previews breaking down both each position and the team as a whole.

Today, we continue with our preview series by talking about the offensive tackles.

Quarterback Preview
Running Back Preview
Wide Receiver preview
Tight End Preview

Vikings 53-man roster prediction post 49ers game

Updated final roster projections before the Broncos game on Saturday

As it stands now, the Minnesota Vikings are sitting at 80 players on the active roster.

This past Tuesday, they made four roster moves to get them down to 80 players.

As they look towards Saturday’s game against the Denver Broncos, 27 players from that game will not be on the final rosters after cutdown day on Tuesday, August 30th.

As we at the Vikings Wire project forward, here is our latest 53-man roster prediction, including the trade for quarterback Nick Mullens.

(Starters are italicized)

Vikings top-10 highest-rated Madden NFL 23 players

Here’s the top-10 highest-rated Vikings players on Madden NFL 23.

The Minnesota Vikings are entering the 2022 season with a sense of purpose, and that purpose can be felt through the Madden NFL 23 video game.

This is one of the more talented rosters the team has had in years, and they’re hopeful it translates into them mirroring the 2021 Cincinnati Bengals with a wildly unexpected Super Bowl appearance.

The team has three players with a 90-plus overall rating in the upcoming Madden NFL game. But there are obviously a couple of head-scratchers thrown in there as well, such as quarterback Kirk Cousins being given an 80 overall rating.

Ouch.

However, Vikings fans will be happy to know it was an even split between offensive and defensive players in the top-10 highest-rated players on the roster. Here’s who made the cut.

The NFL’s most underrated offensive players

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar reveals his All-Underrated offense heading into the 2022 NFL season.

In the NFL, players are underrated for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes, they’re second banana to a superstar whose deeds take up all the oxygen. Other times, it may be that the player has to climb up the depth chart as a little-regarded contributor, and the media hasn’t caught up yet. It’s also possible that the player has an incandescent talent that’s hidden by an unfavorable scheme. And it could also be that the player has had one great season, and everyone’s waiting to see if it’s a fluke.

If we were to assemble a team made out of underrated players, how far could that team go? Given the talent on this All-Underrated offense, we tend to think that opposing defenses would not enjoy their prospects.

Vikings 2022 offseason preview: Where does Minnesota stand at OL?

Offensive line is a clear trouble spot that needs addressing

One of the biggest problem spots for the Minnesota Vikings last season was along the offensive front. Yes, I know blaming Kirk Cousins for everything is becoming football’s greatest pastime, but the Vikings quarterback didn’t have the luxury of a great offensive line to help him out.

Of course, bringing in true difference-makers is tough to do when the quarterback’s cap hit ($45 million) accounts for around 21.2 percent of the team’s entire salary cap, too—but I digress.

The Vikings need some of their players, particularly on the interior portion of the line, to start living up to their draft stock. It doesn’t matter how many explosive weapons the team has offensively if they can’t consistently win in the trenches.

So the offensive line will be a top priority for general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell in their first season together.

Here’s where things stand right now:

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Vikings T Brian O’Neill named to 2022 NFL Pro Bowl

A fourth player for the Vikings is Las Vegas-bound to the 2022 NFL Pro Bowl.

Brian O’Neill is Las Vegas-bound.

The Minnesota Vikings right tackle has reportedly received an invitation to the 2022 NFL Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium on February 6, a week before Super Bowl LVI.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers tackle Tristan Wirfs was expected to fill the position, but he’s unable to go after suffering torn ligaments in his ankle. That left the door open for a deserving O’Neill to earn his first official Pro Bowl invite.

He now joins Justin Jefferson, Dalvin Cook and Harrison Smith as the Vikings players expected to participate this year.

The Vikings had some issues along the offensive front this season, and the unit was ranked 23rd overall by Pro Football Focus. However, O’Neill landed the highest grade on the team (73.7) from the website opposite of rookie left tackle Christian Darrisaw.

There’s clearly work to be done up front for the Vikings, but O’Neill has proven himself to be one of the key players that should factor into those future plans.

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Justin Jefferson tops list of four Vikings players selected to the AP NFL All-Pro Team

Relax, SKOL nation, Justin Jefferson made the list that matters.

Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson made the All-Pro list that really matters.

The official AP NFL All-Pro selections were released on Friday, and the Vikings had a total of four players on the list, including Jefferson.

Not bad for a team that finished the season with an 8-9 record.

The other names on the list were right tackle Brian O’Neill, safety Harrison Smith and kick returner Kene Nwangwu.

Jefferson broke Odell Beckham Jr.’s record for most receiving yards in the first two years of his career (3,016) this season. He was on pace to break Randy Moss’ franchise record for the most single-season receiving yards (1,632), but he ultimately came up short by 17 yards in a year where he’s hauled in 108 receptions for 1,616 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns.

O’Neill earned a 73.7 PFF Grade in a year where the tackle positions were the obvious strength of the offensive line. Smith was the typical wrecking ball in the defensive secondary—114 tackles, three sacks, seven pass deflections, one interception and one forced fumble.

And Nwangwu returned two touchdowns on kick-offs with 579 yards and a 32.2-yard return average.

Don’t let the record fool you. While four players made the All-Pro list, there could have been more from a Vikings team that was clearly more talented than they showed.