Our friends at PFF have a unique grading system where they grade each player on each play to arrive at an overall grade for the game/season. What is unique is that this is one metric where they don’t account for wins and losses, they focus on individual players and how they perform on a play-by-play basis. PFF has recently released their pre-week 17 offensive line rankings, and for the first time in a VERY long time, the Minnesota Vikings offensive line has cracked their top 10! That link MAY be behind a paywall, I’m not sure. If so, my apologies. The Vikings moved up four spots from last week to go from #14 and finally break the top 10.
Here is a quote from the article in regards to the Vikings:
- Austin Schlottmann started his third consecutive game at center, surrendering six pressures and earning a 26.3 PFF pass-blocking grade against the Giants in Week 16.
- With just 18 penalties as a unit, no line has been penalized less than the Vikings.
Upcoming Opponent: Green Bay Packers
- Green Bay ranks sixth as a defense in pressure rate (36.8%) and third in blitz rate (39.0%). They create pressure from a myriad of spots rather than one dominant rusher.
We Vikings fans have experienced years of poor O-line play, dating back to 2014. It’s been a constant battle ever since, but they seem to finally be getting this figured out. Kudos to the Vikings front office, past and present, for assembling the talent on the Vikings offensive line, and kudos to the coaching staff for being able to put them in positions to succeed more often than they had been in the recent past.
The entire top 10 looks like this.
- Eagles
- Ravens
- Chiefs
- Packers
- Falcons
- 49ers
- Browns
- Patriots
- Lions
- Vikings
