4 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 4 hours ago by purplefaithful.)
The Vikings have the highest-paid offensive line in football. What they don’t have is a good-enough offensive line.
And that, folks, is the fundamental, underlying cause of this team’s playoff inconsistencies, which in turn is the reason the center position should not take a back seat to any of the many other more popular needs heading into the new league year on March 11.
The Vikings felt this way a year ago when ownership was forced to fork over a league-high $348 million in free agency to cover for then-General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s inability to orchestrate a competent draft. Based on average salary per season, the Vikings made center Ryan Kelly ($9 million) and guard Will Fries ($17.5 million) the sixth-highest paid players at their positions.
A year later, the Vikings were a league-high $40-million-plus over the salary cap. Adofo-Mensah is a former-and-never-to-be-again general manager. Offensive line coach Chris Kuper is gone. And the center position still requires a significant commitment of resources at a time when the Vikings already are exhausting a league-high $89.9 million in cap room to their offensive line.
The first move up front was easy. If Kelly hadn’t retired for his own well-being on March 6, he would have been released. His retirement clears $8.3 million in cap space and prevents the possibility of the Vikings doubling down on a bad gamble on a broken-down player who soon grows a year older (33). Kelly was all risk and no reward last season, missing nine games while suffering three concussions to bring his career total to six.
Replacing Kelly, however, will be anything but easy, as the Vikings discovered all too often last year. Or inexpensive, considering the consensus among draft experts is that no plug-and-play centers are coming out of college this year.
So what’s a center-starved team to do?
That’s up to interim general manager Rob Brzezinski to sign off on as he weighs the draft versus free agency versus the salary cap. All this reporter knows is …
A. Last year’s best Plan B (Blake Brandel) was an emergency third-stringer who had never played the position. As in ever. That. Is. Alarming.
B. This year’s Plan A needs to be better, younger and more durable, even if that means he’s more expensive per season than Kelly at $9 million a year.
Yes, the Vikings are already giving Christian Darrisaw $26 million a year, fourth among left tackles. Yes, the Vikings are already giving Brian O’Neil $18.5 million a year, ninth among right tackles. Yes, they’re already overpaying Fries, who at least played every game last year.
But this is the offensive line. This unit, more than any other in sports, is only as good as its weakest link. Starting Brandel or Michael Jurgens — a former seventh-round pick whose value as even a backup is questionable — defeats the purpose of spending all that money elsewhere along the line. You can’t hide an inferior center, especially if your quarterback is young and jumpy.
The best and most expensive target at center in free agency is Baltimore’s Tyler Linderbaum. Durable and a month shy of his 26th birthday, he’s a three-time Pro Bowler who’s expected to set a new market for centers at more than the $18 million a year that Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey is making.
If Baltimore lets him walk, would he come to Minnesota? Probably not. Especially if Josh Allen and the Bills need a center to replace free agent Connor McGovern.
Kick his tires anyway.
Would McGovern come here? His market value, according to Overthecap.com, is $16.3 million a year. He’s 28, durable, versatile and has been a mainstay on a Super Bowl contender.
What about Cade Mays of Carolina? Over the Cap places his market value at $12.3 million a year. Mays is 26, versatile and massive at 6-6, 325 pounds.
Kick their tires and other durable centers on the right side of 30.
Yes, the Vikings are a bazillion dollars over the cap. But this is an old, bloated, top-heavy roster. There are a lot of easy cuts and enough reliable young core players to restructure to make cap room for a bona fide center.
Why center?
Because one is needed to give the Vikings the elite line they’re already paying for but don’t have.
Elite offensive lines control games. Even when Kevin O’Connell won 14 games in 2024, he knew he didn’t have the offensive line to control games well enough to win a playoff game, let alone a Super Bowl.
Elite offensive lines make the play-caller look like the smartest guy in the stadium. They make running backs better. They turn third-and-9s into third-and-1s, which calms jittery J.J. McCarthys, which helps the best receiver in football (Justin Jefferson) produce like the best receiver in football, which gives the Vikings more points, which takes pressure off the defense, which makes the evil (in a good way) mind of Brian Flores more potent, which, well, you get the idea.
Yes, it’s a quarterback league. But ask Drake Maye if he thinks he can win a Super Bowl without five guys up front.
The key words in that last graph: “five guys.” It takes five. Not three high-paid good players, one promising 2025 first-round draft pick (Donovan Jackson) and just any guy smack dab in the middle of them.
The Vikings already have the highest-paid offensive line in football. If they spend a little more on the right center, they might actually end up with an elite offensive line that lives up to its paycheck, controls games and elevates all 48 teammates, including the quarterback.
Strib
And that, folks, is the fundamental, underlying cause of this team’s playoff inconsistencies, which in turn is the reason the center position should not take a back seat to any of the many other more popular needs heading into the new league year on March 11.
The Vikings felt this way a year ago when ownership was forced to fork over a league-high $348 million in free agency to cover for then-General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s inability to orchestrate a competent draft. Based on average salary per season, the Vikings made center Ryan Kelly ($9 million) and guard Will Fries ($17.5 million) the sixth-highest paid players at their positions.
A year later, the Vikings were a league-high $40-million-plus over the salary cap. Adofo-Mensah is a former-and-never-to-be-again general manager. Offensive line coach Chris Kuper is gone. And the center position still requires a significant commitment of resources at a time when the Vikings already are exhausting a league-high $89.9 million in cap room to their offensive line.
The first move up front was easy. If Kelly hadn’t retired for his own well-being on March 6, he would have been released. His retirement clears $8.3 million in cap space and prevents the possibility of the Vikings doubling down on a bad gamble on a broken-down player who soon grows a year older (33). Kelly was all risk and no reward last season, missing nine games while suffering three concussions to bring his career total to six.
Replacing Kelly, however, will be anything but easy, as the Vikings discovered all too often last year. Or inexpensive, considering the consensus among draft experts is that no plug-and-play centers are coming out of college this year.
So what’s a center-starved team to do?
That’s up to interim general manager Rob Brzezinski to sign off on as he weighs the draft versus free agency versus the salary cap. All this reporter knows is …
A. Last year’s best Plan B (Blake Brandel) was an emergency third-stringer who had never played the position. As in ever. That. Is. Alarming.
B. This year’s Plan A needs to be better, younger and more durable, even if that means he’s more expensive per season than Kelly at $9 million a year.
Yes, the Vikings are already giving Christian Darrisaw $26 million a year, fourth among left tackles. Yes, the Vikings are already giving Brian O’Neil $18.5 million a year, ninth among right tackles. Yes, they’re already overpaying Fries, who at least played every game last year.
But this is the offensive line. This unit, more than any other in sports, is only as good as its weakest link. Starting Brandel or Michael Jurgens — a former seventh-round pick whose value as even a backup is questionable — defeats the purpose of spending all that money elsewhere along the line. You can’t hide an inferior center, especially if your quarterback is young and jumpy.
The best and most expensive target at center in free agency is Baltimore’s Tyler Linderbaum. Durable and a month shy of his 26th birthday, he’s a three-time Pro Bowler who’s expected to set a new market for centers at more than the $18 million a year that Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey is making.
If Baltimore lets him walk, would he come to Minnesota? Probably not. Especially if Josh Allen and the Bills need a center to replace free agent Connor McGovern.
Kick his tires anyway.
Would McGovern come here? His market value, according to Overthecap.com, is $16.3 million a year. He’s 28, durable, versatile and has been a mainstay on a Super Bowl contender.
What about Cade Mays of Carolina? Over the Cap places his market value at $12.3 million a year. Mays is 26, versatile and massive at 6-6, 325 pounds.
Kick their tires and other durable centers on the right side of 30.
Yes, the Vikings are a bazillion dollars over the cap. But this is an old, bloated, top-heavy roster. There are a lot of easy cuts and enough reliable young core players to restructure to make cap room for a bona fide center.
Why center?
Because one is needed to give the Vikings the elite line they’re already paying for but don’t have.
Elite offensive lines control games. Even when Kevin O’Connell won 14 games in 2024, he knew he didn’t have the offensive line to control games well enough to win a playoff game, let alone a Super Bowl.
Elite offensive lines make the play-caller look like the smartest guy in the stadium. They make running backs better. They turn third-and-9s into third-and-1s, which calms jittery J.J. McCarthys, which helps the best receiver in football (Justin Jefferson) produce like the best receiver in football, which gives the Vikings more points, which takes pressure off the defense, which makes the evil (in a good way) mind of Brian Flores more potent, which, well, you get the idea.
Yes, it’s a quarterback league. But ask Drake Maye if he thinks he can win a Super Bowl without five guys up front.
The key words in that last graph: “five guys.” It takes five. Not three high-paid good players, one promising 2025 first-round draft pick (Donovan Jackson) and just any guy smack dab in the middle of them.
The Vikings already have the highest-paid offensive line in football. If they spend a little more on the right center, they might actually end up with an elite offensive line that lives up to its paycheck, controls games and elevates all 48 teammates, including the quarterback.
Strib
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
