Vikings Spielman We must address the offensive line

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Vikings' Spielman: We must addre s the offensive line Published: Jan 25, 2017 at 01:04 AM Around the NFL Writer For as much as we in the generation focus on the glitzy positions, football still comes down to blocking and tackling. Lose in the trenches, and you'll lose your season. The re-learned that le son in 2016. On paper, Mike Zimmer's team looked poised to contend for an NFC championship, which was reason trading a first-round pick for made some sense in September. Then games started. A porous offensive line sprung more leaks with injuries piling up. Soon, Bradford was drowned by pa s rushers from every angle. Unable to run block or pa s protect, the offense turned into a maddening display of short dump offs. from the , general manager Rick Spielman bluntly stated his offseason Aaron Dell Women Jersey focus. "Well, I think obviously, we have to addre s the offensive line," Spielman said. "But I think Evander Kane Women Jersey we have a lot of young pieces in place. We built a very strong nucleus and they are all right now at the prime of their career, we just have to addre s some of the needs, like every other team does." Spielman tried to solve that problem last season, bringing in tackle and guard . He swung and mi sed. "We had planned going into the season with , , at center, and Mike Harris -- who didn't play for us (this year due to injury) -- at right guard and ," he said. "We thought we were going to have a pretty good offensive line. No excuses but we lost a lot of those guys and we lost them very early in the season. So, it's difficult to plug offensive linemen in, especially when you are getting down into your third and fourth offensive linemen. But we have to do a better job making sure that we have the quality depth not only at that position but every position." None of the five offensive linemen Spielman mentioned above played 16 games in 2016. Harris went on NFI in July and did notplay a down. Kalil went on IR with a hip injury after Week 2. appeared in four games. Berger and Boone each mi sed two games at points throughout the season. With a cap situationin the bottom 20 percent in the NFL, fixing the offensive line through free agency would be tricky. The lack of a first-round pick exacerbates the predicament. Minnesota's money problems are why despite Spielman again insisting he wants to remain a Viking, it won't be for $18 million, if at all. Kalil is set to be a free agent, and after several terrible, injury-riddled seasons both sides might be ready for the former first-round pick to move on. It's clear the offensive line will be Spielman's priority in the coming months. Stating the obvious and fixing the problem are two very different tasks. This article has been reproduced in a new format Joe Thornton Kids Jersey and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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