Why I am not so worried about Sullivan

by vikingfuture8816 on Apr 4, 2009 2:11 PM CDT Comment 6 comments

I wish I could find the story on the web, but this information comes from the Insider pages in ESPN the Magazine. You could probably just grab one while in the store and just find to the back of the magazine under the NFL page in the Insider section. At the bottom of the page is a short article about true value and how the top 3 Center FA (Brown, Grove, and Birk) are worth the money they got in FA.

At the very end was a stat I found very interesting. It discussed the percentage of time that each Center went one on one with defenders. Now it doesn't state whether a RB/TE counts as help in a one on one situation, but I think for the sake of argument, we can say one on one means they were on an island without possible help from any other player. Here is how the percentages boiled down:

Grove - 67.5%

Brown - 60.3%

Birk - 39.9%

I was a little shocked at the disparity between Birk and the other two. Birk got assisted on 20% more plays than the next closest guy and almost 30% then the top guy. I would have thought that Birk would have a % much closer to the other two players, but according to this is seems like 60% of the time (it works every time ;) couldn't resist) Birk had one of the two OG's or another player helping him with a block.

If that same scheme is played with Sullivan (where he is one on one 40% of the plays and has help 60%), I am pretty cool with that. Even if it were a 30-70 split or something along those lines, I don't see too bad of a dip in production. Also, if it were some how that, the reason Birk had help on 60% of last years plays, was because he was the one doing the helping, I think Sullivan could do just fine in that role too because if there wasn't much of a need to have Birk going one on one a lot, then there probably won't be a big need to have Sullivan going one on one right away either.

This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.

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Don't forget about Cook

Cook was a center in college. And he has been on the team for 4 years now. It will be a good battle in training camp. I really think when the Vikings get a RT, they will move Cook back to his natural position of center. Should be interesting to watch.

by PurplePeopleEaters09 on Apr 4, 2009 5:22 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I think Cook could be a good back up at every position on the line with Hicks. If the Vikings can find a true OT (not a guy who plays multiple OL positions, but an OT) in the first two rounds of the draft, they can elevate their play big time. I think the depth chart would go McKinnie/Hutch/Sullivan/Herrera/Rookie OT Rookie OT = Oher maybe? Would anybody take Smith before #22(Would the Vikings?)?Possibly one of the better 2nd rounders like Loadholt, Kropog, or Beatty? Then having Cook, Hicks, and Radovich {don’t tell me you forgot about Radovich ;) } manning the back up spots. Assuming the rookie plays even remotely better than Cook, that is a pretty good looking line up with potential to get better.

by vikingfuture8816 on Apr 4, 2009 10:43 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Move Cook back to center

and leave him there. That is where he is best suited and I believe he will beat out Sully for the starting job. He didn’t face the tougher competition Sully did in college but he was 1st team all conference for the Mountain West all four years and he is bigger 6’7" 330 lbs compared to Sully 6’4" 304 and he had a thousand yard rusher all 4 years as well. In the zone blocking scheme the Vikes use Cook is better at pulling than Sully. Don’t get me wrong I like Sully and I believe he will do a great job if he’s the starter. My point is Cook has no business at right tackle and he should be used where they drafted him to play. He was origenally drafted to replace Birk after he had injury problems. I believe we have a good problem with having 2 good centers and look forward to their training camp battle for top dog. With the size of OL the Vikes have I wish they would go back to the blocking style of the Mike Tice days. They would really wear defenses down with AD & CT and it would slow down blitz happy teams.

by nmvikesfan on Apr 5, 2009 12:36 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cook, Sullivan, who gives a...

Honestly, at this point, it could be either one of them, but there is more noise coming from the coach and GM that says Sullivan is the guy right now. They might keep Cook away from center just because he is 6’7’’ and might be hard to see the middle of the field with him there (Jackson/Rosenfels are 6’2’’/6’4’’ respectively), but maybe that doesn’t make much of a difference or at least not so much that they wouldn’t play him there. I just plugged Sullivan in because of what I have heard. I think if the blocking scheme is the same as last year then having either on of them going one on one just 40% of the time shouldn’t be so bad.

by vikingfuture8816 on Apr 5, 2009 1:23 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

sullivan gave up 2 sacks in 6 quarters against scrubs last preseason. not exactly stellar work.

by Purple Faithful on Apr 6, 2009 2:44 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Not too worried about a rookie not putting up pro bowl numbers in the preseason. There are plenty of people that seem to think Booty can play better than the other QBs on the roster and he had an even shittier preseason. I don’t think Booty can outplay Jackson and Rosenfels, but I do think that after sitting this past year and with him going through the entire OTAs and training camp as “the guy”, Sullivan will be ready to play. Go to a pro bowl, no. But the oline won’t be falling apart as some seem to think it will if the Vikings don’t go after one of the top centers in the draft.

by vikingfuture8816 on Apr 6, 2009 3:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs