Youth Being Served On Vikings Offensive Line

Kevin Seifert, fresh off of a vacation from his blog over at ESPN. . ."What is this 'vacation' that you speak of," he asked. . .has an interesting look at the offensive lines of the NFC North in one of his recent blog pieces. He takes a look at the lines in the context of what is called the "Rule of 150," a rule coined by ESPN analyst John Clayton. Basically, the Rule of 150 states that "If a team lets its starting offensive line exceed the total age of 150 years for five starters, the clock is ticking on its remaining success."

Of the four NFC North offensive lines, only one is above that 150-year mark, that team being the Detroit Lions. As it stands now, the combined age of the projected starters on Detroit's offensive line is 152, and four of their five starters are over the age of 30. The Bears are the second-oldest, with a combined age of either 138 or 141, depending on who wins their starting jobs, and the Packers are at a cumulative age of 133.

Then there are the Vikings, whose combined age along the offensive line will be either 125 or 127, depending on whether Brandon Fusco or Geoff Schwartz wins the starting right guard spot (Fusco would make it the former, Schwartz would make it the latter). As it stands now, the old man of the Vikings' starting offensive line is left guard Charlie Johnson at the ripe old age of 28. Phil Loadholt comes in second at age 26, Schwartz and John Sullivan are both 25, Fusco is 23, and rookie Matt Kalil is 22.

I expect a lot of good things from the revamped Vikings' offensive line in 2012. . .and, if they can develop some chemistry and put things together this year, it's a group that could be growing and improving for a very long time to come.