Zach Line Featured At Monday Morning Quarterback

For those of you that have been looking for just about everything you can find about football these past couple of weeks, you know that Peter King of Sports Illustrated has started a spin-off from SI.com called The MMQB. The name is taken from King's Monday Morning Quarterback columns, which is one of the first things a lot of football fans read on Monday mornings during the NFL season.

The new site has a pretty sweet new look, and the folks over there are putting together more feature-length stories about various football topics. One of the things that they're going to get into centers around one of the newest members of the Minnesota Vikings.

Running back Zach Line, who went undrafted out of Southern Methodist University and signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent, is having his path to the NFL chronicled by the site by Jenny Vrentas. According to the story,

Line is the type of NFL player few people ever get to know. He's a long-shot in jersey number 48 who's making a minimum salary and yearning for a chance to be a contributor on special teams. But from now until the Super Bowl, The MMQB will follow Line no matter where his journey takes him. If he earns a roster spot in Minnesota ... if he's consigned to the Vikings practice squad ... if he gets cut and lands in another city ... if he finds himself out of football and working odd jobs until the next tryout comes his way. Whatever happens, we'll trace an NFL season through the eyes of an undrafted free agent chasing his NFL dream.

I honestly think that Line has a pretty good shot at making the Vikings' roster as the third running back behind Adrian Peterson and Toby Gerhart. He was the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year as a senior for the Mustangs, and tied Eric Dickerson's mark for career touchdowns at SMU with 47 while passing his mark for career total yardage. After playing fullback as a freshman, Line went on to have three consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons as the team's featured back (while still playing in more of a fullback position, closer to the line of scrimmage). He has also proven to be a decent target out of the backfield, and those things could combine to give him the sort of versatility that could make him an asset to our favorite football team.

It will be interesting to see how the series about Zach Line develops. Personally, I hope it continues with him in Minnesota.