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During the off-season, a lot of attention has been paid to the state of the Minnesota Vikings offensive line. As injuries took their toll towards the end of last season, the Vikes were forced into an impromptu starting five of:
LT: Riley Reiff
LG: Mike Remmers, who had been the starting RT most of the season.
C: Pat Elflein
RG: Joe Berger
RT: Rashod Hill
At the time, it was more out of necessity for the playoffs, as Mike Zimmer stated that the goal was to get the five best offensive linemen on the field. In the short term, it was the best option to a bad situation due to LG Nick Easton breaking his ankle in the regular season finale.
But, with the retirement of Berger, that temporary fix was rumored to look more and more like a permanent solution.
As we steamroll towards training camp, the ‘Mike Remmers to guard’ looks to be almost a done deal, according to Zimmer. A little while ago, while being interviewed by KFAN’s Paul Allen from his Kentucky ranch, Zim thinks they have the solution to the offensive line for 2018:
Mike Zimmer on KFAN just said the #Vikings are "probably going to play Mike Remmers at guard" in 2018
— Adam Patrick (@Str8_Cash_Homey) July 17, 2018
If that’s the case, then the Vikes first team offensive line will probably look like this:
LT: Reiff
LG: Easton
C: Elflein
RG: Remmers
RT: Hill
There are still a lot of variables that can come in to play that could shuffle this around. Barring injury, though, it feels like Reiff, Easton, and Elflein are set. That means the only spots in play would be RG and RT. If Danny Isidora outplays Hill during training camp, it’s possible Isidora could take over RG and Remmers could slide back to RT.
Second round pick Ryan Brian (potato potahto...sorry about that one folks) O’Neill is a wildcard here, too. The Pitt T is projected to need one year of seasoning on the bench, but if he steps up and challenges Hill, the right side could go Remmers-O’Neill.
We’ll have an entire training camp to figure this out, but one of the lingering questions we have about this team looks closer to being answered.