Of all the position groups in football offensive line is the one that I least understand. I can recognize when a lineman or an entire line does their job well but I don't always understand why or how he or they did it well. It's actually pretty obvious when an offensive line is playing well. The quarterback has plenty of time to throw without being being hassled by the defense. The running backs have gaping holes through which to run. The offense just sails down the field when the line plays well. Everything's easy when the line plays well. That's easy to see. How the line makes things easy for everyone on their side of the field isn't so easy to see.
The Minnesota Vikings offensive line has left a great deal to be desired in recent seasons. Quarterbacks Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford have had little time to throw and are often running for their lives. The running backs encounter defenders before they even get to the line of scrimmage. Adrian Peterson's league leading rushing total of 1485 yards in 2015 might be a more impressive accomplishment than the 2097 yards that he gained in his MVP season of 2012. He had holes to run through in 2012. He didn't have many in 2015.
Why hasn't the Vikings offensive line played well? There's probably a whole host of reasons. Lack of talent is one of them. Lack of continuity was a problem last season. A line works in unison so much that each member has to know well how the others move, execute, and react in a variety of situations. The five on the line have to work as one. Injuries forced the Vikings into about a dozen different lineups. That's a rough road for a talented line. It can be catastrophic for a line that isn't so gifted. There were times last season when the Vikings best blocker appeared to be tight end Rhett Ellison. A 6'5" 250 lb tight end was doing a better job of keeping his quarterback clean than any of the five big guys up front. That shouldn't happen. A lot of Ellison's effectiveness was simply due to effort. He was active, hustling, doing everything that he could to stay between the defender and his quarterback. If he could control the intentions of an opponent at his size why couldn't the big linemen? Was it simply effort?
I need to understand offensive line play better so that I can fix the Vikings offensive line woes. Fortunately, one of the best offensive line coaches in the game wrote a book. Howard Mudd. His book is appropriately titled The View From The O-Line. The book has been a big help. It's entertaining too. Bill "Tiger" Johnson was the line coach for the San Francisco 49ers when Mudd played guard for the team in the 1960s. Johnson said that the most important traits an offensive lineman had to have were intelligence and character. Johnson had a Brown Bag Theory.
"You can take all the offensive linemen in the NFL, put them in a bag, shake them around, and throw them out there. Then you take two tackles, two guards, and a center. There won't be a lot of differences. What separates them is intelligence and character. The physical part takes care of itself."
"Our line coach in San Diego, Dave Levy, used to say there are a lot of 300-pound guys sitting on barstools. It's the three-pound brain that separates them from being great offensive linemen."
-Ed White
Many football thinkers say that quarterbacks and offensive linemen are usually the smartest players on a team. Both have to differentiate the intentions of the defense before the ball is snapped. Then they have to interpret and react in an instant to the chaos to that transpires during a play. Big and smart. It's a combination that can be hard to find. Why would a smart man undertake what takes place in the football trenches.
Intelligence is pretty straight forward. Character is a little harder to define. As a result it can be harder to find. Mudd says that character, at least when it comes to linemen, starts with toughness. A lineman has to be tough to absorb the punishment that comes with being pounded on for 70+ plays each game. The five members of the offensive and the quarterback are pretty much the only players that aren't part of some rotation during a game. If all goes well the quarterback isn't touched on very many of those 70+ plays. The offensive line is a different breed of player. Every play is pretty much a fist fight. They have to be tough. They have to stay mentally engaged while they are in that fist fight.
Mudd's offensive line character also embodies courage.
"It's doing the right thing when things are getting difficult and you're getting tired. Can you keep using the right footwork, keep putting your head in the right place, and keep applying the correct techniques the entire game? Can you carry out your assignment and keep doing everything exactly right? I'm looking for a guy who will persevere.
And I'm looking for a guy who is going to pick up his lunch pail and come to work every day."
-Howard Mudd
So are the Vikings.
When thinking about offensive linemen needing effort, character, toughness, and courage I can't help but think of former Vikings offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie. I can't help but think of him because it never seemed like he had any of those qualities. McKinnie had the immovable size, feet, quickness, and talent to be one of the best tackles to ever play the game. He had everything but he just seemed to go through the motions. I guess that he realized he could be a decent player and earn a huge second contract without much effort so he did just that. He made one Pro Bowl and got kicked out of it before he even made it to the game. He just didn't care.
Offensive linemen are selfless. They have to be. Few know them. Fewer acknowledge them. Nearly every other player on the field is quick to celebrate their own accomplishments. Many players will bounce into an elaborate routine for even a routine play. They celebrate simply doing their job. An offensive lineman returns to the huddle or lines up for the next play. The only time an offensive lineman is seen celebrating is when a teammate does something great. That something great is usually a score. The very thing that takes the whole team to accomplish. Especially the line.
If you really like football it's real easy to love offensive linemen.
So, how do the Vikings improve their offensive line? Increasing the talent level is a start. As many as four new starters are needed. Some of the less optimistic might say that they need five new starters. That's a lot to add in a single offseason. Some combination of free agency and the draft has to provide those players. It would also be nice if the Vikings can avoid the injuries that wiped out any hope for continuity last season. The Vikings need some offensive linemen and effort, intelligence, character, toughness, and courage had better be some of the qualities that they possess.
Reading Howard Mudd's book shines a bright light on something that I've always really known. No matter how many times I might watch a play there are things that go on between the offensive and defensive lines that I'll never see. Or understand. Line play is an all-out brawl wrapped around a chess match tucked anonymously in a football game.
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