Vikings Territory: Get Ready For The Rashod Hill Experience

Press release from Vikings Territory:

Dustin Baker Dustin Baker

2021-08-13

Minnesota Vikings fans had the bullish audacity to believe that a sleek offensive-line plan that culminated in the 2021 NFL Draft would fix the team’s ceaseless pass-protections follies.

August 12, 2021

That’ll make most Vikings loyalists cringe because it resembles a connector flight to bad news. Last season, Danielle Hunter was afflicted with a teensy injury that turned into a season-ender. While Darrisaw might be just fine and ready to go for Week 1, the breadcrumbs are starting to indicate he will take some time to ease into LT1.

It was a risk.

But this version of the Vikings is skimpy on time. Head coach Mike Zimmer and quarterback Kirk Cousins strut in 2021 with an all-in cloud hovering. The season will be Zimmer’s eighth with the Vikings and Cousins’ fourth — more than enough time to determine if their services will be beneficial in 2022 and beyond.

Hill has played in 59 career Vikings games, 17 of them in a starting capacity. Most of his starting action transpired in 2017 and 2018 as the Southern Mississippi alumnus only started two games cumulatively in 2019 and 2020.

2020: 72.4 (121 offensive snaps)
2019: 61.0 (150 offensive snaps)
2018: 58.5 (529 offensive snaps)
2017: 62.0 (591 offensive snaps)
2016: 68.2 (49 offensive snaps)

Those PFF scores are serviceable. The sample size is the question mark. A 72.4 grade will be welcomed on any Vikings offensive line from the last decade, but the 121 snaps are low for a full adjudication.

Nevertheless, Hill at left tackle is a gamble. Each season since 2016, Minnesota embarks on a fresh new adventure — with Super Bowl-or-bust stakes — showcasing an offensive line that lacks bonafide names that other contending NFL teams employ. So far, it has not panned out.

Hill-into-Darrisaw, just-Hill, or just-Darrisaw must translate to apt pass-protection. Otherwise, it could be the undoing of the current Vikings regime.

This press release was produced by Vikings Territory .The views expressed here are the author’s own.