Looking for the starters? Read about Reiff, Easton, Elflein and Remmers here on the hub post.

QUARTERBACKS

LINEBACKERS

WIDE RECEIVERS

DEFENSIVE LINE

As usual, the Vikings will bring 16 offensive linemen into camp and keep just over half of them. This season, there’s really only one position up for grabs, but it could be either right guard or right tackle, depending on what they want to do with Mike Remmers. That means that both guards and tackles are competing for a potential start. Not to mention the loss of Joe Berger and Jeremiah Sirles creating opportunities for younger hopefuls. This season, the Vikings are committing even more fully to a zone scheme, which requires everyone to be lean and agile – by big OL standards, at least.

Rashod Hill

Rashod Hill is a well-known name to most Vikings fans, but he faces his most valuable opportunity yet in 2018. After a year on Jacksonville’s practice squad, Hill declined the Jaguars’ offer and chose to pursue a better opportunity in Minnesota. He showed out in the final, meaningless game of 2016. In the ensuing preseason, Hill managed to kick T.J. Clemmings out of the backup tackle role for good, solidifying himself in that spot for 2017, starting 7 games and playing in 11. He’s entering 2018 on a new conditioning grind, hoping to match up better with what the Vikings want in a tackle.

Hill now gets to compete for the starting right tackle job outright, blowing his pre-draft expectations away. He’s unlikely to beat out Mike Remmers, but if he shows himself to be a better tackle than anyone else is at guard, Remmers could move to RG and give Hill the start. This is arguably the most likely scenario. He’s also in direct competition with Brian O’Neill for this spot for the long term. The question about Hill isn’t whether he can hit is ceiling, at this point, it’s how high the 26-year old’s ceiling can go.

Brian O’Neill

The 2nd round pick out of Pitt has a familiar story – O’Neill played tight end in college until moving to left tackle, but his athleticism allowed him to flourish. So an inexperienced but athletic tackle convert from Pitt may be a familiar sight, but O’Neill has more to boast about. He was still used as a sneaky weapon in clever Pittsburgh play designs and relishes those opportunities. But to become a good left tackle, O’Neill had to put on roughly 35 pounds, eating five to six daily meals including 3 A.M. peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to bulk up. But he produced well in college and his natural athletic talent earned him a high draft pick, and thus, a chance to be the Vikings’ future at the position.

O’Neill will compete in the short term for the starting right tackle job or even swing tackle duties. Either way, he and Rashod Hill will start in direct competition and with the same immediate stakes. However, in the long term, O’Neill will have a chance to take long-term right tackle duties away from Mike Remmers or even left tackle duties from Riley Reiff. If he can be a successful in pass protection in the pros as he was in college, O’Neill has the tools to be an NFL mainstay. In this preseason, watching two possible right tackles trying to gain weight and lose weight respectively will be fascinating.

Tom Compton

Compton is known as a native of Rosemount, MN and friend of Kirk Cousins. They grew that friendship after Washington took a chance on the small school flyer out of South Dakota. He spent some time on Washington’s practice squad, ultimately earning starting honors in the midst of a problematic 2014 season. He followed Kyle Shanahan to Atlanta (where Kirk Cousins went to Falcons playoff games to cheer him on), then took a detour through Chicago before reuniting with Cousins in Minnesota.

Compton is eyeing a starting spot again as he continues to scratch and claw his way out of the hole that his small school reputation put him in. He brings a baseline to the right guard position – no young players will play until they’re better than Tom Compton. He’ll mostly compete as a right guard, but his experience at right tackle gives him an all-but-certain path to the roster. Compton has a chance to fend off younger late-round players and start, or play in the place of whoever gets injured.

Colby Gossett

Gossett is the latest in a string of Appalachian State Mountaineer linemen to go pro, in part, he says, thanks to a “nasty” mentality on the field. While he was exclusively a right guard for 46 consecutive starts, coaches tried him at left guard at the Senior Bowl, allowing him to prove an extra dimension of flexibility. This, in addition to his school’s reputation, was enough to get him drafted. It’s hard to say if he would have been drafted higher had he gotten opportunities with a bigger school, but App State was clearly kind enough to get him this far. A lot of players end up having their careers derailed by an injury or problematic roster clogging, but Gossett proved immune to such issues.

While many day 3 rookies are simply hoping for a spot on the team, Gossett has landed in a spot where he can aim higher. This may not be because of a disconnect between his skill and his draft position, but rather, the room he’s entering. With only four of the five starting linemen decided, and only castoffs and other late round youngsters in front of him, there’s a non-negligible chance Gossett ends up earning the starting right guard job. It’s wide open competition, but even if he loses he’ll have a chance to earn a depth role. A disastrous preseason could end with him being cut, but it would require him to fall beneath some surprising names.

Danny Isidora

Last year, Isidora was simply another day 3 rookie vying for a spot. He was the only good lineman on an otherwise dismal Miami unit, and eventually settled in the depth of the interior line, even starting a few games and putting some tape out there. He dealt with a litany of setbacks during his college career, including coach firings, injuries and never quite gaining momentum until his senior year. But once he finally got a decent opportunity, he excelled enough to end up in the NFL. The Vikings drafted him, and kept him on as a backup.

Now, Isidora’s role has a chance to expand. If he can outplay Tom Compton and Colby Gossett, he could start at right guard. Unfortunately, he also has to outplay Hill and O’Neill to keep Mike Remmers at right tackle. If Isidora is to get playing time, he’ll need to show he’s grown beyond his depth-level pedigree. Like many others, a catastrophic preseason could leave him outside the final roster, but it would be a surprise. As for now, Isidora is a de facto Viking with the opportunity to be even more.

Aviante Collins

At this time last year, Collins was just another UDFA that fell out of the draft for good reason (size, in this case). But as Collins was on his way to shocking the world and making the team, Hurricane Harvey hit his hometown. His parents’ home was severely damaged, but five days later, he made the team. The money he made from his veteran minimum contract will help repair the damage, and couldn’t have come at a better time. On the field his 2017 season featured some light work as a 6th OL and a whole bunch of inactive Sundays.

Now, Collins faces an onslaught of competition for a backup tackle spot. Despite his size, his playing experience gives him a leg up on the undrafted rookies and castoffs in the room with him. At 292 pounds, he’s still thin for an offensive tackle, but that hasn’t stopped him up to this point in his career. Plus, the Vikings have plenty of smaller linemen in the room – they don’t seem bothered by size. Still, there may not be room for him if anyone surges to outplay him. A starting job is probably out of the question with the talent ahead of him, and would need an injury to see anything more than spot duty as OL6.

Josh Andrews

Another undrafted hopeful, Josh Andrews has been waiting for his chance. There’s high turnaround in the bowels of most rosters, but Andrews kept his place in Philadelphia. He spent his rookie year on the practice squad, then made the active roster in 2015 and 2016. But in 2017, he failed to make the roster, and spent the year on Philadelphia’s practice squad. After that, the Eagles finally relinquished the rights to their career-long project player, allowing him to get a fresh start in Minnesota in 2018.

Andrews’ 2018 preseason could determine the trajectory of the rest of his career. His veteran pedigree gives him a shot at the roster, which is all he needs to prove exactly how much he’s been worth sitting on the bench in Philly. Should he overachieve and earn the start, he can solidify himself as an NFL mainstay, even if his regular season goes poorly and he reverts to reserve status. After all, it would legitimize his entire tenure with the Eagles. But an August cut could leave Andrews in the cold with very little in the last few years to generate a market on him. The result of this preseason will color the past four years in the eyes of NFL teams, whether that’s fair or not.

Storm Norton

At Toledo, a ten minute drive from his high school, Norton experienced a steady ascent into college prominence. After redshirting as a freshman, he got an opportunity to start at left tackle in his sophomore year. He won the job outright the next season, and never relinquished it until declaring for the 2017 draft. And hey, you can buy worn game gloves from Norton for a cool 65 bucks! But Norton’s transition into the NFL was shaky. He fell out of the draft, signed with the Lions, didn’t make the team, bounced between practice squad and roster a few times, detoured through Arizona’s practice squad, then finally Minnesota’s in December. A tumultuous year. He signed a futures contract and gets to try out for his second NFC North team in as many years.

Norton will be on the outside looking in unless he can show he’s a better player than the ones Detroit and Arizona chose not to roster. He’s a tackle, meaning he’ll be competing for space with Aviante Collins. Should he surge and become a preseason darling, he likely knocks Collins off the roster. Norton’s best bet to be a Viking is to latch onto a practice squad slot and hope for a late-season rostering after the team gets banged up.

Cedrick Lang

Cedrick Lang follows the mold of many of the Vikings’ tackles this year – long, lanky and undersized. But Lang is as green as green gets. He was a basketball player until his first senior year at UTEP, and prior to the 2015 season, hadn’t played competitive football since his freshman year of high school. Even then, he was used as a blocking tight end. When he signed with the Giants as a UDFA, he stayed there. Eventually, he left New York for Denver, where they moved him to tackle. But with solid agility scores and all the reach you could ask for, it’s easy to see why so many coaches want to take a chance on him.

Lang won’t be so much as a consideration for a roster spot until he can get traction at any football position. As someone who is so new to not only his position, but the sport as a whole, it’ll be on him to catch up to the lifelong experience of his peers, not to mention considerable bulk. If Lang does have some sort of breakthrough and starts playing polished offensive tackle, he’d be a lock for the roster and possibly even a starter based on his physical ability. In the much more likely scenario that his lack of experience sinks him, it was always worth a shot.

Cornelius Edison

Most players to reach an NFL preseason were superstars in high school and elite players in college. Cornelius Edison excelled in his Tacoma-area high school and was an FCS all-star at Portland State, but small-school prospects frequently go undrafted. Edison earned a spot on the Bears’ roster from their practice squad after Kyle Long suffered an injury in 2016, but failed to ascend any further. After hovering between active roster and practice squad, Edison was waived in May of 2017, went to Atlanta for the preseason, and was cut. He graced the Vikings’ roster for a brief moment, but spent most of the 2017 season on the practice squad.

Edison has his third, and possibly final attempt to make and NFL roster coming up in August. He’ll have to beat out other, quicker linemen with his diverse NFL experience. But even if Edison can’t find room on Minnesota’s roster, he should get plenty of preseason run. If he plays well enough, he could catch the eye of a team with a little less depth competition than the Vikings. It does help that Edison spent most of 201 working with Tony Sporano and the Vikings’ staff, but it remains to be seen how far that can take him.

Chris Gonzalez

At San Jose State, Gonzalez was a tackle that also played on special teams, and at tight end earlier in his time there, but mostly was a reserve at both tight end and tackle. An All-Mountain-West academic achiever, Gonzalez also bulked up to the typical size of a tackle, rather than the skinny, smaller types elsewhere in the room. He went undrafted out of SJSU, and was signed to Minnesota as an undrafted free agent. In high school, Gonzalez was a defender, giving him a lot of rawness headed into the pros. But with three years of starting right guard experience, he’s not the least experienced lineman in the room.

Considering the bottleneck of interior line depth, Gonzalez will have a tough time making the roster in his first year. But his athleticism makes him a prime practice squad candidate if he can prove to Minnesota’s coaches that he’s not unmoldable. His pedigree as a tight and and as a track and field star may lend themselves well to his development, however, he has a long uphill climb to NFL relevance.

Dieugot Joseph

Joseph is another sub-300 pound position convert, having moved from Defensive End in high school to offensive line at Florida International. As a first generation immigrant, Joseph’s mother immigrated from Haiti in the late 1980s, hoping to secure a better future for her children. That decision paid off as Joseph was deciding between FIU and Middle Tennessee. He chose the closer one, and though he went undrafted and unrestored, ended up on Chicago’s practice squad in the 2017 season. Soon after, Baltimore poached him from Chicago’s roster, but declined to keep him into the 2018 season. He’ll now try to find a way to slither into Minnesota’s tackle reserves.

Joseph’s small size and small school pedigree are not unusual in the Vikings’ OL room. As a tackle, he’ll need to keep up in the way of mobility to make up for his lack of weight, or bulk up in the weeks leading up to camp. Like the castoffs he shares lockers with, Joseph’s best bet to be a Viking long term will be to go through the practice squad and earn elevation in the event of a mid-season injury. But as a player with enough potential for three NFL teams to try and stash him, Joseph’s NFL future is a hopeful unknown.

Thanks for reading!

You can follow me @LukeBraunNFL on Twitter, or follow @PurplePTSD or @vikingterritory for more Vikings content!