EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- In a space adjacent to the locker room, Pat Elflein sat barefoot in an oversized office chair, his dry-fit T-shirt soaked with sweat not long after the Minnesota Vikings wrapped up practice. It was a typical Minnesota afternoon in early January: Real-feel temperatures had dipped into the negatives, and a layer of crushed snow underneath a thick layer of ice caked the ground outside.

The wind slipped through the cracks in the door and blew cold air into the room, which doubles as a quiet spot for one-on-one interviews and the place players go to give a sample for NFL drug tests issued at random. The baby-faced center appeared unfazed by the dip in temperature, having become just as hardened by the harsh winters of his new home as he is by the grind of his rookie season. Elflein has started all but two games this season due to a shoulder injury he sustained before Week 14.

Even if he were freezing, Elflein probably wouldn’t let on. It’s not in his nature to complain.

“If you spend any time around Pat, he’s like this [imagine the ‘blank face’ emoji] or he's like this [the same as before],” quarterback Case Keenum joked. “That’s Pat, and I love him to death.”

Rookie center Pat Elflein helped the Vikings' run game average 122.3 yards per contest in the regular season, the seventh-best mark in the NFL. It was a drastic improvement for the Vikings, who finished last in the league in 2016. Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire

Elflein is a typical rookie who keeps his mouth shut and does his job, according to coach Mike Zimmer. The fact that Elflein doesn’t say much doesn’t mean he’s retreating into a shell. It’s a sign that he’s busy working, soaking up every bit of the Vikings’ playbook so he can get his guys lined up on game day, including this Sunday in Philadelphia for the NFC Championship Game. On the field, Elflein is the quarterback of the offensive line. He has no choice but to be the vocal leader.

Minnesota’s No. 1 priority last offseason was to rebuild the offensive line. General manager Rick Spielman knew the team needed to upgrade its tackle positions ASAP, which brought in Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers, and tap into the draft to build the interior. That’s where the Vikings found Elflein, a 6-foot-3, 303-pound Ohio State product drafted 70th overall in the third round.

Elflein’s contributions have been endless, and if he played any other position, he’d probably be in the conversation for Offensive Rookie of the Year. He will surely be on just about every all-rookie team, such as the Pro Football Writers Association’s, which he was named to Tuesday, but for the Vikings, he is the most important first-year player, anchoring an O-line that tied for seventh-fewest sacks allowed (27). Last year’s group gave up 38, which ranked 23rd.

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So much of the offense’s success can be traced to the reworking of this unit. The Vikings went from averaging 75.3 yards in the run game, which put them dead-last a year ago, to finishing the regular season ranked seventh in the league, with 122.3 yards on the ground per game.

As a rookie, Elflein isn’t fazed by being the youngest member of a veteran group, with a 12-year age gap between him and the player to his right, guard Joe Berger. Elflein has been afforded a unique opportunity to learn from players on both sides of him who have sustained multi-year careers as starting linemen. Elflein viewed his role as being a sponge, there to soak up the wealth of knowledge around him and show that he has what it takes -- both the physical skill and the mental maturity -- to play his part.

“I just wanted to come into this position and not talk a lot,” Elflein said. “I didn’t want to come in and be the guy that wouldn’t shut up or come in talking too much. I just wanted to come in and prove myself.”

‘Pat Crete’

Ken Elflein has been a concrete man for decades. In turn, so have his four children: Chris, the eldest, followed by Matt, Heather and Pat.

Growing up, the Elflein kids would help their dad on various jobs in and near their hometown of Pickerington, Ohio. One day, Ken brought home several packages of Quikrete -- easy, ready to make concrete. Just add water.

“I was like, ‘Dad, you’re pouring some Ken Crete today,’” Pat Elflein said. “It just stuck like glue. He started calling everyone with a ‘Crete’ at the end of their name. He called me Pat Crete, and there’s Matt Crete, Chris Crete and Heather Crete.”

The Vikings found tangible proof behind Elflein’s nickname, with his "concrete strength" a product of his ability to anchor against a bull rush and sustain his blocks.

There’s another part of his background that made Minnesota offensive line coach Tony Sparano lick his chops. In high school, Elflein joined the wrestling team, at first as a way to condition during the football offseason. Once he realized how good he was, wrestling became one of Elflein’s passions, and he qualified for the state and national tournaments his senior year.

His wrestling skill set allows him to play his position more effortlessly, with a lower center of gravity and the leverage needed to be in "bad" body position with the ball between his legs before handling his assignment.

“The No. 1 priority [for a center] is taking care of the football and then getting to his block, where a guard just has to get to his block,” Sparano said. “He’s got quickness to turn his hips. When you’re playing against bigger noses in this league and shades in this league, to be able to turn your hips on people or to bring your hips on people at that position is a rare quality to find. You get a lot of pushers and shovers at that position, and you get some guys that can go out and make a reach block or can get their hips around like him.”

Elflein’s strength didn’t just yield power, either. The zone-blocking scheme the Vikings shifted to in the offseason requires elite athleticism from all five linemen. It has changed the dynamic of what Minnesota has been able to do offensively.

“His ability to get out in the second level and get in space has opened up a lot of things for us and created some really big plays,” Sparano said.

One area that is most evident is in the screen game, in which Zimmer labeled his offense as “awful” at generating production in 2016. According to Vikings.com, Minnesota had just three completions totaling 12 yards on screen passes to running backs last season.

This season is a different story, with a core of running backs who serve as quick-pass options.

Success in this area starts with Elflein, who not only can move quickly to get out to the perimeter but also can lay down a block on linebackers and defensive backs in space. That has helped the run game rip off those explosive plays they had been missing.

“Most of the time, me and him, I just try to make sure we’re on the same page, because I know if he gets that block, we’ve got something special cooking,” running back Jerick McKinnon said.

A back seat to nobody

Besides quarterback, there might not be a position on offense that requires as much studying as center. From the beginning, Sparano could tell Elflein demanded his coaching and thrived off the opportunity to soak in the intricacies of a new system. He could hardly tell that Elflein had spent only one season as the starting center at OSU (after starting previous seasons at guard) before making the transition to the NFL, foreshadowing how quickly he’d pick up Sparano’s instruction.

The Vikings say they have been more than comfortable having rookie Pat Elflein make calls at the line of scrimmage. "Typically, he's right," offensive line coach Tony Sparano said. Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire

“You don’t have to tell Pat things over and over again,” he said. “That’s a great quality to have in any player, but in a center, specifically, you don’t have to say to him, ‘Hey, I told you this is this.’ He gets it once, and that’s a good thing.”

The rookie wasn’t afraid to ask questions in a crowded room of veterans, either, or fight for what he wanted.

“I remember asking him one day -- it was after everybody left, and we were going through some things, and he actually answered a question wrong,” Sparano said. “I said to him, ‘Look, what do you want to do here? You want to be a starter, or are you OK being the backup?’ And he got really angry with me as if to say, no, I want to be the starter. ‘I’m here to be the starter,’ he said. I said to him, ‘Exactly.’ These things are important because these other guys depend on you, and I think he sensed that urgency.”

To Sparano, the aspect of mental maturity required to play center cannot be overstated. It’s something Elflein exhibited immediately upon arriving in Minnesota, and it impressed Pat Shurmur, a former center himself. To excel at the position, one has to live with what he calls, whether it’s the right play or not.

“He’s got to be able to get us going in the right direction,” the offensive coordinator said. “You’ve got to be able to blink fast, make a good decision. If we’re going to run off the cliff, we’re going to all go the same direction. I think Pat is willing to do that. Typically, he’s right.”

Few situations are more ideal than the one Elflein walked into. To have two linemen who have played center to his left and right made the growing pains of starting as a rookie easier because he didn’t have to do this alone.

During the week leading into a game, Sparano’s group walks through all scenarios, ones they expect to see and ones they don’t. Preparing for the looks an opponent typically won’t run is called "chasing ghosts." It’s a way to build the muscle memory to have on a moment’s notice, should the defense throw in an unexpected wrinkle.

Having Nick Easton, whom Elflein beat in camp for the center spot, next to him at left guard eased the process of learning how to handle scenarios Elflein isn't anticipating.

“There’s been some situations where I didn’t know the call, and Nick made the call for me,” Elflein said.

Sometimes all it takes is a mental cue from Easton, once the guard spots a defensive lineman shading or can relay what technique he’s seeing, for Elflein to make his call more quickly.

The added set of eyes is a benefit, but all five linemen know there can be only one voice making the call -- the one from the rookie orchestrating the Vikings' attack. Elflein is entrusted with making sure everyone is on the same page, and it’s up to the four others to be there.

“More than anything, [we] just try to understand what the call is going to be, kind of anticipate it before he has to make it so it’s not just one guy and everybody waiting on him to make the call,” Berger said.

In 14 starts this season, Elflein has had a major impact in elevating the level of play on the offensive line. His presence in the middle has been the center block of the Vikings' vast O-line improvement, with him playing a critical role as the glue that holds this unit together.

“It didn’t take long for the guys to see his ability and see that when he gets in there, the kid’s a football player,” Sparano said. “There’s a mutual level of respect there. They opened their arms up to embracing him as that guy.”