Blake Brandel

I don't want to downplay at all Donovan Jackson and missing him.

But I also think that when you have the weapons the Vikings have, look, when they won 14 games, can we go over who their offensive line was in the second half of the season? It was Cam Robinson, Blake Brandel starting at left guard.

who was playing center Garrett Bradbury was playing center.

And then it was who would have been the right guard.

Obviously he's a right tech.

Oh, it was Dalton Reisner.

So your offensive line, when you won 14 games was cam Robinson, Blake Brandel, Garrett Bradbury, Dalton Reisner, and Brian O'Neill.

I'm not saying offensive line doesn't matter.

38, and he's given up 12 quarterback pressures already.

I mean, if we compare this even to Blake Brandel, um, let's take a look here, Blake Brandel.

Uh, Brandel so far has a 76.2 pass blocking grade but has been in the 60s as a starting center and has only allowed four pressures so far this year.

Was above average last year as a pass protector.

I don't know if you wanna go to a second.

I mean, Teasley's probably planning on being the GM for a while, and those draft picks are worth their weight in gold.

So I'm just not really sure that you wanna throw that around unless you feel like someone is very, very good, and I don't know how much better, um, Cam Jurgens would, would be than what Joe Huber is going to bring them, or what, uh, Blake Brandel is already bringing.

Uh, Justin says, "My thought on the Jurgens thing is that if they don't wanna juggle multiple linemen, uh, they're, uh, that are battling concussions." Uh, yeah, and, and that's the thing is that, you know, Jurgens has had injuries and stuff before, so that last year he was banged up quite a bit.

I don't want to downplay at all Donovan Jackson and missing him.

But I also think that when you have the weapons the Vikings have, look, when they won 14 games, can we go over who their offensive line was in the second half of the season? It was Cam Robinson, Blake Brandel starting at left guard.

who was playing center Garrett Bradbury was playing center.

And then it was who would have been the right guard.

Obviously he's at right tech.

Oh, it was Dalton Reisner.

So your offensive line, when you won 14 games was cam Robinson, Blake Brandel, Garrett Bradbury, Dalton Reisner, and Brian O'Neill.

I'm not saying offensive line doesn't matter.

Yeah, to push it forward, Kyler, I mean it's interesting to me, um, going back and watching the film, it was interesting that, that, that the Dolphins played as much four-man rush as they did and had as much success with stunts as they did on the interior.

I mean, especially in the first half, it felt like there were instances where Blake Brandel was kind of squeezing toward Brian O'Neill at right tackle, and then here comes a looper, whether it was Chop Robinson or another edge rusher, just directly in the interior.

And Kyler Murray, I think, took at least two hits just straight on from the interior of the pocket.

And we, you know, as we've covered this team now since 2022, I can recall the Detroit game, i- for the NFC North title in 2024 and four-man rush stunts being a real problem in that game.

Like, made it very tough for the interior of the Vikings' offensive line.

Um, for me, it was less Joe Huber than it was Stuntz giving the right side and, and center Blake Brandel problems, and we'll get to that, um, in a second.

But y- Joe Huber, um, the staff has always liked.

There was a reason they brought him in as an undrafted free agent.

Um, and worst case scenario, if the Vikings are trying to plug and play in the short term and Joe Huber really struggles, which I'm not necessarily sure I expect at all to happen, uh, in fact, I don't think I would expect it to happen, um, then you'd have more flexibility of Jurgens at center, Brandel if need be.

But, um, you know, the interior as a whole, Will Fries, it's felt like at times facing quickness this year, he's had some trouble, some lateral agility at the line of scrimmage.

Blake Brandel, I thought for the most part has been fairly solid.

I mean, there haven't been any snap issues, which was a major theme throughout training camp, so that's definitely a positive.

I, I'm speculating that short term, where Jackson is gonna be out for a, a while.

So do the Vikings, like, look to s- sign somebody? Do they look to trade somebody? And here's where things get interesting, because Blake Brandel has played left guard before.

Blake Brandel's played all over the offensive line.

Right now, he's a center for the Vikings, and he's been fine.

He's been fine through about a year and a half as a center.

So it all comes down to, would you rather have Michael Juergens at center or Joe Huber at left guard? I think that's the choice that you are weighing.

You probably have a lot of faith that Blake Brandel can move around at this point.

He's pretty much done everything.

He's a five-position guy.