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halfgiz wrote:Anybody else hear anything? Or is this fake?
Andre Smith ✔@BigSmitty71
Minneapolis here I come...Excited to join the great Vikings organization today on a 1-yr deal!!#SKOLVikings!!
11:51 AM - 17 Mar 2016
Also reported on PFT.James wrote:
It must be true. That's his legit Twitter profile.
Well, he wasn't very good last year from reports I have heard (I don't think I personally watched a Bengals game last year), so I'm not sure about that. I am curious to see if he might be allowed to compete at RG should he lose out on the RT competition.James wrote:So I'm going to assume this means Loadholt will most likely ride the bench this year, maybe. Even if they do let them compete at camp, I doubt he will beat out Andre Smith. That and I don't think Smith would've signed for anything less of the starting role.
Expect a true competition. Don't rule out Loadholt. FWIW the book on Smith is he's been better in pass protection than run blocking. Smith would've faced the same competition in Arizona. He's also been on a pretty steep decline as of late.James wrote:So I'm going to assume this means Loadholt will most likely ride the bench this year, maybe. Even if they do let them compete at camp, I doubt he will beat out Andre Smith. That and I don't think Smith would've signed for anything less of the starting role.
Doubtful. He's never played it. But he WAS a LT coming out of Alabama. However he'll compete with Loadholt and Clemmings at RT. We have enough competition at guard (especially if we sign a rookie).HardcoreVikesFan wrote:I wonder if Smith could play RG at all? He definitely has the size to play guard.
I wonder if the staff believe that T.J. Clemmings could play LT, or if they view him as someone who could play guard? It would be really hard to imagine this team getting rid of Smith, Loadholt, or Clemmings before the start of the regular season.dead_poet wrote: Doubtful. He's never played it. But he WAS a LT coming out of Alabama. However he'll compete with Loadholt and Clemmings at RT. We have enough competition at guard (especially if we sign a rookie).
If Boone is the presumptive backup at LT, its hard to imagine all three (smith, loadholt, clemmings) make the team unless one of them has the ability to slide inside to G.HardcoreVikesFan wrote: I wonder if the staff believe that T.J. Clemmings could play LT, or if they view him as someone who could play guard? It would be really hard to imagine this team getting rid of Smith, Loadholt, or Clemmings before the start of the regular season.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-foo ... ive-o-lineEven before the Smith signing, the Vikes had the NFL's most expensive offensive line for the 2016 season, according to Spotrac. Without Smith, they had just south of $35 million in cap space invested in the guys up front, over 25 percent of the total room available. Smith's $3.5 million hit raises the total investment to over 28 percent of the cap. The next closest team is the Jets at 24.6 percent.
Thanks for the link. Interesting! There will be a lot of money coming off the books next year from all these one year deals, and APs likely re-negotiation or release. If they can get a good group, I'd imagine they'll have the cap space to keep them together into 2017 and still end up spending less on the OLine than they will this year.S197 wrote:Spielman taking the 00 Buck approach. And this approach is not cheap (although to be fair has minimal impact beyond 2016):
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-foo ... ive-o-line