Elflein plays guard, that doesn’t mean he’s good at it. He’s largely been terrible as a guard in the NFL. Low risk, high reward though. We aren’t going to be winning any games this year so we might as well see if we can build a team that will win a game or two next year.
He was rated as the #1 Center coming out of Ohio State and won the Rimington Trophy too; which goes to the NCAA's best Center. He also made the 2017 All-Rookie team. He's finally healthy again and could become an A+ addition next to Becton. I've been hard on JD myself but I give him credit when credit is due; this is a very promising move by JD. .
Good for JD, low risk high reward and if healthy can back up both the guard and center position. Let's see what he can do when healthy, and this a damned good time of year for evaluation moving forward. We had first choice and we got him, I'm sure there are plenty other teams with similar needs. No one should expect a flawless starter on the waiver wire, but could be a contributor and back up.
My research showed him with PFF scores in the 60's which is not bad. Do you have data to support your "terrible" description?
PFF says a lot of things. Terrible is admittedly an overstatement. But look at any story written about Elflein the last three days. All of them reference how he’s struggled the last few years in protection and has also struggled to stay healthy. And just because this was posted today as well: Like I said low risk high reward in a year where we aren’t gonna win a game most likely so, who cares. Might as well throw as much shit at the wall to see what sticks.
I believe it was Vikings versus Seahawks earlier this year where he had holding after holding penalty. Probably his worst game and I happened to notice it but I think he's been largely underwhelming. They also run a wide zone schemes which probably isn't the best scheme for him. Those OSU offensive lineman are usually big man on man inside combo blockers. He's not particularly big though. But it's definitely worth a flyer. He was a high pick and an outstanding college player. He might just be a much better center than he is guard. It's not really an easy switch for some. Just like the right side/left side thing.
Isn't the O-line a weakness of the Vikings? Them releasing Elflein is not a great sign for him. Still, no reason not to give him a chance. Douglas taking advantage of his current waiver claim priority.
It's very scheme specific. They have pretty much exclusively good run blockers (for an outside zone stretch running game) and bad pass blockers. So they're bad at what they're bad at and good at what they're good it. It seems like they're worse when Cousins gets blown up frequently though.
Correction: low risk, low reward. Terrible at guard, but might be OK sub at center, given McGovern sucks too. This is a waiver wire, you are not going to get star player there.
