Offense Concerns (plus kicker)

As Vikings fans, we can all huddle together and agree that we fear a world where Dakota Dozier starts more football games on purpose. But right now, that’s where we stand. Dozier took the first-team reps in the spring, and likely will continue when camp begins. But camp is long, and there are plenty of chances for rookie Wyatt Davis to overtake the veteran.

We’ve been through a lot of pain on the offensive line in Minnesota over the last decade. From T.J. Clemmings to Pat Elflein to Dru Samia, a long list of players became public enemy No. 1 in the state. Right now, Dozier holds that title. That makes it difficult to cut through the frustration and give Dozier a true evaluation. I’m not necessarily here to disprove Dozier’s reputation as a bad offensive lineman; I’m here to define it.

Davis will have some standard rookie problems to overcome. It’s hard to learn an NFL playbook over a few months and even harder to apply that knowledge in a real, fast-moving game. It’s plenty common for rookie offensive linemen to take some time to start not because they aren’t better than the guy in front of them, but because they simply aren’t ready to play. There’s no rookie who doesn’t have to grapple with this, so we’ll set it aside and focus on the specifics of Dakota Dozier.

Perhaps the most eye-catching problem in Dozier’s tape is how he performs against stunts. The most common stunts involve one player crashing into an offensive lineman to create an opening while a player from somewhere else loops around to attack the opening. In the below example, the edge will try to lure the guard inside while the defensive tackle attacks his outside shoulder. This was something teams threw at Dozier a ton because they saw how bad he was against it.



As pointed out during our conversation about Davis after the draft, Dozier has a nasty habit of overcommitting to crashing defenders. Not only does that open up lanes for looping defenders, but it can ruin his positioning and lead to ugly losses as well. It’s not just stunts and twists. Any deceptive tactics work on him like a charm. Put more simply, Dozier is way too gullible.



Playing against stunts is one of Davis’s biggest strengths. Even when Clemson threw their infamous arsenal of stunts at him, he was prepared and mostly unfazed. He only lost out to a couple of stunts with the looper coming from all the way across the formation. This is a fantastic opportunity for Davis to demonstrate why he should get the job.