Image courtesy of Vikings.com
This part of one of our ten part series focusing on the biggest questions facing the Vikings as they head into Mankato for their training camp festivities. The first question that comes to mind, one that will certainly impact the makeup of this roster greatly, is the health of three veteran Vikings that ended last season too injured to play.
He’s bravely faced the task of recovering from the torn Achilles tendon that caused him to miss all of 2015. He has already taken a significant pay cut for the chance to be a Viking in 2016. Still, Rick Spielman and company landed themselves a rather large contingency plan when they signed free agent tackle Andre Smith to a one-year deal. Not only is Smith a “Plan B” in the event that Loadholt isn’t healthy, but he is decent competition for a fully healthy Loadholt to contend with.
During OTAs, Loadholt declared himself 100% recovered and was eager to participate.
“I feel like I’m moving pretty well,” said Loadholt at the time. “I got some things I’ve got to get better at obviously, but I’m working hard to get better and those things and be ready to roll.”
The season before last, Loadholt also missed the final five games with a shoulder injury, meaning the Vikings have had to make due without him for quite some time now and a player that can’t stay on the field loses their value to a team very quickly.
Soon we will find out just how “ready to roll” Loadholt is and, despite all of the positive signs of late, one setback that keeps him away from practice could prematurely end his career with the team that drafted him.
The talented center was greatly missed in 2015 as the offensive line clearly could have used all the help they could get, but also seemed to miss the leadership that Sullivan brings to the table when he is on the field.
After two back surgeries took his 2015 season from him, a very concerning turn of events for the 30 year old blocker, Sullivan has stated that his personal sights have been set on the 2016 season all along and he’s been doing everything possible to slim down and get his body ready.
“I’m not eating at restaurants very much; I’m not drinking at all,” Sullivan told the Pioneer Press. “I’m really focused on being as healthy as possible.”
As a result, Sullivan has reportedly trimmed 15 to 20 pounds off his weight, and he is hoping that his new 300 pound frame will help to strengthen his back. If the new diet and workout works out as planned, it will be a good sign for new Vikings strength and conditioning coach Brent Salazar’s contributions to the team.
“I’m cognizant of what I eat at all times,” Sullivan said. “I don’t have cheat meals. … Just working out with [Salazar] and his program is excellent. He does a really good job of focusing on muscle activation. … I feel like I’m moving well when I get on the field. I don’t even think about my injuries from a year ago, so I’m really feeling good.”
A back injury is very worrisome for a football player, perhaps of particular concern for a lineman, but Sullivan stealing the starting job back from Joe Berger would be an ideal situation all around. This will certainly be a situation to keep a close eye on throughout training camp.
Unlike Loadholt and Sullivan, tight end Rhett Ellison waited until the final regular season game of 2015 to suffer the ugly injury that caused him to miss the team’s lone playoff game.
The January tear of his patellar tendon puts Ellison in a time crunch when it comes to returning to action in time for camp, where he faces moderately significant competition, but he is also optimistic that he’ll be able to make it all work out.
“That’s definitely my goal right now,” Ellison said in June. “I’m on the right track. As long as there are no setbacks in rehab, I should be all good.”
After prolonged negotiations came to a head with his father and an odd Facebook post, Ellison signed a one-year deal that has him returning to Minnesota. Ellison’s optimism aside, one has to wonder just how ready he’ll be at the start of the 2016 season, and if sixth round rookie David Morgan can take advantage of his own audition.
I’ve kind of assumed all along that Ellison would start the season on the PUP list as a best case scenario, but I’m certainly not a doctor and you can’t dismiss his optimism about being ready to play in Mankato.
Each part of this series will allow Vikings Territory readers a chance to make their own predictions in advance of training camp. This will perhaps be the most difficult of them all, as predicting how Vikings injuries will play out is horribly impossible, even for the most informed of us.
Regardless, there is no harm in trying…
View Comments
wow, Nice walk through of memory lane. gives me the same feeling as hearing Kleinsasser at the end of he career.
Loadholt is a long shot to make the team. He got out of shape after his big contract and landed on the injury list a couple of times. Now, he is wounded AND old on a young team. Truth is, his pass protection was never all that good.
"He got out of shape after his big contract"
Do you have a citation for that?
Second time recently VT has referred to Morgan as a 5th rounder. No big deal I guess.
Ooops, good catch and thank you.
All thre of these guys are valuable assets. You can never have too many O lineman as evidenced by last years shuffling of the Guard, excuse the pun. Ellison is just a blue-collar player who can never be counted out. At the very worst he goes on the pup allowing the Vikings to develop David Morgan. The Vikes really need Sullivan who is a proven commodity when healthy, and that would give us one of the deepest O lines in the league. Big Phil is still an elite road grader, but he'll be in the fight of his life with Andre Smith.
Ya - of the three, I think Sullivan has the best opportunity to start again. As it relates to back injuries, simple time to heal and adequate strengthening are consistent key indicators for recovery in all the research (I used to work in rehab department), above and beyond surgeries. 12 months is typically a great time frame for recovery, and I always wonder how much pro athletes push the bubble in order to return. Was Sully overly aggressive in returning last time, hence the setback? Speculation, I know, but one does wonder after seeing so many guys (on lots of teams) get hurt and then bounce back and forth with playing/not playing.
For that reason, I think it would be smart to stash Ellison on the PUP until he's perhaps 'overly' progressed. A patellar tear ain't no joke.
Phil - always had a soft spot for big Phil. I hope he competes, but can't shake the feeling that he'll be an early camp cut if Smith stays healthy (so that Loadholt can latch on with another team early). In general we appear to be favoring pass blocking more than run blocking, and there's always concern about massive human beings recovering from Achilles' tears.