Vikings right tackle Brian O’Neill is having one of his best NFL seasons – if not his best season in Year 7, according to both his head coach, Kevin O’Connell, and Pro Football Focus, the standard bearer of independent film analysis.
O’Neill, the team captain, appreciates the love from the boss. But he’s a little more focused on this week’s game plan for the Chicago Bears.
“It’s a good feeling,” O’Neill said Wednesday. “But it doesn’t mean anything if I don’t go out and play well on ‘Monday Night Football.’”
O’Neill had less love for the independent film evaluators at PFF, who claim he’s on track to have his best season as a pass protector. According to PFF’s tracking, O’Neill has allowed an average of just one QB pressure per week. Only three tackles — the Eagles’ Lane Johnson, the Buccaneers’ Tristan Wirfs and the Dolphins’ Terron Armstead — have allowed fewer pressures while playing at least 12 games.
O’Neill’s 98.4 pass-blocking efficiency, which accounts for pressures per snap, would be the best season by a Vikings offensive tackle since PFF started tracking in 2011.
The Vikings’ last meeting with Chicago on Nov. 24 was the equivalent of O’Neill pitching his fourth straight shutout for quarterback Sam Darnold. According to PFF, O’Neill didn’t allow a single pressure on the quarterback for four straight weeks against the Colts, Jaguars, Titans and Bears.
Pause your calculators, O’Neill said. That’s not how offensive line coach Chris Kuper graded him.
“No, I don’t necessarily know if anybody can go four games in a row with a clean sheet,” O’Neill said. “I’ll take it. But I don’t know, sometimes I don’t agree with it. I don’t always agree with them when they tell me I do good, and I don’t always agree with them when they tell me I do bad.”