When the Minnesota Vikings selected Ed Ingram in the second round with the 59th pick, they drafted what they thought was the guard of the future.
He came with an excellent pedigree in pass protection and had a stout anchor. There were some real questions about his ability to function in the wide zone due to his unideal athleticism for the scheme and how slow he can be off the ball.
His performance so far hasn’t been great. He leads the NFL in pressures and sacks allowed per PFF but some of the wow plays he has are tremendous.
The big question here is this: how do we parse this all out? Should Ingram still be starting or does he need to be benched? I broke it all down.
Advanced stats
PFF grade: 54.7 78/119
Pass blocking grade: 38.8 94/119
Run blocking grade: 64.4 34/119
Pressures allowed: 44 119/119
Sacks allowed: 8 119/119
Snaps: 743 12/119
Pass blocking snaps: 491 8/119
Efficiency: 94.3% 105/119
When you look at how much Ingram is playing, he has played as much or more than nearly every guard in the National Football League. The numbers themselves, however, are objectively bad. He is allowing pressure on 8.96% of his pass-blocking snaps, a number which is staggeringly high. It is fair to say that he is a rookie and learning on the job, but sometimes that’s not good enough.
Thursday’s game against the New England Patriots saw Ingram have his best game of the year in pass protection. He had a grade of 72.8 and only allowed one pressure with that one coming against Matthew Judon when he overset to the right, which has been a common theme for him. He recovered well, but the issue has been consistent since the preseason.
The stats aren’t great, but they have to be taken into context and don’t tell the whole story on Ingram. He has a lot of positive plays that have kept him on the field. The good plays are varied in style and there are a lot of them. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that Ingram has excelled thus far.
Hands made of iron
One of the things that you love seeing in your offensive lineman is powerful hands. They knock players off their axis and can drive players into the ground. It is a very successful strategy and allows the lineman to bury the defender with ease.
In this play, he pushed away J.J. Watt and took him completely out of the play. It allows Kirk Cousins to step up in the pocket and gets some rushing yards.
This rep against the Patriots from Thursday shows a different side of the hands.
His hand placement does a great job standing up the defensive tackle and his powerful anchor showed out in a big way. This is why the Vikings drafted him. His movement skills aren’t the greatest, but the ability to not be forklifted by the incoming pass rushers is what the Vikings haven’t had on the interior since Steve Hutchinson.
Moves like a freight train
The Vikings’ running game is built upon zone-rushing concepts. The idea of the wide zone specifically is to see the offensive line climb to the second level and block the linebackers quickly enough to allow the running back to go unimpeded.
Being a powerful player, Ingram doesn’t always have the best quickness or footspeed to make it happen, but he does have the ability to do so. On this play against the Bills, he climbs with ease and takes out the linebacker.
For every play Ed Ingram struggles, he has a play like this pic.twitter.com/yFiDYaN4UK
— Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno) November 14, 2022
Ability to recover
When you are an offensive lineman, you will get beat. It’s going to happen, even to the best blockers. It’s not about losing, it’s about how you respond to it.
The ability to recover and steady yourself in pass protection is vitally important. While Ingram has lost plenty, he has also shown both the ability to lose slowly and recover when he does.
This is the infamous play where Kirk Cousins decided that he was Lamar Jackson. Watt blasts him back with his powerful hands. Ingram’s powerful anchor prevents him from getting completely knocked off his axis and he positions himself between Watt and Cousins. He does have help from Bradbury, but this is what you want to see from your rookie right guard.
The bad is pretty ugly
It isn’t just about the good. While there is still plenty of it and, quite frankly the reason why he’s still playing, there is a good amount of bad. It usually comes in spurts. He had one of those against the Miami Dolphins. In fact, it was so bad and he missed so many blocks that the host of Locked On Vikings put his performance to Benny Hill music.
Every once in a while someone has so bad a game, they have to get the Benny Hill treatment. Today it's #Vikings RG Ed Ingram pic.twitter.com/Ehv3bMNfx0
— Luke Braun (@LukeBraunNFL) October 20, 2022
As an NFL player, you can’t miss blocks like he does in this video. He lunges at defenders but they just brush him off. As the weeks went by, this improved quite a bit, but it does exemplify how the bad has been bad.
What to do with Ingram?
I understand wanting to replace Ingram. It’s natural to want to improve your weakest link. My question for them is this:
“Who is the better option?”
That’s the thing, there isn’t a better option. Oli Udoh proved that last year and the Vikings have only dressed Chris Reed in one game this season.
The Vikings would be making a mistake by benching Ingram. He needs time to continue to get better and working through his issues is objectively a good thing. Ezra Cleveland was allowed to work through them in his rookie year back in 2020 and it’s great that Ingram is being allowed to do so.
