It’s game week for the opening game of the regular season and Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer is still silent about who will start at center against the 49ers on Sunday.
Essentially, there are three players who could step in and start the opener: Pat Elflein, Brett Jones or Danny Isidora. All three options come with risk.
Elflein has yet to practice fully since undergoing two surgeries during the offseason, so if he starts, he’ll be taking his first live reps in meaningful competition.
Jones has only been with the Vikings for a week, although Zimmer liked what he saw out of him when he played 62 snaps against the Titans in the preseason finale last Thursday.
“I thought he did good. He’s a good pass protector,” Zimmer said Monday. “I thought he did a nice job when they had the power runs, the double teams, the things like that. I thought he did a good job with those. Coming in in one day and playing, that’s impressive.”
Isidora just started taking reps at center recently, and he’s never played as a center in a game. That said, Zimmer says Isidora has come “really far” in a short period of time working at center.
“I think that might be a natural position for him. He’s never done it before, and for him to do it in basically a week, I thought it’s been impressive. It’s been good this week as well.”
When asked if he has any concerns about quarterback Kirk Cousins possibly taking snaps from a center he’s never played with in the regular season before, Zimmer snapped back: “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him.”
The rest of the starting offensive line is a question as well. We’ll learn more throughout the week, but we may not know the starting center until just before kickoff on Sunday.
