Ty Chandler broke out Sunday night with 110 total yards against the Broncos, prompting questions about him possibly passing Alexander Mattison as the No. 1 back on the team. Why isn’t Chandler the top dog? It’s all about trust.
“He’s grown tremendously from when we had him as a rookie. Sometimes with a young player you’re seeing the finished product over a year and a half of learning the position, learning the game, learning the NFL game. He’s always been a talented player, and we always knew that about him. It’s a different path for everybody and then when he starts making plays, that’s what we all expected,” Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said Tuesday.
After rushing for six yards per carry in his senior year at North Carolina, Chandler was only able to get six total rushing attempts in his rookie season behind Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison. Before his ten attempts Sunday night, Chandler had just 23 carries all season. Despite clear ability on display in the previous two preseasons something wasn’t clicking for Chandler to get regular season snaps.
“Sometimes you can look back and say, ‘Why wasn’t it happening before?’ We got to be ready to trust someone to put in the game and sometimes when you’re a rookie it’s tough. You’re coming into a league where terminology is way different, a lot more scheme, a lot more details, a lot more discipline with even just tracks. A lot of these guys are used to just being gun runs, ‘I’m lined up six yards, I’m behind the quarterback and I just go downhill and let my ability takeover.’ And of course pass protection, he stepped up in there and was on the right guys this week. You just keep building trust that way and then you get more opportunities.”
If Phillips is complimenting Chandler’s pass protection after Pro Football Focus tagged him for being responsible for two quarterback hits against the Broncos, then maybe the full picture is coming together for Chandler.
“He was on top of pass protection. We’re always going to continue to work fundamentals and technique on those types of things. He was right on top of everything he needed to pick up this week,” Phillips said.
With one promising rushing performance in the books is there more to come?
“He’s shown that he’s making plays and we’re going to try to continue to get him touches. What that exactly looks like going forward, we’ll keep talking about. We’re going to try to get him some touches and make sure he’s apart of it.”
