A clip of Vikings center Garrett Bradbury getting thrown to the ground by Titans defensive tackle Teair Tart in a 1-on-1 drill during Thursday's joint practice has made the rounds on social media.
Tart, a former undrafted free agent who has emerged as a key starter for Tennessee, used a Reggie White-esque hump move to toss Bradbury out of the picture with his left arm. The clip was posted by Aaron Day (DLineVids), along with an alternate angle that shows Tart taunting Bradbury with a bow and arrow celebration.
Unsurprisingly, Titans fans were impressed by Tart's dominant rep and Vikings fans were concerned about their starting center get slung to the grass.
From the Minnesota perspective, it's important to keep in mind that this is just a practice rep in a 1-on-1 setting. 1-on-1 pass rush drills inherently favor the defensive player, much like 1-on-1 coverage drills favor the route-runner. This specific clip is nothing like a game scenario, as former Vikings center John Sullivan explained in my Twitter replies.
"Why is the DT rushing from a 2 technique?" Sullivan wrote. "In a game the LG would be dragging his inside hand in anticipation of a twist or to hold space so Garrett didn’t have to rush and get off balance."
Sullivan played center in the NFL for a decade. He was the Vikings' starting C from 2009-2014. That makes him a highly qualified source on the matter.
As the clip shows, the left guard in this situation (rookie Alan Ali) gets out of the way to let the 1-on-1 happen. That wouldn't be the case in a game. The clip looks bad because Bradbury loses his leverage and balance against a powerful, explosive defensive tackle, but again, that specific drill puts him in a tough spot (which, I imagine, is because the Vikings' O-line coaches wanted to see how he'd handle a difficult assignment).
I shared the clip because I found it interesting — it's a remarkable play by Tart and perhaps a teaching moment for Bradbury, technique-wise. It shouldn't change how anyone views the Vikings' center heading into the 2023 season. Keep in mind that we didn't see any of Bradbury's other 1-on-1 reps from Wednesday or Thursday's practices with the Titans, just this one.
After three years of struggles in pass protection, Bradbury took a big step forward in that area last year. The 2019 first-round pick earned a career-high 68.1 PFF pass-blocking grade and his overall 70.2 grade in the regular season ranked 10th out of 44 centers who played at least 200 snaps. Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings clearly figured out ways to give him more help and put him in better situations as a pass protector.
But Bradbury didn't suddenly get a lot bigger or stronger in his fourth season. He's never going to be great at 1-on-1 anchoring against defensive tackles; that's not the strength of his game. Bradbury is an elite run blocker and the quarterback of the Vikings' offensive line. He still had a few games with sub-30 pass blocking grades last season, including the wild card round loss when Giants All-Pro Dexter Lawrence beat him for several quarterback hits.
The key for O'Connell and company is to continue finding ways to put Bradbury in situations to succeed in pass protection so they can benefit from everything else he does well. Obviously, they liked what they saw on tape last season, as they chose to bring him back on a three-year, $15.75 million deal this offseason with nearly $10 million guaranteed.
Not long after that clip took place, Tart was kicked out of Thursday's practice for throwing a punch at Bradbury after one of the first reps in 11-on-11 action. Tart had ended up on the ground on the play.
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