For the latest Pass Pro Lab, Vikings right guard Will Fries joined me to break down his pass-protection tape and work through some of the details that have shaped his game.
Fries spent his first four seasons in Indianapolis before signing with Minnesota last offseason. At 6-foot-6, he presents some interesting problems from a pass-protection standpoint. He’s a powerful player with a very good anchor, but taller guards also have to be especially disciplined with their posture, eyes and hand placement. This becomes even more important against the shorter, lower-to-the-ground interior rushers he has faced like Nnamdi Madubuike and others.
That became one of the main threads of our film session.
As we worked through reps against Derrick Brown, Justin Madubuike, Christian Barmore, Alim McNeill and others, we kept coming back to Fries’ inside hand—where it landed, whether his lat was engaged, how it affected his ability to stay square and how quickly he could recover when a rusher attacked it.
At one point Fries put it pretty simply:
“A big theme that we’ve seen with me on this tape is how important that inside hand is to winning.”
That wasn’t something we set out to make the focus of the conversation. It developed as we went through the tape, which is one of the things I enjoy most about doing these film rooms.
We also got into the larger parts of playing guard in today’s NFL: handling games and overloaded fronts, practicing against Brian Flores’ defense every day, why Fries studies Zach Martin on a weekly basis, what he learned playing next to Braden Smith and with Quenton Nelson, and how confidence affects the speed at which an offensive lineman plays.
Fries was also candid about the reps that didn’t go well. We watched losses, recoveries and instances where the next rep showed an adjustment from what happened earlier in the game.
We covered:
Playing guard at 6-foot-6
Inside-hand placement and lat engagement
Staying inside-out against quick interior rushers
Cross-chop answers
Eye discipline and what Fries learned from Quenton Nelson
Handling giant fronts, twists and overload pressures
Practicing against Brian Flores’ defense
Finishing blocks and the mental side of playing offensive line
Nnamdi Madubuike’s combination of speed and power
Pass protecting against Derrick Brown
Christian Barmore’s forklift and power rush
Recovering when the initial technique isn’t clean
Why confidence matters in pass protection
Preparing for specific rush moves during the week
What Fries studies from Zach Martin
Playing games with Brian O’Neill
Why offensive line stats rarely tell the entire story
Late in the session, we watched a rep where Fries and Brian O’Neill handled a game cleanly, but the play still ended in a sack.
Fries made a point that gets at how difficult offensive line play can be to evaluate from the outside:
“People like looking at stats and attaching numbers to offensive line play. There’s so much more nuance than what you might get graded on or what might show up on the stat sheet.”
My response:
“I just feel like trying to grade offensive line from the outside is a losing battle.”
That discussion—and the film behind it—is part of the full session below.
Full audio is available to everyone. The complete film room and timestamps are available for paid subscribers.
*Recording begins a few minutes into our conversation.
