At Vikings Training Camp, it’s Case Closed on Key Roster Competition

The passers are still battling. The men responsible for snapping the ball aren’t.

Blake Brandel is looking like he’s got the C1 job locked up at Vikings training camp. All along, the likeliest scenario was that he was going to earn the starting spot, but there was some sliver of doubt. That doesn’t appear to be the case more than a week ahead of the debut preseason game. Like a news network confident enough to make the call on election night, VT is saying there’s a winner with some votes still being counted.

Vikings Training Camp: Blake Brandel Appears to be Clear C1

Long before he was the starting center, Mr. Brandel told Vikings Territory that he could play center.

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“You take all those scout team reps,” Brandel said when chatting about his past, “if you’re not a starter, you’re on the look team, and so just kind of continuing to progress. Like I was saying, I knew in order to stick around I was going to have to play multiple positions, so I started playing guard, started playing center. And just trying to show them that I was willing to kind of learn whatever it took in order for me to stick around and they were super helpful through that process, coaching me up and getting me better.”

What was once just a possibility — a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option — now looks like it’s starting to get written in the ink used to write down the starting lineup.

Go ahead and consider what some of his teammates have been saying.

Right tackle Brian O’Neill chatted with the media. “Blake’s awesome,” O’Neill begins. “Young offensive lineman need to look at Blake” for inspiration, claims O’Neill, before indicating that he’s “really hopeful and confident that [Brandel] has a great year.”

Starting left guard Donovan Jackson expressed confidence, as well. Ironically, Jackson is the one who replaced Brandel, but that hasn’t slowed the sophomore from kicking over praised: “He’s quick and efficient with his calls, and that allows everyone else on the o-line to communicate effectively within the shot clock. So he’s done an amazing job and we’re just trying to go where he takes us.”

Finally, consider that the man himself is doing some media, chatting with KFAN for close to ten minutes. Brandel quipped that he “love[s] playing center” and that “it fits my personality a little bit in terms of yelling at people and telling them what to do.”

Vikings training camp is still pretty young. In theory, much remains to be determined since there’s several weeks between now and the great descent to the 53-man roster. There’s then a couple weeks before the Week 1 game when the Packers arrive in the Twin Cities for a tilt inside of U.S. Bank Stadium.

Still, this one appears to be case closed. Brandel is running away with the competition. As a result, the focus is shifting toward who is going to secure the backup job(s). All of Michael Jurgens, Gavin Gerhardt, and Delby Lemieux (among others) need to start jostling for the backup job. Could Henry Byrd be an out-of-nowhere contender?

Playing on the final year of his contract, Brandel looks like an extension candidate. Locking him up for another couple of seasons could mean arriving at some rare continuity along the offensive line.

Blake Brandel is 29.

Senior Editor for Vikings Territory & PurplePTSD . Twitter & Bluesky: @VikingsGazette. Email: k.joudry[at]vikingsterritory[dot]com. Canadian. Jude 1:24-25.