Young lineman trying to make name for himself with Vikings

MANKATO - Rookie Phil Loadholt was out because of a sprained ankle for the fifth game of the 2009 season at St. Louis. Beyond that, the Vikings started the same offensive line from the opener at Cleveland through the NFC Championship Game at New Orleans:

LT-Bryant McKinnie. LG-Steve Hutchinson. C-John Sullivan. RG-Anthony Herrera. RT-Loadholt.

There was the bad Sunday night in Arizona on Dec. 6 when Loadholt and McKinnie left in the first half. Those minor injuries became an afterthought when middle linebacker E.J. Henderson was lost for the rest of the season because of a broken leg.

Artis Hicks spent four seasons with the Vikings -- first as a regular at right guard in 2006, then as a valuable backup at both tackle and guard. Hicks signed as a free agent with Washington.

Jon Cooper will have a place on the roster as the backup to Sullivan. And guard Chris DeGeare, the fifth-round draftee from Wake Forest, is a cinch to have a place on the season-opening 53-player roster.

A year ago, the Vikings carried eight offensive linemen on that roster, and went with seven on the 45-player active list for most games. They were able to get away with those bare minimums because of Hicks' ability to be the backup at both tackles and guards.

The Vikings are not likely to get away with eight of 53 and seven of 45 again this season. Ryan Cook can play several positions, but he hasn't established enough in four seasons to be a certainty for the roster.

Presuming the first theory turns out to be correct, the final job for a lineman figures to go to either Drew Radovich or Pat Brown. Radovich made the Vikings as a rookie in 2008 but was never active. He was re-signed for the practice squad for six weeks at the end of last season.

That's also where Brown spent most of his first pro season, after getting cut by Carolina and then spending two weeks on New England's practice squad.

"I was there long enough to get chewed out by Bill Belichick," Brown said.

Is a chewing-out from Belichick a memorable experience? "Oh, yeah," Brown said. "He knew my name. I was impressed by that."

Brown underwent open-heart surgery for a jagged aorta as a 6-year-old. Sometimes, lifelong restrictions for activities are placed on a kid after that surgery. The order to Brown after his recovery was, "Get on with life."

"TCU was a Top 25 program, and I liked it there, but Central Florida was different," Brown said. "The feel of the place was as though you were still going to high school."

The head coach was George O'Leary, hired by the Orlando school after spending two seasons (2002-03) as Mike Tice's defensive coordinator with the Vikings. "He's a great motivator, a great coach," Brown said of O'Leary.

Brown met another motivator -- strength coach Tom Kanavy -- after signing on to the Vikings' practice squad last Sept. 29.

"As linemen, we're lifting all the time, but Kanavy had some different things that I felt helped me a lot," Brown said. "A rookie year is more chaos than anything. But I knew, with one year experience, you had to show a lot more. My best chance to get better as a player was to spend the offseason in his conditioning program."

Brown showed up at Winter Park in February, a couple of weeks before the formal start of Kanavy's program. The 6-5, 310-pounder didn't miss a day in the offseason. He worked at left tackle in minicamp and OTAs, and at left guard and right tackle in training camp.