Jon Gruden names Cardinals OL Jared Veldheer to his All-Grinders Team
Sep 13, 2016, 7:00 PM | Updated: 11:33 pm
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
There are some NFL players who meet the hype and others who don’t. Then there are those who never quite get the hype, yet do their jobs productively, efficiently and consistently.
That’s the idea behind ESPN NFL analyst Jon Gruden’s All-Grinders team.
Gruden’s 2016 preseason squad has few requirements. Players on the list must be reliable and productive, but they cannot have a Pro Bowl under their belts. The Arizona Cardinals landed one player on the list: Left tackle Jared Veldheer.
From Division II Hillsdale College to a reliable starting left tackle for the defending NFC West champion Cardinals? We’ll take that any day.
The 6-foot-8 offensive tackle is in his seventh NFL season and has built a reputation that fits well under Gruden’s definition of a grinder.
That was a reason Veldheer started 48 games for the Oakland Raiders in four seasons before the Cardinals signed him to a five-year, $35 million contract leading into the 2014 season.
The addition of Veldheer helped the Cardinals leap from last in the league in pass-blocking in 2013 to 24th the next season.
And in 2015, ESPN said Veldheer had his best season of his career. Pro Football Focus expected Arizona’s offensive line to be a top-10 unit in 2016 a season removed from the Cardinals putting together their most-deadly and most-balanced offense in the Bruce Arians era.
Veldheer’s grinding has much to do with that.
