Vikings center Garrett Bradbury’s new diet has a secret ingredient: ‘Indian Ocean saltwater’

Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell issued a widespread challenge to play with more power and physicality after last season, when the Vikings pillow-fought their way to one of the worst run-game efforts in franchise history.

Smack dab in the middle of that challenge — literally — was making center Garrett Bradbury heavier and stronger without losing the speed that got him selected in the first round in 2019.

Bradbury embraced the challenge, changing his offseason lifting and diet regimen as well as the men hired to train him as he spent the winter months in Arizona working out with new left guard Blake Brandel, right tackle Brian O’Neill and former Vikings guard Ezra Cleveland.

“Ask him about his Indian Ocean saltwater diet,” guard Dalton Risner told a reporter snooping into Bradbury’s offseason changes.

Bradbury laughed.

“Dalton’s never taken a supplement in his life while [O’Neill] and I are on a pretty regimented schedule of what to eat, what supplements to take and when,” Bradbury said. “So Dalton was asking about what we were taking. I showed him this supplement that takes electrolytes and minerals from sea water. And now Dalton’s named it the Indian Ocean saltwater diet.”

Whatever it is, Brandel said the supplement helps with recovery from strenuous workouts that helped him and Bradbury reach new levels of strength in the weight room this offseason.

“It doesn’t taste good, that’s for sure,” Brandel said. “It comes in a vial and you drink it once a day. It tastes exactly how you would expect it to. But there are benefits. I don’t know. I worry about the football field and trust that our guys know what they’re doing when it comes to the workouts and supplements.”

Bradbury, Brandel and Cleveland have trained in Arizona during winter months before. This year, however, they switched “their guys,” going with trainers Andrew Hauser and Nate Berry of Continuum High Performance.

“It was a lot of heavy lifting in February, March, which is usually a time just to get the body back,” Bradbury said. “Switched routines. Went heavier. Hit the weights harder.”

Instead of rebuilding strength at the start of the OTAs, Bradbury said he told Vikings director of player performance Josh Hingst and director of football development/assistant performance coach Derik Keyes that he wanted to “push harder” than he ever has in the spring.

Bradbury, who has struggled consistently with bigger nose tackles, looks bigger, stronger. He says he’s only five to 10 pounds above his listed weight of 300, but feels he’s reached the optimum weight he and O’Connell were looking for.

O’Connell was asked why he spent Day 1 of this year’s training camp emphasizing the focus on playing with more physicality. After all, one would think physicality would be on a coach’s to-do list every year, eh?

“It’s something you always emphasize,” O’Connell said. “But is it truly part of what you’re living and breathing?”

Committing to Brandel — a 6-7, 315-pound former tackle — as the new left guard is part of the strive to be more physical up front. So is having Risner, a career left guard, switch sides to push the shaky Ed Ingram at right guard.

Of course, O’Connell shares the blame for last season, when the Vikings put up these anemic numbers:

• Seven rushing touchdowns, tied with 1962 and ’96 for fewest in a non-strike year in franchise history.

• 393 carries, seventh fewest.

• 1,533 yards, eighth fewest.

• 3.95 average yards per carry, fourth worst since 1997.

• 59.26% in goal-to-go situations, 29th in the league.

• 47.06% in red-zone conversions, 28th in the league.

“We just have to enforce [physicality],” O’Connell said. “There are a lot of things I need to do better, and one I need to focus on is how do we always have that mindset … to put an arm around your team from a physicality standpoint of what we can be.”

Can O’Connell’s run game actually ditch its pillows for power up front? Who knows, but if it does, let’s go with Risner and call it the “Indian Ocean Saltwater Offense.”