The Vikings must address issues in the interior of the offensive line; what are the options?

Purple fans green with envy should look deeper than the quarterbacks while watching the NFL’s Elite Eight play four divisional playoff games this weekend.

Start each game by studying the three faceless grunts fortifying the front of the passing pocket and pushing piles in the running game. Left guard, center, right guard. That’s the area the Vikings need to fix most following a 14-win season soured by the record-tying nine-sack wild-card beatdown from a 10-win Rams team at a neutral stadium.

Need some statistics to keep you focused on that priority?

They aren’t pretty, but here goes:

• Sam Darnold lost 82 yards on nine sacks in the Vikings playoff game. The six winning quarterbacks last week lost a combined 59 yards on 11 sacks.

• Darnold was hit 12 times in the pocket. Lamar Jackson (one), Jalen Hurts (five) and Josh Allen (six) were hit a combined 12 times.

Parse out whatever percentage of deserving blame you want to assign Darnold for holding the ball too long and this fact still remains: When asked after the game if fixing the offensive line was a priority, coach Kevin O’Connell not only nodded but added, “We’ve got to find a way to solidify the interior of the pocket, starting first and foremost.”

His general manager, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, was asked three days later if he agreed with that assessment. He didn’t disagree, but he did try to soften the sharp edges.

“I would agree,” Adofo-Mensah said. “What I would say though is, a lot of times everybody hears that and thinks the answer is kind of simple. And the answer can come from different ways. It can come from a different player. It could come from a player year over year improving. It could come from how we do things from a pass protection standpoint.”

It sounds harsh to say this about four men who helped a Vikings team with no outside expectations win 14 games, but there’s nothing of greater importance on Adofo-Mensah’s to-do list than searching for better players than center Garrett Bradbury and guards Blake Brandel, Dalton Risner and Ed Ingram.

Risner is a free agent and unlikely to return. Bradbury is signed through 2027, Brandel 2026 and Ingram 2025. If the latter three didn’t make the team, the total cap savings would be $9.5 million with only $4 million in dead money.

The Vikings will have plenty of cap space and little draft capital, so it seems to be time for them to dive into some free-agency battles for the top interior offensive linemen available.

Some of the guards who could reach free agency are Cowboys seven-time first-team All-Pro Zack Martin, 34; Jaguars five-time Pro Bowl player Brandon Scherff, 33; and Detroit’s Kevin Zeitler, 34. The top centers could include the Colts’ Ryan Kelly, 32; and Green Bay’s Josh Myers, 27.

Let’s look at some of the divisional round teams to see what they have done at those positions in recent years.

We all know the Eagles wanted to run the ball with more force. Well, they did more than sign Saquon Barkley, their 2,000-yard rusher. They also gave former Jets first-round pick Mekhi Becton a one-year, $5.5 million deal and moved him from tackle to right guard.

Becton is 6-7 and 363 pounds. That’s 4 inches taller and 56 pounds heavier than Ingram.

We also know the already-powerful Ravens wanted to run the ball with even more force. Well, they did more than sign a 247-pound running back (Derrick Henry) to run behind their 300-pound fullback (Patrick Ricard). They also moved former Gopher Daniel Faalele, their fourth-round pick in 2022, from tackle to right guard.

Faalele is 6-8 and 380. Playing next to Tyler Linderbaum, one of the best centers in the league.

It’s no coincidence the Ravens led the league in rushing yards per game (187.6) and per carry (5.76). Or that they ran for 299 yards and two touchdowns on 50 carries (6.0) as Jackson threw only five incompletions in last week’s rout of the Steelers.

Then there is the NFL’s reigning dynasty in Kansas City.

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl during the 2019 season. A year later, their offensive line was humiliated in a 31-9 Super Bowl loss to Tampa Bay.

What happened a year after that?

Kansas City used a second-round pick on center Creed Humphrey, a sixth-round pick on 6-6, 321-pound right guard Trey Smith and turned to free agency to sign left guard Joe Thuney, who had helped the Patriots win two Super Bowls.

Four seasons later, Humphrey and Thuney are first-team All-Pro on a No. 1-seeded Chiefs team that’s going for an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl victory. As for Smith, well, he’s started every game since Day 3 of that ‘21 draft.

So go ahead and argue that sacks are the quarterback’s fault. Or that the tackles are to blame (the Chiefs played that Super Bowl with backup tackles). Or that a different scheme might help the current players who are struggling.

In Kansas City, Andy Reid knew that even Patrick Mahomes, the Houdini of quarterbacks, can’t overcome pressure up the middle. When faced with tough questions about their offensive line in 2021, Reid and his GM, Brett Veach, chose the answers that included different players.