Matt Kalil says his knees are pain-free before pivotal season with Vikings

2:04 PM ET

MINNEAPOLIS — Maybe nothing about 2016 will turn out to be all that different from 2015 and 2014 for Matt Kalil. Maybe the Minnesota Vikings left tackle will alternate stretches of solid protection for quarterback Teddy Bridgewater with the lapses that led Vikings fans to heap scorn on him two years ago and occasionally last season. In a year when Kalil needs to make a bold statement to secure his future in Minnesota, maybe he’ll write in pencil and not pen.

All that will unfold this fall, when the fourth pick in the 2012 draft plays his fifth season for the Minnesota Vikings with an $11.1 million salary and nothing guaranteed beyond this year. Kalil hasn’t matched the Pro Bowl form of his rookie season in the three years since, and the Vikings will have to decide after this season whether the 27-year-old should remain their left tackle going forward.

One thing, though, gives Kalil reason to believe this year will be different: For the first time since 2013, he is in the Vikings’ offseason program without a standing appointment on athletic trainer Eric Sugarman’s schedule. He needed knee operations after the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and Kalil’s back, …

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