Nope, they were always going to be fodder to most the strawhats. Vice Admirals role is not for extended fights but simply to job.
It was pretty suspicious how there was 10 prominent Marines, with one being a rank higher than the rest as the supposed boss of the arc. Made it seem like Oda could be going for Luffy vs Kizaru, and 9 Vice Admirals vs 9 SHs, and it is kinda weird how Oda gave them so many panels despite them doing jack shit the whole arc.

There’s definitely some non-Zodiac Vice Admirals out there that are Tobi Roppo level (like Vergo and Onigumo), so 7 of those VAs being able to fight Jinbe and the Weakhats seemed believable. Only oddity is that 2 regular VAs would have to be strong enough to give an actual fight to Zoro and Sanji, but that could just be taken as evidence that the Zodiacs will be at least low top tier
 
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