Christian Darrisaw’s Recovery Experiences a Glorious Hiccup
Christian Darrisaw is doing tremendously well in his injury recovery. That’s been the consistent word from Kevin O’Connell.
In fact, the head coach recently reiterated just how well his stud left tackle has been doing. The progress has been so dramatic that working against normal human beings — NFL trainers rather than NFL players — proved to be a potential problem: “It was just a matter of, he’s progressed to a point that, if you put some trainers out in front of him, he’s probably, we’re going to have to go find those trainers after he throws them over the fence ’cause he’s that strong. So we had to get him back around real football players.”
Christian Darrisaw and Those Poor, Poor Trainers
Make an intentional effort to take your eyes off of the quarterback. Watch Christian Darrisaw instead.
The large lad moves effortlessly, demonstrating an easy athleticism that shouldn’t be possible for someone so large. He’s a wonderfully-gifted athlete, a ballerina and a bully all wrapped up in a single person. For good reason, Ryan Grigson described his left tackle as having “blue feet,” a description that suggests Darrisaw is elite in his movements.
One issue is holding back Christian Darrisaw: an inability to stay healthy.
Going into his fifth season, Darrisaw has yet to play a full year in the NFL. True, he has been mostly available, but there’s a desire for more since he still has so much potential. Genuinely, Darrisaw could become the NFL’s preeminent left tackle if things work out. Or, more precisely, if he can both stay healthy and continue to work so hard to improve. Combine his natural abilities with health and hard work; doing so would mean that the NFL’s edge rushers better be wary of going against #71.
Last season, the Vikings’ LT1 put together a rock-solid 81.4 grade on PFF in his seven games. Very good, yes, but a bit below where he’s capable of being. The 2023 season involved snagging a healthy 82.4 grade — 8th in the NFL — while the 2022 season involved a truly sizzling 90.4 grade, an elite number that landed him at 2nd in the NFL.
For what feels like forever, Trent Williams has been upheld as the gold standard for tackle play in the NFL. There’s still a long way to go before Christian Darrisaw can be tossed into the same range as Williams — a fourteen-year veteran with eleven Pro Bowl nods alongside a trio of first-team All Pro honors — but the potential is there.
By speaking about tossing trainers, O’Connell is obviously being a bit hyperbolic. The point, though, is still well taken: the left tackle is moving very well, allowing him to operate with the power that the team has grown accustomed to seeing out of the young tackle.
Elsewhere in the same response, O’Connell notes that Darrisaw has been doing a “phenomenal” job and that he possesses “laser focus” in his recovery. There’s some evasiveness with the tackle’s “timeline” while still praising him for the work he has been doing.
Translation: there are no guarantees as it relates to Christian Darrisaw being ready for the season’s opening game, but he is doing remarkably well. So well, in fact, that he needs to work against NFL players so as not to send NFL trainers into orbit.
Darrisaw, 26, agreed to a four-year extension that’s sitting at $104 million. Truth be told, the annual average of $26 million is going to look like a bargain if the team gets a healthy lineman back into the mix for the long haul. He has the potential to be elite, making the Vikings’ ability to pick him at No. 23 back in 2021 pretty stunning stuff.
If Christian Darrisaw can’t go in Week 1, then Justin Skule will probably get the start.
