The Christian Darrisaw Injury Timeline Needs a Specific Deadline
In Week 3, Christian Darrisaw may be on the bench. Seeing that continue into Week 4 wouldn’t make any sense at all.
Placing the stud left tackle onto the IR to begin the season would have meant embracing a full four-game absence. The benefit would have been being able to open a roster slot. Maybe another offensive lineman could have been added; alternatively, a different need could have been addressed. The decision, however, was to keep him on the active roster.
So far, he has yet to get into game action, partly contributing to J.J. McCarthy getting walloped in Week 1 and Week 2. When asked about if Darrisaw is close to returning, Kevin O’Connell offered a clear, confident “yes.”
The Christian Darrisaw Injury Timeline
Begin by acknowledging an obvious truth: sometimes plans go awry.
Darrisaw, perhaps, was trending toward being available in Week 1. That outcome clearly didn’t come to pass, so the possibility exists that something happened behind closed doors to encourage caution. The desire for ongoing caution extended into Week 2. Quite possibly, the cautiousness extends into Week 3. Has that been because of some sort of mysterious setback or has that always been a possibility?
Again, come back to the simple basics of handling a player injury.
The Vikings moved into 2025 by placing veteran fullback C.J. Ham onto injured reserve alongside rookie edge rusher Tyler Batty. These players are going to be sidelined for a minimum of four weeks. Christian Darrisaw could have been tossed into this cluster of players, but the decision was to avoid the option. The implicit suggestion was that Darrisaw would be back before a full four weeks away, creating an incentive to keep him off the IR.
Fast forward into the present moment.
A pair of weeks have been burned up on the NFL schedule. The Vikings are sitting on a 1-1 scorecard, a perfectly average record that may hinder our ability to understand how poorly the offensive line has played for stretches. Getting Darrisaw back into the mix would obviously be a major boost, but when is that going to occur?
At a minimum, the goal must be that Christian Darrisaw is back on the field for Week 4.
In Week 4 and Week 5, the Vikings will be playing overseas. There is first a game in Ireland against the Steelers. Next up is the Browns in England. Anything other than seeing Darrisaw wrestling with T.J. Watt before then battling Myles Garrett would create plenty of confusion.
Darrisaw could come back in Week 3. If so, Carson Wentz will have a better chance of earning a win in his first start as the Vikings’ starting quarterback.
Keeping Darrisaw off the field in Week 3, though, would be perfectly fine if Minnesota decides that’s the best course of action for the lineman’s long-term health (something that is paramount for the lineman who is operating on a four-year, $104 million contract). No Darrisaw on Sunday still offers the possible benefit of shaving off a week from an IR timeline. Darrisaw could be absent from Week 1 to Week 3 and still justify not being shuffled to the IR since he’ll be back for Week 4. In that outcome, the Vikings made the correct decision.
Seeing Christian Darrisaw fail to get onto the field in Week 4 would be pretty confusing, though. Being absent for the initial four games would be a hard-to-explain outcome short of a behind-the-scenes setback the team didn’t foresee.
Assuming all is proceeding smoothly, the Christian Darrisaw deadline has to be the overseas games even as Vikings fans will be hoping that the left tackle gets onto the field in Week 3 to square off with Trey Hendrickson.
Minnesota (1-1) and Cincinnati (2-0) will play at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday, September 21st. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
