Pricey New Viking Has Already Entered the Starting Lineup
OTAs are underway, and some of the Vikings have made their first steps onto a football field with the NFL veterans. Among those are all the draft picks and undrafted rookies who will compete for roster spots and starting jobs in the next three months until cutdown day sends many of them on the search for new gigs elsewhere.
Pricey New Viking Has Already Entered the Starting Lineup
A player who shouldn’t have to fear cutdown day whatsoever is offensive guard Donovan Jackson, Minnesota’s 24th overall pick and promising candidate to be the long-term solution at the left guard position.
Despite his draft status as a rare first-round guard — in fact, he is the first guard the Vikings selected since Randall McDaniel in 1988 — he still has to dethrone a veteran to take a starting spot. At this time of the year, however, it’s more about acclimating to the new teammates and the NFL level rather than competing with them.
Kevin O’Connell made sure to let people know about his view of OTAs on Wednesday when he was talking to the media: “As an ultimate reminder, it is the learning and teaching phase of the offseason program. So, getting out in front of any rep questions, competition questions, tracking of completions and/or handoffs; I’ll go ahead and allow the time of the year speak for itself, but I will say it is great to see everybody, especially the big group, today.”
Depth chart questions won’t be answered in May, but we can still learn something about the order in which they might be stacked on the very-early depth chart.
One nugget: Donovan Jackson is already running with the top offensive line. For that info, we just have to throw it back to Mr. O’Connell: “Love to have all five of those guys out there, but Donovan [Jackson] got some great work in there today next to Ryan Kelly.”
Indeed, not all five guys from the intended starting offensive line were out there. Christian Darrisaw is still recovering from his torn ACL. For him, free-agent addition Justin Skule subbed in at left tackle. Will Fries is in the final stages of the leg injury that cost him the majority of last season, and Blake Brandel, last year’s 2024 left guard, functioned as the right guard in his place.
That opened the door for Jackson to step into the vacated left guard spot. It is noteworthy that Brandel is cross-trained at the other guard spot and not kept at left guard, making it quite obvious that the Vikings expect him to be the backup guard sooner rather than later.
Whether he will ultimately lose his job to Jackson in time for Week 1 remains to be seen. The rookie surely has the talent to challenge him early in his Vikings tenure.
Speaking of cross-trained, Jackson started 40 games at Ohio State. Of those were the first 31 at left guard and the last nine at left tackle to compensate for the season-ending knee injury of actual left tackle Josh Simmons.
Right after the draft, O’Connell addressed the media and revealed his dream offensive line: “Envisioning [Jackson] being on a front with potentially Ryan Kelly and Christian Darrisaw, Will Fries and Brian O’Neill. That’s a pretty formidable group on paper. We’ve got to make it come to life on the grass.”
Darrisaw’s status will be a thing to watch throughout the summer. He might miss the first few games. Fries, meanwhile, is close to returning.
About his early professional experience, Jackson said Wednesday: “It’s a step up in competition for sure. You’ve got to learn as you go. There’s guys who’ve been doing it, playing at a high level, for a very long time, so you’ve got to step in, not step on nobody’s toes, but you also [have] to show you’ve been learning and developing. It’s definitely a little bit different from college, that’s for sure.”
The 22-year-old paired with Fries has a chance to form the best guard duo the club has had in a very long time.