Vikings All But Confirm Christian Darrisaw’s Replacement
OTAs are underway, so the Minnesota Vikings are getting acclimated to their new teammates. Among those newcomers is the newly built offensive line with three potential new starters. Will Fries and Ryan Kelly are sure-fire starters, while rookie Donovan Jackson still needs to beat out Blake Brandel first.
Frontrunner for Christian Darrisaw Replacement Confirmed
On the outside, the Vikes employ two standout tackles, Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill. Darrisaw suffered a severe knee injury last season and has not been cleared for on-field work yet.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said last month, “Christian Darrisaw has absolutely knocked it out of the park so far. Working alongside our staff here. He’s had a really, really good offseason up until this point. The latest update I got. You know, he’s lifting, he’s running. People were pretty excited about where he’s at now. It’s just a matter of maintaining.”
Those injury updates should always be taken with a grain of salt. We’ll know more in training camp when we can see him either participating in drills, doing individual stuff on the sidelines, or being absent altogether. There’s a good chance he won’t be ready for Week 1, especially because the Vikings usually play it safe, and he is an important player for the organization’s future.
If he’s out, the primary replacement options are free agent signee Justin Skule, last year’s sixth-rounder Walter Rouse, or guard Blake Brandel, who started his career at tackle and might have lost his job to Jackson.
Entering OTAs, folks favor Skule, and he took the reps in Darrisaw’s place. On Wednesday, the Vikings wrote on their official team website: “Veteran newcomer Justin Skule filled in at left tackle for Christian Darrisaw, who is recovering from a knee injury he suffered in Week 8.”
In March, Skule, 28, signed a one-year deal worth $2 million. The Vikings list the large human being at 6’6″ and 315 lbs. Skule came into the NFL in 2019 as a 49ers sixth-round pick out of Vanderbilt. He played in 15 regular-season games and three in the postseason in his debut season and even logged eight starts. That was a Super Bowl year for San Francisco, and they also knocked the Vikings out of the playoffs.
In his second campaign, in 2020, Skule appeared in 16 games with four starts. When it was time to compete for a starting job in 2021, the tackle suffered a torn ACL in the offseason, and he missed the entire season and failed to make the 53-man roster in 2022.
The Buccaneers then signed him in September of 2022, and he played in one game. In the last two seasons, he appeared in all 17 regular-season contests with the Bucs and logged five starts in 2024.
Skule brings experience to the table, especially in the role of a swing backup tackle, who has played both left and right tackle. The Vikings likely wanted to upgrade there. Skule’s PFF grade ranked 43rd out of 140 tackles last year.
Sophomore Rouse probably wants to unseat the veteran throughout the summer. There was some buzz about him switching to guard earlier this offseason, but the arrivals of Fries and Jackson might have ended those talks. Still, he had some promising outings in his first preseason and gained a ton of experience at the college level.
Regardless, if a game were played tomorrow, Skule would be your starting left tackle and J.J. McCarthy’s blindside protector.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.