Vikings Made the Christian Darrisaw Decision
It’s finally gameday for the Minnesota Vikings, a squad that’s coming off a 14-win season. In the playoffs, the team got bounced immediately, in part because of the offensive line’s struggles. That group missed Christian Darrisaw, and having a backup was too much to overcome, in addition to the subpar interior of the line.
Vikings Made the Christian Darrisaw Decision
The interior was overhauled in the offseason, but Darrisaw’s status for Week 1 was a mystery until a couple of hours before the game. Once the list of inactives arrived, Skol Nation knew about his Monday fate.
Indeed, Darrisaw remains out for another week. Max Brosmer will still function as the emergency QB. Harrison Smith needs to ramp up his conditioning before returning, but he’s very much in play to make his comeback next week. Zavier Scott and Elijah Williams have been ruled out since Saturday, and Joe Huber is the only non-injury-related absence (Brosmer aside).
ESPN’s Kevin Seifert noted, “The Vikings won’t have LT Christian Darrisaw, who is close but not all the way back from the torn ACL/MCL that cut short his 2024 season. Justin Skule likely to start in his place. The Vikings had previously ruled out S Harrison Smith (personal health issue).”
Darrisaw is an elite football player, and it would’ve been nice to have him protect young passer J.J. McCarthy in his first NFL game. The blocker suffered a torn ACL and MCL in last year’s game against the Los Angeles Rams and has made frequent participations throughout training camp. Despite logging a couple of full practices, he remains out for another game.
Now that he’s sidelined, it’s fair to assume veteran Justin Skule will take his place. The left side of the line will be the clear weakness Chicago likely wants to exploit with the journeyman backup suiting up at left tackle and rookie Donovan Jackson making his first career start at left guard, whereas Ryan Kelly at center, as well as Will Fries at right guard and Brian O’Neill at right tackle, should be a solid and experienced unit.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said Wednesday about Darrisaw: “He had a great camp, checked every box from a workload standpoint, building into this week. He’ll practice today. Always, with CD, just with how committed he’s been to taking the daily approach, we’ve done the same with him. We’re gonna progress forward and be smart, but we’re gonna give him every opportunity to practice and then see how he feels, and ultimately, in regards to his availability, we’ll make that decision as the week progresses. He looks really good.”
Darrisaw has been playing at a Pro Bowl level for years, although he has never been to that game.
“I think he surprised even himself early on in training camp, as we began that crafted plan by Tyler Williams and the doctors and Christian himself. He’s had some really good progression days where we’ve been able to stack it up. And we’re in game week now. He’s gonna take a lot of reps today, if not all of them, and then we’ll see how he feels,” Kevin O’Connell added.
While all of that sounded good, O’Connell added some more cautious words at the end: “Ultimately, Christian’s such an important player to our team that we want to make sure we’re smart about the plan, but also, I think he’s earned the right to, by all the things he’s done — there’s no reason to make the decision for any other reason than what’s best for CD, and he’s gonna be heavily involved in that. Knowing we’ve got 17 games, including a short week next week, and then ultimately our trip overseas. There’s gotta be a big picture mindset to a player of Christian’s caliber.”
Considering his practice workload, Darrisaw will likely return at some point in the next few weeks. His next chance will be the home opener on Sunday versus the Atlanta Falcons.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.