Vikings See Yet Another Large Lad Tossed Onto Injury Pile
Once that snowball starts rolling, it can be hard to slow down. What was once a small collection of packed snow is morphing into a giant boulder of slick ice and sleet.
The Wednesday injury report involved the Vikings seeing yet another of their big fellas included within the injury news. All of LT1 Christian Darrisaw (knee), LT2 Justin Skule (concussion), and C1 Ryan Kelly (concussion) are working through injuries. These problems are well-known and caught nobody off guard. What may have raised some eyebrows was seeing LG1 Donovan Jackson included.
Vikings See Donovan Jackson on Injury Report
Mr. Jackson, 22, is already a starter.
The issue in front of him is that he’s now working through a wrist ailment. Thankfully, a wrist isn’t as serious as someone’s head, neck, or back, but we’re still talking about something that could meaningfully hinder a guard. Winning in the trenches is often a hand battle — putting some electricity in one’s mitts is ultra important — so a bad wrist is a poor outcome.
The rookie is a pair of games into his NFL career. So far, things have been inconsistent.
Standing at 6’5″ and weighing 315 pounds, Donovan Jackson was drafted at No. 24 so that he could slot into the LG1 job from Week 1 onward. He has done so, earning 100% of the team’s snaps on offense, meaning he has earned 103 snaps when combining the Bears and Falcons games.
Overall, Donovan Jackson is sitting on a 60.7 PFF grade, a humdrum number that’s slotting him at 38th among 88 guards under consideration. So, an average score that’s putting him slightly above average relative to his NFL peers.
Jackson is being dinged with allowing 1 sack, 1 QB hit, and 4 pressures. He has yet to commit a penalty, a streak he’ll be looking to continue. The scores on PFF suggest that Jackson had a sizzling Week 1 before a dreadful Week 2. Smoothing things out by steadying his weekly performance is the goal.
More broadly, the Vikings’ offensive line needs to be better.
Some of the problem was an overflow from J.J. McCarthy and his inexperience. At times, the young passer looked overwhelmed by the speed of the game, unable to elude the grasp of defenders in the same way that he may have while at Michigan.
Inserting Carson Wentz into the lineup is discouraging. Nobody wants to see the young arm need to step away to get healthy. The cold reality, however, is that Wentz may perform better on Sunday than McCarthy would have.
Mr. Wentz is 32 and has been in the NFL since 2016. Neither of these details are a guarantee of success, but there’s something to be said for having 98 games of experience. He has won a Super Bowl and piled up 153 touchdown passes in his career while completing 62.7% of his passes.
Don’t be at all surprised if he’s a noticeable upgrade versus Cincinnati’s underwhelming defense.
Goes without saying, perhaps, but having a strong performance from the offensive line would make Carson Wents’s job much easier. To that end, health helps. If Donovan Jackson can’t go, then Blake Brandel appears to be the next man up.
Kickoff between the Vikings and Bengals is scheduled for 12 p.m. on Sunday, September 21st.
The game will take place inside U.S. Bank Stadium as Minnesota looks to climb to 2-1 while Cincinnati looks to avoid dropping to 2-1.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and PFF helped with this piece.
