Christian Darrisaw’s season is officially over after he suffered a left knee injury in the Minnesota Vikings’ 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night.
Coach Kevin O’Connell announced Friday that the star left tackle will undergo season-ending surgery for “significant” injuries to his ACL and MCL. Minnesota will place Darrisaw on injured reserve with the expectation that he’ll be ready to return for the 2025 season.
Darrisaw, the Vikings’ first-round draft choice in 2021, has started 46 of his first 48 appearances for the Vikings, including all seven games this season. O’Connell acknowledged that Darrisaw is “in good spirits” and called him “one of the best left tackles in football.”
How did Darrisaw’s injury happen?
The Vikings received the ball back with under a minute remaining in the first half of Thursday night’s game. Minnesota ran the ball with running back Aaron Jones, and while Jones wiggled his way through blockers, Rams safety Jaylen McCollough collided with the back of Darrisaw’s knee. The 25-year-old fell awkwardly to the turf and trainers immediately tended to him. He was helped off the SoFi Stadium turf and ushered into the locker room.
O’Connell hinted Thursday night at the severity, saying that Darrisaw would undergo tests to “confirm” the extent of the injury.
Some have questioned O’Connell’s decision to run the ball on first down, and O’Connell referenced Rams head coach Sean McVay having a timeout remaining. O’Connell also explained that the Rams were using light personnel, so the Vikings felt as if they could pop a run, potentially then leading to a quick score before halftime, and before the Rams began the second half with the ball. — Alec Lewis, Vikings beat writer
What does Darrisaw’s injury mean for the Vikings?
It is about as deflating as news could be for a team already reeling amid two straight losses. Darrisaw is a presence in the run-blocking phase, and he has kept quarterback Sam Darnold mostly clean throughout the season.
Eliminating pressure on Darnold has been pivotal to the quarterback’s success. When he has been pressured in 2024, his completion percentage falls about 15 percentage points. Sacks have also doomed multiple Vikings drives, and most of those have been the result of interior pressure as opposed to protection on the edges.
The Vikings are likely to turn to journeyman backup David Quessenberry, who filled in for Darrisaw on Thursday. They could also reshuffle their line, sliding Blake Brandel to left tackle and inserting Dalton Risner at left guard.
It is also possible the Vikings could attempt to trade for a replacement, but Minnesota is in a confounding spot. The Vikings are 5-2 in a tough division with a once-dominant defense that has been exposed two weeks in a row. They don’t have loads of draft capital for 2025, and they don’t have handfuls of young players waiting in the wings, so keeping that draft capital feels necessary.
Minnesota also has other needs. Most notably, the Vikings need help on the interior of the defensive line, the interior of the offensive line and at cornerback — positions that have been needs since general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah arrived in 2022. — Lewis
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(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)
