The Minnesota Vikings pulled left tackle Christian Darrisaw early from their Week 5 game against the Cleveland Browns, though the team is insisting it wasn’t due to an injury he sustained during the contest.
Darrisaw suffered torn ligaments in his knee during the middle of last season and missed the first two contests of the 2025 campaign as he continued to rehabilitate from surgery. He returned in Week 3 and played 38 offensive snaps (63.3 percent) against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The following weekend against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin, Darrisaw doubled that snap total to 76, which represented 100 percent of the plays available to him. Minnesota also saw fit to insert Darrisaw on three special teams snaps against Pittsburgh.
But before the end of the first half against Cleveland, the Vikings pulled Darrisaw from the game and held him out of the final two quarters entirely — all despite the fact that Minnesota entered the locker room trailing 10-7 and was already without three of its starting offensive linemen because of injury heading into the game.
Following the contest, head coach Kevin O’Connell spoke to Darrisaw’s absence from the latter portion of the contest, which was in doubt until the Vikings took a four-point lead with just 25 seconds to play.
“Christian Darrisaw was part of a plan,” O’Connell said. “We knew at some point based upon the high snap count last week — we wanted to be smart with CD. Didn’t make it any easier as far as having to navigate the end of the game there without one of the best left tackles in football.”
“But wanna compliment CD,” O’Connell continued. “His willingness to continue to ramp up and continue to be such a critical factor for our team — proud of him.”
Kevin O’Connell’s Explanation of Christian Darrisaw’s Exit Doesn’t Track With Arc of Left Tackle’s Return to Action
GettyMinnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell.
It was clear that the Vikings planned to gradually integrate Darrisaw back into the starting lineup and back to full action based on the arc of the first four games.
However, a hard snap count limit after playing the entirety of the game before is an unusual tactic if a player isn’t experiencing some pain, or some re-occurring or new injury issue.
Also, given the importance of Sunday’s contest for a Vikings squad heading into its bye week and the fact that the team was already missing 60 percent of its starters on the offensive line renders O’Connell’s explanation all the more eyebrow-raising.
Vikings’ Offensive Line Should Be Relatively Healthy After Bye Week
GettyRight tackle Brian O’Neill of the Minnesota Vikings.
In any case, Minnesota now has two weeks to get healthy. If Darrisaw isn’t injured, he should be available in some capacity come October 19 when the Vikings host the Philadelphia Eagles.
Right tackle Brian O’Neill suffered a knee injury in Week 4 but the team chose not to put him on injured reserve (IR), which is a strong indicator that he may be ready to go two weeks from now. Rookie guard Donovan Jackson is rehabilitating from wrist surgery and could also return by Week 7.
The biggest question mark — assuming again that the Vikings aren’t keeping anything quiet and Darrisaw is, in fact, fully healthy — is the status of center Ryan Kelly.
Kelly just went to IR after suffering what appeared to be his second concussion in four weeks this season. That means he will be out until at least November 2, when Minnesota travels to Ford Field to take on the Detroit Lions.
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