Analysis: Injuries blur the Vikings’ vision for their offensive line again

DUBLIN – After the Vikings’ season ended with a 27-9 wild-card loss to the Rams on Jan. 13, coach Kevin O’Connell made clear the team’s need for interior offensive line upgrades. The Vikings committed more than $100 million to former Colts guard Will Fries and center Ryan Kelly in March, then took Ohio State guard Donovan Jackson in the first round of the NFL draft in April. With the interior fixed and left tackle Christian Darrisaw returning from a torn knee ligament, the thinking went, the Vikings would have all they needed to boost their run game and make J.J. McCarthy’s first full season as easy as possible.

It might be premature to say the plans haven’t worked. In a sense, the Vikings are still waiting for the day they are healthy enough to put them into action. But through the first month of the season, the pass protection problems the Vikings paid to fix are as big a liability as ever.

According to Pro Football Reference, Vikings quarterbacks have been sacked on 13.95% of dropbacks this season, the highest rate in team history (beating the 1964 team by more than a percentage point) and the 12th highest in NFL history. In the 21st century, only the 2002 Texans — an expansion team that subjected No. 1 overall pick David Carr to a league-high 76 sacks — and the 2023 Giants have had a worse sack percentage.

The 2-2 team has given up at least three sacks in every game this season, and in its past five games (dating back to the playoff loss to the Rams), it has given up 27 sacks. All three quarterbacks to start for the Vikings in the current calendar year — Sam Darnold, J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz — have been sacked at least six times in a game.

In Sunday’s 24-21 loss to Pittsburgh, three of the Steelers’ six sacks came on third downs when the Vikings needed 9 or more yards for a first down.

“Those downs tend to be the weighty downs, tend to be the hard ones and the most magnified when you’re down some guys because it requires some individual one-on-one blocks at times,” O’Connell said, “and you’re trying to do everything you can to eliminate or at least contain some of the very familiar names on the other side that can affect the passer.”

The chief reason for the protection issues this season is obvious: injuries. The Vikings have yet to put their preferred five linemen on the field for a game snap this season; even going back to training camp, Darrisaw was still recovering from knee surgery and Ryan Kelly missed time because of an elbow issue. It’s meant a lack of time for their starters to work together, and a near-constant need to get help from backups. On Sunday, they started Blake Brandel at left guard with Jackson out due to wrist surgery; at one point, Brandel prepared to move to center before Michael Jurgens returned after going to the medical tent.

Sunday’s injuries to Kelly and Brian O’Neill again mean the Vikings’ depth will be tested. They also could have ramifications in the future, given the contract status of both players in 2026.

The Vikings have more than $348 million of salary cap commitments on their roster for next season, and even if they roll over most of their remaining $16 million of cap space into next year, they will still be looking for cap savings after this year’s spending spree to fortify both lines of scrimmage and retain cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. on a three-year extension.

Kelly, who signed a two-year, $18 million deal with the Vikings, has a cap number of $12.117 million for 2026. None of his $7.89 million base salary is guaranteed, meaning the Vikings could save all of that money by releasing Kelly next year.

The concussion he suffered Sunday was his second in three weeks, his fourth since 2023 and the fifth of his career, which could raise larger questions about his long-term health prospects if he keeps playing. O’Connell acknowledged those questions Sunday, while saying player health is the “beginning, middle and end of the conversation” when it comes to handling concussions.

“We’ll totally defer to the doctors and we’ll defer to the protocol,” O’Connell said Sunday. “Ultimately we’re going to want to make sure Ryan is in a good place. That’s not anything I particularly ever want to mess around with.”

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The Vikings cut Garrett Bradbury this spring, pursuing Kelly as a veteran option who could be a valuable ally for McCarthy and provide a more forceful barrier against interior pass rushers than Bradbury had. They have also been excited about Jurgens, a 2024 seventh-round pick, as a possible future starter, though he has struggled in his first three NFL games, giving up a sack in the Bengals game and two against the Steelers.

Jurgens could get more time to play the rest of this season, and given the cap space they would recoup by playing a center in the third year of a rookie deal in 2026, it’s not hard to understand why Jurgens could be an important piece for them to develop. But he will have to improve in pass protection, and show the kind of communication, mobility and field sense the Vikings want from a center in the run game.

While the interior line has been a question for several years, the Vikings have been comparatively stable at the tackle positions with O’Neill and Darrisaw. But O’Neill’s knee injury (a sprained MCL) introduced another question for a player who turned 30 this month and will be in the final year of his deal in 2026.

O’Neill is scheduled to count for $23.2 million against the Vikings’ cap next year, though none of his $18.9 million base salary is guaranteed and only $3.7 million of signing bonus money remains on the cap from the deal he signed in 2021. The Vikings don’t have an obvious successor at right tackle; O’Neill is a trusted voice in the locker room, and he’s still young enough that he could remain a fixture on the line for several years. He returned from a January 2022 avulsion fracture in his right foot in time to start in Week 1 of the 2023 season, and played all 17 games last year after missing three games with an ankle injury in 2023.

As the Vikings look toward a 2026 draft where they’re projected to have nine picks, including four in the top 100, offensive line could again be a need, with centers like Florida’s Jake Slaughter or right tackles like Miami’s Francis Mauigoa possibly getting their attention.

O’Connell said Friday the Vikings were “moving toward that time where we’ll get all five of those original guys out there.” But again, after Sunday’s injuries, that date appeared to be postponed.