Vikings offensive line put together with tape and glue for Sunday’s game against Browns

LONDON – Most Vikings fans cheering for receiver Jordan Addison’s 81-yard catch and run at the end of last week’s loss to the Steelers in Dublin failed to see replacement center Michael Jurgens dragging his strained hamstring the same distance.

“Luckily,” Jurgens said, “the broadcast doesn’t really care about fat guys, so they didn’t have any clips of me hobbling down the field.”

Jurgens, the Vikings backup center, said he injured the leg on his second snap replacing injured starting center Ryan Kelly, who suffered his second concussion in three weeks during the first half against Pittsburgh. Right tackle Brian O’Neill had already exited because of a sprained knee ligament suffered while blocking for a field goal on the opening drive.

It’s been that kind of year already for an injury-ravaged offensive line.

Through the first quarter of the NFL season, the Vikings’ talented and expensive crew of blockers — Christian Darrisaw, Donovan Jackson, Kelly, Will Fries and O’Neill — have not played a single snap together.

Reserve Blake Brandel will make his 25th NFL start — his first at center — in Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“It’s been kind of crazy,” backup tackle Walter Rouse said.

“No, I definitely wasn’t expecting it,” said undrafted rookie guard Joe Huber, who is expected to make his first NFL start.

The Vikings ruled out three starting blockers — Kelly, O’Neill and Jackson (who had wrist surgery two weeks ago) — as well as Jurgens against a vaunted Browns defensive front led by four-time All-Pro edge rusher Myles Garrett. On Saturday, the team placed Kelly on injured reserve, meaning he will miss at least the next four games.

Brandel first snapped to quarterback Carson Wentz on the sideline during the Steelers loss, when Jurgens was evaluated in the medical tent. Adrenaline and a wrap helped Jurgens gut through the second half, but he will cede Sunday’s start to Brandel.

“When you get to your third center on game day,” coach Kevin O’Connell said, “that is a unique thing as far as my time in the NFL.”

However, O’Connell added about Brandel: “But I knew right away my comfort level — play calls weren’t going to change a whole lot. You’ve got a guy who knows the system inside and out. Then it’s just about the rest of the four guys being able to operate with some kind of togetherness feel. That group has to work five as one.”

It was the Vikings. They needed a tackle on the practice squad just to get through the week, with O’Neill expected to miss at least Sunday’s game and Darrisaw getting practice time off to manage his surgically repaired knee.

Waletzko, the Cold Spring, Minn., native and former University of North Dakota tackle, was being asked to fly 4,000 miles to join the team he grew up rooting for.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’” Waletzko said. “You travel halfway across the world to play for my hometown team. It was exciting, though, it really was.”

Since the Vikings were in the middle of a 10-day, two-game international road trip, equipment director Mike Parson stitched spare numbers and letters onto one of the blank jerseys he brought just in case.

Brandel, the sixth-year blocker, has been invaluable in the Vikings’ efforts to fashion together this offensive line. He has already started at three positions — left tackle, right guard and left guard — in his Vikings career. He will add a fourth when he starts at center on Sunday.

But …

“Never played it in a game,” Brandel said. “I’ve had a lot of practice reps, whether that’s scout team or whatever. It’s just one of those things I knew, at some point, it could be a possibility — and we’re here.”

The heady parts of playing center — setting pass protections and targeting run plays — won’t be a problem, Brandel said. Extra practice time has gone toward the simple snap exchange with Wentz, who joined the team six weeks ago.

“It’s new,” Wentz said. “Just got to work through the kinks this week. … He seems confident, which is huge. That alone makes a difference.”

The Vikings also turn to Huber, an undrafted rookie whose 12 career snaps on offense came at the end of the Week 3 blowout victory over the Bengals. Huber, listed 6-5 and 310 pounds, packs a punch that stood out to coaches during training camp.

The rookie stood out in Thursday’s padded practice.

“You’re watching Joe in there during the reps he was in,” O’Connell said, “and just feels so rooted and strong. He’s got some pretty unique power to him, and enough movement skills and athleticism to pair that together.”

Fries, the fifth-year veteran, was already taking Huber under his wing with extra film study after practices.

“Looking at rushes,” Huber said, “talking to each other, telling each other what we’re going to get. It’s helped me a lot.”

Should any more injuries thin the O-line, coaches have already discussed 6-5, 264-pound tight end Josh Oliver as a possible emergency option.

There’s never a good Sunday to go without three starting offensive linemen.

But this week might be particularly tough.

No defense has given up fewer yards — 222.5 per game — than the Browns, and that’s in large part because of Garrett, the perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

“It all starts with 95,” O’Connell said. “His every-down impact: run, pass, he’s out there on special teams trying to block punts, trying to block field goals. Literally every play you can think of. Just hope they don’t split him out at ‘X’ receiver and try to throw him fades. Hopefully, I don’t give them any ideas.

“But it’s not just him,” he added. “They’re very well-coached, a ton of energy, they’re one of those classic fronts where everything they do is forward. They’re trying to win the line of scrimmage from the second the ball is snapped.”

Two rookies — first-round defensive tackle Mason Graham and second-round linebacker Carson Schwesinger — have made instant impacts. Free-agent addition Maliek Collins, the 30-year-old defensive tackle, has found a fountain of youth in Cleveland.

They don’t just stop the run; they shove runners backward. They are proven whether you want the new stats (-0.21 expected points added per run rank third) or the old stats (2.6 yards per carry on designed runs rank second), per Sports Info Solutions.

That sets up fierce pass rushers such as Garrett, whose 19.8% pressure rate trails only two defenders (the Packers’ Micah Parsons and the Texans’ Will Anderson Jr.) among 40 NFL defenders with at least 100 pass rushes.

Wentz, making his third Vikings start, called Garrett “a beast.”

“He’s as good as it gets on that side of the ball,” Wentz said. “Obviously, we all got our work cut out for us. Very aware of where he’s at.”