The Minnesota Vikings couldn’t take much away from their “Thursday Night Football” drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 8, aside from the fact that head coach Kevin O’Connell is optimistic about the health statuses of a couple of key players heading into Detroit on 10 days rest.
O’Connell spoke specifically about quarterback J.J. McCarthy, saying he expects the 22-year-old will get a full week of practice after putting some work in Friday. O’Connell told media members on Thursday night that McCarthy will return to the starting lineup in place of backup QB Carson Wentz against the Lions on Nov. 2, assuming he is healthy enough to do so.
Another massive concern surrounds left tackle Christian Darrisaw, 26, who tore his ACL and MCL during the middle of last season and missed the first two games of 2025 as he continued to recover. Darrisaw left Thursday night’s game after just nine snaps due to an issue with that knee.
However, O’Connell gave an optimistic update on Darrisaw when speaking with reporters Friday.
“Don’t really have a lot of injury updates at this time. We did get in, back to the facility, close to about 5 a.m., and our players and treatments have been ongoing. I’ll be able to circle back on a lot of those things next week,” O’Connell said. “But I do feel positive about where both Brian O’Neill and Christian Darrisaw are today, and hopefully in regards to their work week next week, and leading into being available. Feel positive at this time and hope to update you more next week on that.”
Kevin Seifert of ESPN asked O’Connell if the team expects more consistent availability from Darrisaw moving forward, as his snap counts have varied from week to week to this point in the season, going up and down based on how much he played the game prior.
Darrisaw played around 63% the offensive snaps during his first game back against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3, then hit 100 percent against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 4. However, he dipped back to roughly 63% against the Cleveland Browns in Week 5 before Minnesota’s bye, returning in Week 7 to play every offensive snap against the Philadelphia Eagles. Then, of course, Darrisaw left early against the Chargers last night.
“I think it’s something that now we should be in a pretty consistent Sunday-to-Sunday type approach with some limited factors there for the foreseeable future,” O’Connell responded. “I think it’s something where hopefully we can get back into a consistent rhythm of what Christian’s work week looks like, a rhythm of what his recovery looks like coming off of a Sunday game and then try to consistently get him turned over. Because It’s not secret how critical he’s been to our success, how critical he’s been to our consistency.”
Minnesota surrendered five sacks of Wentz during the team’s 37-10 loss to the Chargers in Los Angeles.
When healthy, Darrisaw has been among the elite left tackles in the NFL. The Vikings recently signed him to a four-year extension worth $104 million that runs through the 2029 campaign.
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