"I've loved looking over there, walking over there in practice and seeing the way those guys have worked," Offensive Coordinator Wes Phillips told local media members during mandatory minicamp.
"We have all those sports science trackers [that measure datapoints]," he continued. "Those guys are really, really working hard. Keith and his group have done a phenomenal job right from the start, setting the standards, setting the tone, the expectation for the group. And I think it's going to pay off for us."
Phillips noted what Fries endured to make it to the field, no less be the only one up front to fill his role for all 17 games, can be easily forgotten. The "rock" of that line lost some weight, according to Phillips, and per O'Neill, whom he trained with in Arizona earlier this offseason, is "as motivated as I've ever seen him."
Fries, for sure, is "moving a couple clicks faster" on the grass, O'Neill shared, and he's noticeably leaner. The team's longest-tenured offensive player, O'Neill, also piped that his tackle mate "looks unbelievable."
"I'm so fired up to get him back to what we know he is – and what we know he can be," he said of Darrisaw. "I hope people didn't forget who he is, because that's one of the best tackles in the NFL."
It's the absolute truth. Darrisaw arguably was a Pro Bowl snub in 2023 when he toed the left side of the line in 15 contests and cleared an 85.3 Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade, good for the No. 3 mark among NFL tackles (min. 5 games). The year prior, "Big Dog" strutted his road-grading gusto, earning an elite 90.6 run-blocking score, which also landed third on the edges. He wasn't far off the top tally, either, belonging to 12-time Pro Bowl bookend Trent Williams (91.8). Furthermore, Darrisaw was a top-performing tackle in 2024, ranking 11th with an 81.4 overall grade before injury. Case in point, he's a proven commodity when he's healthy – and staying that way is a skeleton key to the team's success in 2026.