Christian Darrisaw’s absence raises multiple questions about his recovery and Kevin O’Connell made one thing clear
Christian Darrisaw still being out is very curious.
The Minnesota Vikings are still waiting for the return of left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who is still recovering from the torn ACL he suffered last season in week 8 against the Los Angeles Rams. It’s getting a little worrisome that Darrisaw is still out despite being over 10 months removed from his surgery to repair his knee.
Friday afternoon brought the news that Darrisaw was going to be out on Sunday night against the Atlanta Falcons, and the frustration is becoming more and more palpable.
Kevin O’Connell clearing the air about Christian Darrisaw raises more questions
The first question in trying to understand where Darrisaw is at is whether or not he suffered a setback. Head coach Kevin O’Connell made it very clear with a simple answer.
“Nope,” said O’Connell.
That eases one aspect of the discussion. However, we still have some interesting questions about the entire situation. The first of them is why Darrisaw was questionable going into Monday night’s game and worked out before the game started, but not going into Sunday night against the Falcons.
“There’s some rules in place regarding the ability to go through pregame warm-ups and see how he felt, and all those things. The grass field, a lot of nuances that don’t always go into the layers upon layers of the designation, but it’s a day-to-day approach right now, a very collaborative approach with Christian, most importantly, myself, our medical team. And we’ll continue to meet Christian where he’s been from the standpoint of his work ethic and ability to work himself back in, and can’t wait to get him back when we can.”
O’Connell clarified the designation rules a few questions later in the press conference and explained why they navigated with Darrisaw that way.
“There was a thought of wanting to just make sure that we completed the weekly process, specifically knowing that we had the extra day, and then allowing Christian to go feel the atmosphere, and start getting his mind in that place where he could go,” said O’Connell about having Darrisaw work out pregame. “And it was a total positive. From that standpoint, he continues to progress. And with the injury he had, he’s still so far ahead of schedule and in such a great place on the daily that we just want to continue that. And as I’ve told Christian and our medical staff many, many times: first and foremost, the number one priority will always be what’s in the best interest, not only in the present, but more importantly, in the long term for the player. And you know, that’s going to be how we’ll always handle each and every injury situation with the players’ best as our number one priority.”
Here’s where things get interesting. Darrisaw is now 10 months and a week removed from his torn ACL and MCL, which is longer than the standard nine-month recovery time for a normal ACL injury. T.J. Hockenson returned nine months and a week after his surgery, but it’s worth noting that his surgery was delayed a month due to swelling in his knee.
How bad was Darrisaw’s knee that it’s taking this long for him to get onto the field? It could have been worse when they opened him up, as an MRI often will miss something due to swelling in the joint itself. It could also be a case of Darrisaw’s weight making it harder for him to heal quickly. As an offensive lineman, Darrisaw is over 300 lbs, and the more you weigh, the harder it is on your joints. The other factor could just be the Vikings being super conservative with his recovery, which is par for the course with their medical staff.
We don’t have the answers to why Darrisaw isn’t playing yet, but at least we know it’s not a setback. A lot of questions remain unanswered about this situation, but it’s very curious, and the longer Darrisaw remains out, the more questions we will have.
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