The Minnesota Vikings having offensive line issues is pretty normal. It’s been part of the team’s fabric for the last 15 years.

The last truly great offensive line was in 2009, and that team went to the NFC Championship Game. The units in 2010, 2011, and 2012 were also good, but they struggled mightily after that. Even in their NFC Championship Game season of 2017, the offensive line was a major issue, and the Philadelphia Eagles feasted on Riley Reiff, Mike Remmers, and Pat Elflein.

This season, the offensive line was inconsistent at best, and it cost offensive line coach Chris Kuper his job.

Issues with the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive line are complicated in context

We know the offensive line needs to be better. There isn’t a single person who will argue against that fact. The big thing here is figuring out how much blame to assign to each element.

Let’s start here. The offensive line’s biggest issues were with injuries instead of just performance. When you look at the starters, who played less than 100 snaps together this season, they had 106 pressures allowed on 3,340 snaps. That is one pressure allowed on every 31.5 snaps played, or every 6.3 plays. The backup offensive linemen were worse: they had 1,658 snaps this season, allowed 67 pressures, and played by backup offensive linemen. That’s a rate two-thirds as good as the starters, at 24.75 snaps, or every 4.95 plays

Player	Snaps	Pass Blocking Snaps	Pressures	Efficiency
Christian Darrisaw	504	325	18	96.7
Donovan Jackson	784	468	26	96.8
Ryan Kelly	329	191	4	98.6
Will Fries	989	612	37	96.5
Brian O’Neill	734	446	21	97.3
Justin Skule	578	356	29	94.6
Blake Brandel	604	395	19	97.0
Joe Huber	79	50	4	94.6
Walter Rouse	88	62	6	94.3
Michael Jurgens	309	177	9	96.1

Pressures are the best stat here, but the ideal outcome is getting a sack. The Vikings’ quarterbacks were sacked 60 times this season. Normally, your brain would go right to the offensive line.

Where things get fascinating is how the sacks get distributed.

Position	Sacks	Percent
Offensive Line	26	43.33%
RB/WR/TE	4	6.67%
Quarterback	18	30%
No Responsibility	12	20%

The interesting one is quantifying the no-responsibility sacks. Those are given out when no one player is responsible. Sometimes, an overload blitz happens, and a sack occurs. What is stark is seeing how few sacks actually came from offensive linemen.

Of those 26 sacks, just 10 of them (38.46 percent) came from the starting five. Not all pressures are created equally, and when the backups were playing, things were significantly worse for the Vikings.

This isn’t meant to absolve the offensive line as a whole. They needed to play better, but the missed games, along with Darrisaw and O’Neill playing hurt consistently throughout the season, were huge factors in their performance.

Quarterback play was a big factor

The optics of the offensive line always hinge on the quarterback’s play. The flaws that the 2024 offensive line possessed were mitigated by the brilliance of Sam Darnold in navigating the pocket. This season, the Vikings weren’t so lucky. All three quarterbacks who started for the Vikings were bad in one way, shape, or form.

All three quarterbacks had serious issues with being pressured this season.

Player	Times Pressured	Pressure Percentage	Pressures Allowed	Percent of Dropbacks w/Some Responsibility	Sacks
J.J. McCarthy	115	39.5%	18	18.4%	8
Carson Wentz	78	39.2%	11	15.3%	5
Max Brosmer	34	39.1%	6	22.2%	5

It’s not just being responsible for pressure, but also how you act when pressured and processing the field as a whole. All three quarterbacks struggled in processing the field quickly and making decisions in a timely fashion. Those all make a serious impact on the offensive line’s performance.

The fix is relatively simple for the Vikings

When it comes to the offensive line for the Vikings, it isn’t perfect. If Ryan Kelly does end up retiring, center could become a need. However, that depends on how the team feels about both Blake Brandel and Michael Jurgens.

The reality of the offensive line comes down to three factors:

• They need to stay healthy
• Quarterback play must improve
• Small coaching changes can elevate this unit

Too many are calling for major changes to a unit that was decimated due to injuries. The only needs on this unit are a center if you don’t believe a starter exists on the roster and a swing tackle. They have four or five starters locked in, and having that is huge.

It’s going to require patience, but if we see Darrisaw improve to his normal level, that will arguably do enough on its own to fix the offensive line.

Minnesota Vikings News

Minnesota Vikings make necessary change on their coaching staff, and it’s one the fanbase has been asking for

The Minnesota Vikings announced they would not be retaining offensive line coach Chris Kuper after four seasons with the team.

Tyler Forness

Minnesota Vikings News

Minnesota Vikings Offensive Line Coach Hotboard: Kevin O’Connell has many excellent options to replace Chris Kuper

Kevin O’Connell is looking to replace his offensive line coach for the first time after the Minnesota Vikings chose to move on from Chris Kuper.

AJ Schulte