The Vikings' offense needs to make one major adjustment after Christian Darrisaw's season ending injury
Once the Minnesota Vikings announced that star left tackle Christian Darrisaw was out for the season with a torn ACL and MCL, some believed the season was over. Theory being that there isn't a way they can come back from this. Now, replacing Darrisaw isn't going to be easy nor is it a good position […]
Once the Minnesota Vikings announced that star left tackle Christian Darrisaw was out for the season with a torn ACL and MCL, some believed the season was over. Theory being that there isn't a way they can come back from this.
Now, replacing Darrisaw isn't going to be easy nor is it a good position to be in. There isn't going to be a player of Darrisaw's caliber on the market but they could put in a solid player and maneuver the scheme around that. That does require head coach Kevin O'Connell to modify what he wants to do offensively.
Vikings need to modify the offense
When you watch the Vikings' offense, it's very explosive in the passing game. While they are fourth in the NFL in EPA/play, they are an even more impressive first place in EPA/dropback at 0.307. Their success rate is a little bit lower ranking sixth at 51.4%. They know how to make impactful plays in the passing game. In fact, quarterback Sam Darnold had an EPA/play of 0.30 against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night.
One of the things that allows the Vikings to be so explosive on offense is two fold: downfield passing scheme and the more than capable pass blocking. This season, Next Gen Stats has Darnold with the highest time to throw this season at 3.10 seconds. O'Connell is asking a lot of his passing game and it's working, especially when you consider their pass blocking.
Pass Block Win Rate is a stat from ESPN that measures blocks sustained for more than 2.5 seconds. It's not a perfect metric for every context, but it matters quite a bit when talking about the Vikings passing attack because O'Connell is asking them to block for a long time. The Vikings currently rank eighth in Pass Block Win Rate at 65%. First place is the Denver Broncos at 72%. That's a very important factor in making the Vikings' offense the way it's currently structured successful.
With the Vikings' replacing Darrisaw, there are two things that they need to do in order to maximize their offense:
- Run the ball more effectively
- Utilize more quick game
Darnold is taking too many sacks with some of them being directly his fault. Against the Rams, Darnold took two sacks when he spun around and tried to bail out to the left instead of going to his right. With Darrisaw out, the amount of sacks that Darnold will be subjected to is likely to rise because left tackle will be a significant downgrade.
If you run more quick game (slants, speed outs, whip routes, etc), that will lessen the amount of stress on the offensive line. It will make things easier for the passing game to operate and give players like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson the ability to get yards after the catch.
Now, the return of the aforementioned Hockenson will also make a huge impact as well. The Vikings love to use Hockenson in the middle of the field and Johnny Mundt isn't the kind of guy who can exploit that in anywhere close to the same way.
No matter what they end up doing, they need to make some sort of adjustment to make their lives easier post-Darrisaw.
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