KOC gives injury updates on Vikings' Christian Darrisaw, Harrison Smith

It sounds like Darrisaw has a real chance to play in Chicago on Monday night, but the Vikings also want to make sure they're looking at the big picture.

It sounds like Christian Darrisaw has a chance to play on Monday night against the Bears, but that decision has not been made yet. | Images courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

Will J.J. McCarthy have his star left tackle protecting his blind side on Monday night in Chicago? Christian Darrisaw has done everything right in his rehab process from last year's major knee injury, giving himself a real chance to play in Week 1. However, that decision hasn't been made yet, head coach Kevin O'Connell said on Wednesday.

"He had a great camp, checked every box from a workload standpoint, building into this week," O'Connell said. "He'll practice today. Always, with CD, just with how committed he's been to taking the daily approach, we've done the same with him. We're gonna progress forward and be smart, but we're gonna give him every opportunity to practice and then see how he feels, and ultimately, in regards to his availability, we'll make that decision as the week progresses."

Darrisaw, who is one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL when healthy, suffered a torn ACL and MCL last October 24 in Los Angeles. On Monday, it will have been about 10.5 months since that injury. That's on the shorter side of recovery time from such a substantial injury, but Darrisaw is a rare athlete even by NFL standards. He returned to the field during minicamp in early June, which few expected. He then ramped up his participation levels over the course of training camp.

The Vikings have their first full practice of the week on Wednesday afternoon, and O'Connell said Darrisaw is going to take most or all of the reps at left tackle with the first-team offense.

"He looks really good," O'Connell said. "I think he surprised even himself early on in training camp, as we began that crafted plan by Tyler (Williams) and the doctors and Christian himself. He's had some really good progression days where we've been able to stack it up. And we're in game week now. He's gonna take a lot of reps today, if not all of them, and then we'll see how he feels."

Images Courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings have a couple different factors to weigh. Darrisaw is one of their best and most important players, so they're going to be sure to take a big-picture approach with him. Last year, T.J. Hockenson didn't return to action until more than 11 months had passed since his ACL injury, and that included sitting a couple extra games after the team's bye week — which many had speculated was a logical target date for his return.

But at the same time, they're not going to hold Darrisaw back just for the sake of precaution if they believe he's ready to go at Soldier Field. They want him on the field once the decision is made that he's 100 percent, and Darrisaw is going to be part of that decision.

"Ultimately, Christian's such an important player to our team that we want to make sure we're smart about the plan, but also, I think he's earned the right to, by all the things he's done — there's no reason to make the decision for any other reason than what's best for CD, and he's gonna be heavily involved in that," O'Connell said.

"Knowing we've got 17 games, including a short week next week, and then ultimately our trip overseas. There's gotta be a big picture mindset to a player of Christian's caliber. All that matters is this game to the Minnesota Vikings, Monday night in Chicago, but our jobs are to make sure we're doing what's best for the team for the greater duration of 17-plus games. And what that means for Monday night I don't know as of right now. I just know what my eyes have shown me, what Christian's demonstrated has given us, through a really calculated plan, a good possibility of (him playing) on Monday night."

It'll depend on how he feels in practice, but it sure sounds like Darrisaw will have a questionable tag on Saturday's injury report and perhaps be close to a game-time decision on Monday. If he can't go, veteran Justin Skule is his backup.

Harrison Smith update

One of the other notable Vikings injury situations to watch this week pertains to safety Harrison Smith, who is recovering from a "personal health matter." Smith is back at the Vikings' facility and participated in Wednesday's walkthrough, but he won't practice.

"The hope is we can ramp him up," O'Connell said. "He's back in the building in meetings and building up his workload for the week, so we'll see where he's at throughout the remainder of the week."

The Vikings will release their first official injury report of the season on Thursday.

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