Despite ongoing knee issues, Vikings aren't shutting down Darrisaw for now

The hope remains that Christian Darrisaw will play again this season and put his knee injury behind him in the future.

Green Bay Packers defensive end Micah Parsons (1) helps Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Christian Darrisaw (71) off the ground on Sunday, November 23, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The Packers defeated the Vikings 23-6 | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Vikings are at the point in a lost season where they're making the decision to shut down certain injured players in order to avoid risking any further damage. Jonathan Greenard and Josh Metellus, two of Minnesota's captains, have been battling shoulder injuries and are now headed for surgery.

At least for now, though, it doesn't sound like the Vikings are ready to shut down left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who has had a somewhat unique season of injury management.

All throughout this season and this calendar year, Darrisaw has dealt with the effects of the major ACL/MCL injury he suffered in an October 2024 game against the Rams. He missed the first two games of this season, returning to action in Week 3 against the Bengals. He hasn't practiced on Thursdays all year as part of the Vikings' plan to manage his knee.

Darrisaw also left a Week 8 Thursday night game against the Chargers after just a few snaps. He exited early in Week 12 against the Packers and then missed the following game against the Seahawks, though that was apparently due to a foot injury. Most recently, his knee caused him to sit out this past Sunday night against the Cowboys.

"He had some swelling in there during the week and just couldn't quite get there," Kevin O'Connell said on Monday. "I would say it's week-to-week on what that week is going to look like right now. But yeah, I'm hoping we get him back in there at some point."

Asked directly on Wednesday if the Vikings have thought about shutting Darrisaw down for the season, O'Connell expressed a similar sentiment.

"I think we're right now, we're just in the mindset of taking it a day at a time," he said. "And obviously Christian has constant dialogue with our medical staff to just kind of chart the best path moving forward, really, on a day-to-day basis right now."

Images Courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

Darrisaw won't participate in the Vikings' walkthrough on Wednesday. The hope seems to remain that he'll be able to play at some point in the final three weeks of this season.

It's a situation where you can see the argument on both sides. There's certainly a case to be made for simply shutting Darrisaw down and allowing him to turn his focus toward getting his knee back to 100 percent for the offseason program this spring. At the same time, if he's healthy enough to play, the Vikings would love to have him out there at left tackle in order to maximize their evaluation of J.J. McCarthy down the final stretch of the campaign.

When he's been on the field, Darrisaw has largely remained effective this season. But his play has slipped a bit from its previous elite levels, both on the eye test and in his PFF grades. He's committed a career-high eight penalties, and he had one of the worst games of his career last month against Micah Parsons and the Packers.

Darrisaw missing the Cowboys game, more than 400 days after his initial injury, felt at least somewhat concerning. The ultimate worry is that this could be something that continues to affects him in 2026, or perhaps for the rest of his career. The Vikings don't believe that'll be the case.

"He had a very significant injury," O'Connell said on Monday. "He's absolutely worked his tail off throughout the lead up, the offseason, the rehab. It's been a heck of a year for him. I've been really proud of the way he's attacked the rehab side of things and really trying to do whatever he could to build up throughout the season. It was something we knew going into it could be very unpredictable, really, coming out of significant snaps in one game versus others.

"We've tried to create a plan to manage it as best as possible, but it's part of it for what this season's been for Christian. I don't think this is going to be anything that will be a part of his future here. I do think we're going to be able to put this in the rear-view mirror here, but at this point, it's a day-to-day process for all of us to see where we can get him to for each and every game."