How Vikings tackle Brian O'Neill has come back strong from Achilles injury
EAGAN — During training camp it wasn’t hard to tell how badly Brian O’Neill wanted to be participate in team drills. While he was still rehabbing, the Minnesota Vikings’ Pro Bowl tackle would stand in the huddle and get the play call and then go off to the side and run through his assignment against air.
It took nearly the entire camp for O’Neill to be able to take full-team reps after suffering an Achilles tear in Week 17 versus the Green Bay Packers last season — an injury that caused him to miss the playoff game against the Giants and required surgery.
Lucky for the Vikings, O’Neill avoided any significant setbacks during his offseason recovery and he was ready to play Week 1. He has picked up right where he left off, currently ranking as the fifth best tackle in the NFL by Pro Football Focus and No. 1 in run blocking. The veteran tackle has only allowed five QB pressures, sixth fewest among starting tackles in the league.
“I said I felt good and thought I felt good but you really have no idea until you are out there,” O’Neill said of getting his first game action since the injury. “You have no idea how you are going to react no matter how hard you try to go into training camp and try to emulate some things it’s just different on Sunday.”
During the opener against Tampa Bay, fellow tackle David Quessenberry was amazed at how O’Neill looked considering what he went through.
“Quessenberry was out there hyping me up, he was like, ‘dude you’re out there playing great only eight months after [the injury],’ and I’m like, ‘dude we have had five drop-back passes, we aren’t there yet,’” O’Neill said. “Certainly haven’t played my best football yet. Hope that’s still in front of me and in front of our whole team.”
O’Neill’s fellow offensive linemen played a role in his recovery, doing everything they could during his road back to the field to let him know that they were behind him.
“He never lost hope or anything, we were around him and encouraging him, like, ‘Hey once you’re back you will be back to being the same Brian O’Neill,’” Darrisaw said. “Fortunately enough he’s back to being himself. We love him. It’s great to have a guy like that in our room, to see what he’s been through and to come back and play at a high level, it’s awesome.”
Darrisaw is particularly empathetic to what O’Neill dealt with after the Achilles injury. As a rookie the star left tackle had to have surgery, missed camp and then wasn’t able to play until several weeks into the season.
“[It’s more difficult] mentally than physically,” Darrisaw said. “It’s like something being taken away from you that you have been doing all your life that you love. The type of season we were having last year and the time that it happened, anyone could fall into a deep hole or feel bad for themselves and things like that. Brian is always positive. He was always there for us when he was doing his rehab to finish out the season and in the offseason.”
The recovery isn’t exactly over yet. Because he did not have anywhere near a normal offseason and missed such a significant portion of camp the training staff has to pay careful attention to his workload, which will include some days off of practice like he took this Wednesday.
“This year more than any other year it will be different trying to manage the game long term in terms of what are reps looking like, what are practices looking like after not having a full offseason but as far as the game goes, I’ve told them the day after the games I’ve felt better each week,” O’Neill said. “It’s a good sign that it’s not getting worse. I’m encouraged by that.”
That is definitely a good sign for the Vikings. O’Neill hasn’t just been a staple of their offensive line and played consistently at a high level for years, he has become a significant part of their leadership. For example, head coach Kevin O’Connell explained how his ability to communicate to teammates led to success in the run game over the past few weeks.
“Even in walk through not too long ago today, you just hear him talking through things with the guys. ‘Hey, this is how I am going to hit this block if they are lined up here, this is where I am going to go on the second level, so be ready for me to give you a little something and climb quickly,’” O’Connell said. “That’s the thing where you feel the captain, you feel time to steady to ship and run the football better, and Brian has been a huge part of it. That has been significant for me and our coaches.”
Darrisaw says the rest of the linemen simply follow their captain because they know his track record of success.
“When I got here I was relying on him every day, how to attack certain things, whether it was on the field or off the field, how to have a plan,” Darrisaw said. “We can count on BO for anything. Pregame he gets us right, he gets us locked in. We know we can count on him no matter what and we follow whatever he’s saying because we know he’s right.”
Naturally, O’Neill doesn’t pat himself on the back as the captain of the unit, which has allowed Kirk Cousins to be the seventh least pressured QB in the NFL this year and ranks ninth in yards per carry after back-to-back strong weeks on the ground.
“That’s only as good as you bring it every day,” he said.
