Darrisaw's Nagging Injury, Udoh's Strong Play Lend Clarity to Vikings O-Line Picture

Unless Darrisaw can get over his groin injury soon, Rashod Hill is probably the Week 1 left tackle.

With just over five weeks remaining until the Vikings' season opener in Cincinnati, the offensive line picture is starting to become clearer. There's still time for things to change, but for now, it's looking unlikely that rookies Christian Darrisaw and Wyatt Davis will open the season as starters at left tackle and right guard, respectively — for two different reasons.

When it comes to Darrisaw, Minnesota's highly-touted first-round pick out of Virginia Tech, the issue is availability. He hasn't taken any live reps through the offseason or the first nine days of training camp due to a groin injury. Darrisaw at least had pads and a helmet on during Wednesday and Friday's practices, and he has expressed confidence that he'll be back to full participation soon, but his head coach doesn't seem to share that optimism.

"That's a tough one," Zimmer said on Friday. "I don't know (when he'll be back). He’s one step forward, two steps back. Hard to get it done when you’re not out there doing stuff."

Darrisaw had core surgery in January, which was eight months ago now, and the Vikings felt comfortable enough with the injury to take him 23rd overall at the end of April. Clearly the recovery hasn't been a straightforward process, because you'd think he would be back to full health at this point. Darrisaw presumably re-aggravated the injury at some point this offseason.

"It’s just nagging all the time," Zimmer said.

Veteran left tackle Rashod Hill has spent his career as a backup swing tackle and signed one-year deals with the Vikings in each of the last two years to be a valuable depth option, not a starter. Hill has been decent when thrust into duty in the past few seasons and has had a solid camp this year. Still, he has some notable athletic limitations that have prevented him from being viewed as a starting tackle throughout his career.

The Vikings drafted Darrisaw envisioning him protecting Kirk Cousins' blind side right away as a rookie. But unless he gets back on the field soon and impresses, that seems unlikely. The Vikings won't rush Darrisaw out there if he hasn't earned it, and they're comfortable with what Hill brings to the table.

“Rashod's played a lot of football and he’s a really good pass protector," Zimmer said. "He needs to always continue to work on the run game ... I feel pretty good with Rashod there. With Darrisaw, if you can’t practice, you can’t play."

It's entirely possible that Darrisaw ends up taking over at left tackle midway through his rookie season, like Brian O'Neill at right tackle in 2018 or Ezra Cleveland at left guard last year. As things stand right now, Week 1 would surprise me.

The issue with Davis winning the right guard job isn't about health — although he missed three days of camp with an ankle injury — as much as it's about the quality of the player he would have to beat out. Oli Udoh, a converted tackle entering his third season, has been one of the breakout stories of camp while splitting first-team reps at RG with Dakota Dozier.

"I like Udoh at guard," Zimmer said. "He's a big bodied guy. If he’s going to be the guard, we have to keep giving him reps, so he gets comfortable with all the things that happen in there."

Udoh, who stands 6'6" with very long arms, has the measurements you'd associate with a tackle, but the Vikings like how his strength and athleticism have translated to the interior. They're looking for someone who can pair with Cleveland and give them competent play at guard after Dozier's disastrous 2020 season. 

So far in camp, Udoh has been better than competent. He's been stout in pass protection and has shown off his mobility in the running game. If he keeps playing like this, it won't matter how good Davis looks for the rest of camp and the three preseason games.

"Oli has a particular skillset in which he’s long and incredibly strong," said offensive line coach Phil Rauscher. "When looking at him and looking at where the tackle position was, just numerically, it seemed like a good fit to move him inside. Just looking at different players who have moved inside — Ezra for example, or when I was in Washington, Brandon Scherff had moved inside — he shares qualities and traits that would make you think he has the potential of being very good."

Any mention of Scherff is quite notable, even if Rauscher wasn't making a direct comparison. A four-time Pro Bowler and first team All-Pro last season, Scherff is one of the best guards in the NFL. However, his arms are three full inches shorter than Udoh's and in the range typical of an interior offensive lineman.

Rauscher isn't worried about Udoh's size being an issue at guard.

"For some guys, it would be a challenge," he said. "But for Oli, he is a very good athlete and he understands leverage and angles. He’s a very smart player and he has the ability to get to the second level. And not everyone is the same. Not everyone takes the same angle. Oli understands the angles that work for him and when he gets to the second level and gets his mitts on you, he’s going to block you."

Rauscher also mentioned the importance of conquering the mental side of moving from tackle to guard in the Vikings' offensive scheme.

"That’s what makes this system go is the guard position. Because if you think about it, the tackles, 90 percent of the time they block the same guy. The guard position has a little bit more thinking, there’s a little bit more involved. Because sometimes they have a three technique on them, sometimes they have a nose, sometimes they’re going to stack backers, sometimes they’re going behind. So the thing for a guy that’s transitioning like a guy like Oli or Ezra last year is there’s a little more thinking involved. We’re finally starting to get into a rhythm with some of those guys making the transition that they’re really starting to play at the speed we want them to."

So far, Udoh has done a great job in all aspects of the transition, and that's made him one of the biggest pleasant surprises of training camp. He still has to prove himself in the preseason games, but Udoh doesn't seem too far away from locking up the starting job at right guard.

It's too early to call the LT or RG battles over with five weeks to go, and both Darrisaw and Davis have very bright futures in Minnesota. But as things stand in early August, it's looking more and more like Hill and Udoh will be the players joining Cleveland, O'Neill, and Garrett Bradbury in the Vikings' starting offensive line on September 12th.

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