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—Javon Hargrave and Will Fries will be “a little limited ” early in the offseason, but should progress through the spring.
The Minnesota Vikings kicked off their 2025 offseason program on Monday, welcoming players back into TCO Performance Center for workouts and meetings. Over the next nine weeks, in three distinct phases, they'll ramp up from installations and weight room sessions to on-field work, including organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamp. In some ways, the process of building up towards the regular season begins now.
Head coach Kevin O'Connell spoke to the media on Monday about a number of different topics. One of them was the status of various players who are recovering from significant injuries. Here's what he had to say:
J.J. McCarthy (knee)
The news is all positive surrounding McCarthy, who is in line to be the Vikings' starting quarterback this season. After suffering a torn meniscus that ended his rookie season prematurely last August, he's been working out at Minnesota's facility all offseason and is raring to go this spring.
O'Connell is excited about how this spring will set up for McCarthy to progress from the classroom to the practice field and "hit the ground running." It doesn't sound like his knee will keep from him doing anything.
"I'd consider him full," O'Connell said. "Really no limitations."
Christian Darrisaw (knee)
Another key player on the Vikings' offense coming off a major knee injury is Darrisaw, who suffered a torn ACL and MCL against the Rams back in October. He's on a slightly different timeline than someone like McCarthy because of the timing and severity of his injury, but the news was also encouraging regarding Darrisaw's progress.
"Christian has absolutely knocked it out of the park so far," O'Connell said. "He's had a really, really good offseason up to this point. The latest update I got, he's lifting, he's running. ... The player that I see right now and the player I know his teammates came back to see today, people were pretty excited about where he's at. Now it's just a matter of maintaining, and he's had such a professional focus really from day one, remarkably. He's just had such a good attitude about attacking it."
O'Connell made it clear that he doesn't want to put any sort of timeline on Darrisaw's return to full strength. Speculatively, it seems like the hope is that he'll be available for Week 1 in early September, and his individual offseason plan has been constructed with that goal in mind.
Others
Cornerback Mekhi Blackmon was coming off of a promising rookie season in 2023 when he tore his ACL on the first day of training camp last July. He's pretty close to being fully recovered and figures to compete for a major role at that position this season.
"Mekhi Blackmon is a guy kind of heading towards the end point of that rehab from his ACL, and I see him progressing to football activities here as we move through the spring," O'Connell said.
Two of the Vikings' marquee newcomers, DT Javon Hargrave and RG Will Fries, are coming off season-ending injuries last year and are "in a similar spot," according to O'Connell. They'll "probably be limited a bit early on but should progress throughout the spring," he said, especially as the Vikings move into phase two of the offseason program.
One player O'Connell didn't mention on Monday but has discussed previously is WR Rondale Moore, who tore his ACL last August and may not be ready for the start of training camp.
SI
No struggle for Harrison Smith in decision to return to Vikings
The Vikings returned Monday to TCO Performance Center in Eagan to begin their offseason program, their fourth under O’Connell since he was hired from the Rams staff in 2022.
Continuity was also a key for Smith as he made his decision.
An emotional postgame locker room interview following the Vikings’ season-ending playoff loss to the Rams fueled speculation Smith would finally hang up his cleats.
But he said he felt in that moment he would don his pads again. Instead, he was mourning the brotherhood he knew couldn’t be replicated in 2025.
“You’re kind of not thinking super clearly in those moments, especially knowing that the 2024 team, you’re never gonna get that group of guys together again, no matter how many stick around for the following year,” Smith said. “I didn’t want to take away from that at the time.”
The Vikings did end up retaining a solid core of that brotherhood, including cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. Their biggest loss was safety Camryn Bynum, who signed a four-year, $60-million deal with the Colts.
The continuity on the coaching side was even more important for Smith, who called playing for defensive coordinator Brian Flores “a blast” and stressed the importance of his relationship with defensive backs coach Daronte Jones, too.
Smith has played for six defensive coordinators through his career, the longest tenured being George Edwards (2014-19).
Jones spent the 2020 season as defensive backs coach when Andre Patterson and Adam Zimmer served as co-defensive coordinators. He spent the next season at Louisiana State but returned for Ed Donatell’s single season as Vikings coordinator in 2022 and then was retained by Flores.
Smith has worked so closely with Jones, who serves as the Vikings passing game coordinator, that he can coach himself up in-game just as the coach would, without coming to the sideline.
Smith said he knows what to expect day in and day out from Flores and his staff. He knows it will always be productive and well-thought.
As a self-proclaimed “grumpy old vet,” Smith said, that’s valuable.
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