Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell delivered a mixed bag of injury news ahead of the team’s contest against the New Orleans Saints next weekend.
O’Connell offered an update on multiple players during a conversation about wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who the coach expects to be back in action in New Orleans on Sunday after missing the Vikings’ victory over the Miami Dolphins in Minneapolis two days ago.
“As a whole offensively, we need to get healthy,” O’Connell said during an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, October 6. “We should be getting Jordan Mason back after the bye, you know, Christian Darrisaw, some other players.”
Mason, the team’s primary rusher, has missed several games with a thumb fracture. Darrisaw, the team’s starting left tackle, sustained a concussion against Miami.
Minnesota has a bye week following its game against the Saints on October 11. Mason suffered his injury Week 1 against the Packers and went on the injured reserve list (IR) as a result. That designation requires four weeks on the sideline, which means he won’t even be eligible to play in New Orleans. So his return in Week 7 for the team’s sixth contest of the 2026 campaign has long been the team’s expectation.
The Darrisaw piece, however, was probably the biggest reveal of everything that O’Connell said.
Christian Darrisaw Represents Big Loss for Vikings Ahead of Saints Game
Darrisaw, the team’s $104 million LT, could technically return for Minnesota’s game five days from now, and some players do rebound quickly enough from a concussion to play the following week, though the majority (about two-thirds, historically) do not.
O’Connell already projecting a return for Darrisaw following the bye week is not good news for the Vikings after they lost starting left guard Donovan Jackson for the season to a torn meniscus.
The result is going to be an entirely new left side of the offensive line against the Saints next weekend, with Minnesota also needing to replace Jackson on a permanent basis for the remainder of the year.
Vikings Offense Continues to Struggle With Kyler Murray Under Center
Getting Jefferson back this week and Mason back for the team’s next game against the Indianapolis Colts are both huge boons for an offense that has struggled mightily throughout the Vikings undefeated start to the season.
Minnesota has failed to score a touchdown of any kind in two of its four victories to date, winning 9-3 over the Chicago Bears and 15-10 against the Dolphins.
The Vikings managed just one offensive TD against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a 23-16 victory, while Myles Price scored the other on an electric punt return in the first quarter of that contest.
All told, quarterback Kyler Murray has played close to nine quarters of football for Minnesota, during which the offense found the end zone only a single time.
The defense and special teams units are proving elite, at least to this point in the year, though the victories against the Packers and Buccaneers look a bit less impressive now given the state of both of those teams roughly one-fourth of the way through the regular season.
The Saints are 1-3 and the Colts are 2-2, and the Vikings should be the odds-on favorites to win both contests on the road and at home, respectively. But O’Connell also acknowledged on Tuesday that the offense must improve significantly over the coming weeks if Minnesota wants to truly contend in the NFC in January and into February.
Vikings Get Crushing Blow on $104 Million Starter After Injury