{"id":389434,"date":"2025-09-23T01:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T01:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/389434\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T01:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T01:55:09","slug":"vikings-starting-rookie-ol-donovan-jackson-out-against-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/389434\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings Starting Rookie OL Donovan Jackson Out Against Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Vikings will be without starting left guard Donovan Jackson in Week 4 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Vikings head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell told reporters during his Monday press conference<\/a>. Jackson played in Week 3 against the Bengals despite suffering a wrist injury in Week 2, but he had surgery earlier today and will miss the team\u2019s Week 4 game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe suffered a wrist injury against Atlanta that was deemed to be something that would require surgery. He did have that this morning in Los Angeles as part of a planned surgery. It was determined last week that he could play in the football game [against the Bengals] and not do further harm,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to use the bye, part of that timeline to have Donovan back as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Jackson out, the Vikings could turn to undrafted free agent Joe Huber or veteran Blake Brandel in his place. Michael Jurgens, who has been playing center with starter Ryan Kelly out after suffering an injury during the Week 2 game, could also kick over to guard if Kelly is available in Week 4. O\u2019Connell said he\u2019s \u201coptimistic\u201d Kelly could be available and have a normal week of practice and return this week.<\/p>\n

Jackson was a first-round pick by Minnesota in the 2025 NFL Draft and has gotten off to a decent start to his career. Through three games, he ranks 33rd among all guards<\/a> with a 60.7 Pro Football Focus grade and has been a better pass protector than run blocker. His 62.9 pass-blocking grade ranks 44th among guards, while his 58.2 run-blocking grade is 46th.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s absence means the Vikings will have a backup at guard primarily lined up against Cam Heyward, who\u2019s coming off a fantastic Week 3 performance. In addition to logging six tackles and a sack, Heyward had a forced fumble, punching the ball out on the goal line to prevent a Patriots touchdown. The seven-time Pro Bowler also tipped a pass that led to a Patriots interception in the end zone right before the end of the first half.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s performance could\u2019ve been impacted by his injury, as he was much better in Week 1 with a 74.3 overall grade before taking a step back in Weeks 2 and 3. Even if Kelly does return, the Vikings will be down a key interior offensive lineman, and Heyward and the Pittsburgh defense will look to take advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Vikings will be without starting left guard Donovan Jackson in Week 4 against the Pittsburgh Steelers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[4034,1490,7,17416,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-389434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-cameron-heyward","9":"tag-donovan-jackson","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-injury-report","12":"tag-minnesota","13":"tag-minnesota-vikings","14":"tag-minnesotavikings","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115251126338894824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}